Johnson Starts Up Front

AP
Published: February 16, 2008

He won 10 races last season and his
second consecutive NASCAR championship, yet Jimmie Johnson isn’t
the marquee driver on his own team.
He’s not even No. 2.
But that’s not important to Johnson, who isn’t after attention
or fame. No, the two-time defending champion is chasing history,
trying to become only the second driver to win three straight
titles. His pursuit begins in Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500.
From the pole.
Take that, everybody.
Not since Cale Yarborough did it from 1976 to 1978 has a driver
won three consecutive championships, but Johnson has people
believing.
“There are certain sports teams, whether it’s football or
baseball, they get on a run and they get momentum,” said Ray
Evernham, who failed in his bid to win three straight titles as
Jeff Gordon’s crew chief during the 1990s.
“You’ve got to have a good plan, good talent, and you’ve also
got to have the right breaks. But I believe if anybody can do it
right now it’s that 48 car. It certainly seems like they are
starting off right where they left off.”
When Johnson posted the fastest time during qualifying last
week, it seemed as if the air had been knocked out of the garage.
Everybody came to Daytona knowing Johnson, the 2006 winner here,
would be strong. They had hoped offseason gains would have closed
the gap a bit, but Johnson’s dominance made it clear his team would
make a strong run for its third straight title.
“I feel very good about where we are, and I know what we’ve
done in the offseason has only made us stronger,” Johnson said.
“But I still think we have a lot of room for improvement.”
That’s bad news for the rest of the industry, which has grown
weary of watching Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports team
dominate week in and week out for much of the past five seasons.
But Johnson will have strong competition from within Hendrick
Motorsports, which now includes Dale Earnhardt Jr.
NASCAR’s most popular driver instantly became the star of the
super team, supplanting four-time series champion Jeff Gordon. When
Sports Illustrated recently photographed the four Hendrick drivers
together, Johnson was relegated to the back.
“It’s because he was the tallest,” crew chief Chad Knaus
reasoned. “They had to stick him behind all those short dudes.”
He has yet to grab the spotlight at Daytona, where Earnhardt has
stolen the show.
He won the exhibition Budweiser Shootout last week in his
Hendrick Motorsports debut, then won the first of two qualifying
races Thursday. It established Earnhardt as the favorite to win the
Daytona 500, a victory that would snap a winless streak that is
closing in on two years.
“I feel like we got a shot, you know what I mean?” said
Earnhardt, trying to become the first to win the Shootout, a
qualifying race and the 500 in the same year. “Nobody is boastful
enough, I don’t think, personality-wise, to come in here and claim
that. I wouldn’t expect anybody to do that.
“But I think we got a great shot.”
He’ll have plenty of help with all four Hendrick cars in the top
nine of Sunday’s race. But they’ll be surrounded by three Joe Gibbs
Racing entries, setting up what’s expected to be a showdown between
NASCAR’s top two teams.
Although anything can happen at Daytona, where the use of
horsepower-sapping restrictor plates means the cars run in large
packs and drivers can shoot to the front of the field in a matter
of seconds, early indications point to a Hendrick or Gibbs victory.
“From what I see on the track, Dale Jr. is real good, the
Hendrick cars are good and the Gibbs cars are unbelievably
strong,” 2003 series champion Matt Kenseth said. “From sitting
back and watching, unless some other people really get their stuff
going, I really think it’s going to be somebody out of those couple
of groups unless something weird happens.”
That’s not out of the question.
Kevin Harvick never seemed to be in contention in last year’s
race, then charged to the front and stole the win from Mark Martin
as the two raced to the checkered flag.
In this 50th running of The Great American Race, an unlikely
winner would be fitting.
That includes a Toyota.
Led by the three Gibbs entries, the Toyotas have been strong
throughout Speedweeks. Denny Hamlin took the Japanese automaker to
its first Victory Lane, winning the second qualifying race
Thursday.
Pushed to the win by teammate Tony Stewart, they devised a
strategy to work with Gibbs newcomer Kyle Busch to end Hendrick’s
run. Stewart counseled Hamlin in the closing laps of their
qualifying race on how to hold off Gordon, and it was a lesson they
hope to use Sunday.
Stewart lost the Shootout to Earnhardt last week when Hamlin was
not in position to help hold off the Hendrick charge. But group the
entire Gibbs team together in the 500, and Stewart likes his odds.
“I feel we finally have a shot to beat that lineup of four guys
that I had to go up against the other night,” Stewart said. “I
feel we have three good cars in our camp, they’ve got four good
cars on their side. That’s about as even as it gets.
“You give us 3-to-1 odds and it works in our favor just as easy
as it does in theirs.”
Stewart, a two-time series champion who is searching for his
first Daytona 500 win, has had his heart broken in nine previous
tries to win NASCAR’s biggest race. He hates that winning it will
depend on teamwork, but knows Busch and Hamlin are all on the same
page.
“There’s safety in numbers - and that’s the sad, disappointing
part,” Stewart said. “That’s what this race has come down to, not
great individual performances, but sheer numbers of strength. I
think it’s harder than ever to win because you’ve got to rely on
everyone else.
“For an individual, you can’t count on anything. The only thing
you can count on is that your teammates will work with you. The
disappointing part is our biggest race of the year, you have to
rely on someone else for your success.”
If that means a win, Stewart might be ready to make nice, just
like his Hendrick rivals.