Last week it was Greg Biffle saying Jimmie Johnson is far from winning his third consecutive championship. This week, it’s Carl Edwards.
Biffle stood second in the standings a week ago, trailing Johnson by 149 points. Edwards, who won Sunday’s race in Atlanta, is now in second, 183 points behind the two-time defending champion.
Biffle trails Edwards by two points. Neither will catch Johnson, an opinion Edwards refused to believe Tuesday.
“I hope people aren’t jumping the gun with the three races left. That’s a whole lot of miles,” Edwards said in a national teleconference. “Literally, Jimmie could still finish fifth in the championship, and that’s a racing fact.”
That’s like saying No. 1 Texas will lose all of its remaining football games.
Fact is, Johnson is the king of Chase racing. In the past 12 playoff races dating to last year, he’s won six, finished second in two, and hasn’t ended outside the top 10 in any of them.
Over the final three races, all Johnson has to do is average a ninth-place finish, and he will join Cale Yarborough as the second driver to win three consecutive titles.
Edwards, from Columbia, Mo., is a Missouri Tigers football fan, and good friends with coach Gary Pinkel. Edwards should know that beating Johnson would be like overcoming a 40-point, fourth-quarter deficit.
But Edwards is a competitor. He’s not going to quit until the final whistle blows.
“He has this lead and there are only three races left. You know, people are printing the T-shirts, and saying he’s going to be the champion, but that is not how it goes,” Edwards said. “I know right now and until the last lap at Homestead (Fla.) is over, (my team) will be working as if we are the ones who are going to win this championship, and that’s really tough to do sometimes with so much coverage of the sport, so many people talking and speculating.”
Edwards has some history on his side as the series heads to Texas Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Dickies 500. In the past three years, the winner of the Atlanta race also won the ensuing race at Texas. Johnson did it a year ago, Tony Stewart in 2006 and Edwards in 2005.
Edwards also has a solid record at the final three tracks — Texas, Phoenix, Homestead — with a combined average finish of 13.5 and driver rating of 101.0.
Johnson, however, is even better. His average finish is 8.9 and driver rating 108.0.
At Texas, Johnson and Stewart are tied for the career-best driver rating (107.9) among active drivers.
