With three NASCAR races remaining, the third-year Chase for the Nextel Cup is as close as ever, and Jimmie Johnson is in the thick of it.
He has made a great comeback into title contention, which is nothing new for Johnson.
Just four races ago, Johnson climbed out of his car at Talladega, Ala., outraged by the last-lap crash that foiled his chance at winning. Brian Vickers, his teammate and the eventual race winner, bumped Johnson too hard while drafting and sent him to a 24th-place finish, resulting in a slide to eighth place in the 10-man, 10-race Chase.
Johnson, the 2003 and 2004 series runner-up who has finished in the top five in each of his four previous seasons, said at the time his championship dreams for 2006 had evaporated.
However, a victory and two runner-up finishes later, Johnson is in second place and just 26 points behind leader Matt Kenseth. The comeback harkens memories of his terrific mid-Chase rally in the inaugural 2004 Chase, when Johnson won three consecutive races to propel himself from eighth to second heading into the final three events.
“I’m certainly optimistic,” Johnson told Atlanta reporters. “It’s closer than I’ve ever been, numbers-wise, to the lead in the Chase. I’m very excited about that.”
Johnson’s surge and overall Chase performance is validated by NASCAR’s loop data statistics. Among the 10 playoff drivers, he owns the top driver rating (106.9) and the best average starting position (7.6) in the seven Chase events.
Gordon’s challenge
Jeff Gordon, in seventh place in the Chase and the primary owner of Johnson’s car, also is on the comeback trail. He finished sixth Sunday at Atlanta to gain two spots in the standings and placed fifth in the previous race in Martinsville, Va.
Gordon’s quest for a fifth championship takes him to Texas Motor Speedway this weekend. The high-banked, 1.5-mile oval is one of three current Cup tracks at which Gordon has not won.
The other two? Phoenix and Homestead, Fla. – hosts of the final two races.
Gordon fans might be comforted this weekend by the fact that in 11 Cup races at Texas, there have been 11 different winners.
“I’ve said from the beginning that this race was the one I was most concerned about performance-wise during the Chase,” Gordon said in a release. “We don’t have a good track record here recently, which gives us concern. But we’ve made a lot of changes with the car, the set-ups and the team, and our intermediate program has improved since we last visited Texas.”
Footnotes
Only 84 points separate the top five Chase drivers, and the top seven are separated by only 146 points. Both are series records after seven of 10 races….Terry Labonte, the 1984 and 1996 series champion, said Sunday’s race in his native Texas would be his final Cup start. Labonte has been competing part time for two teams….Defending series champion Tony Stewart is close to clinching first among non-Chase racers. Stewart’s victory Sunday gave him a 285-point lead over Carl Edwards for 11th place in the season standings. The 11th-place driver is recognized at the champion’s banquet….Johnson’s pit crew spent an Atlanta-low 316.72 seconds on pit road to win the weekly $10,500 pit-crew challenge and forge into first place. Johnson’s crew has five wins, one more than Tony Stewart’s and Kyle Busch’s. The top team for the season collects $105,000.
Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
