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NASCAR Capsules: Johnson wins fourth straight NASCAR championship
Comments 0 | Recommend 0HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Jimmie Johnson was chasing much more than a championship.
He was also chasing NASCAR history.
The most dominant driver of this decade won a record fourth consecutive championship Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he raced hard to finish fifth when 25th-place would have gotten the job done.
In doing so, Johnson joined Richard Petty (7), Dale Earnhardt (7) and teammate Jeff Gordon (4) as the only drivers to win more than three titles.
"The cool thing is, we're not done yet," he warned.
All he ever wanted was a chance to race against the very best. Maybe even win a race or two.
Never did he expect to be a champion. Especially four times over.
"I grew up on two wheels in the dirt," the 34-year-old Californian said. "I had no clue I was going to end up here racing stock cars and doing something that had never been done before. To do something that's never been done in the sport, and love the sport like I do and respect it like I do and the greats — Petty, Earnhardt, Gordon — to do something they have never done is so awesome.
"And to win four championships in eight years, what this team has done — this is unbelievable."
Johnson bulldozed his way into the record books, pouncing when the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup championship began to pull team owner Rick Hendrick into the record books with him. Johnson's title gave a record 12th overall championship to Hendrick, who was in North Carolina with a niece who was undergoing an emergency liver transplant.
In his absence, Johnson, Mark Martin and Gordon celebrated a 1-2-3 finish in the final points standings, just the second time in NASCAR history a team owner has swept the standings.
"Heavy hearts and prayers with the boss man and the family," Martin said, paying homage to Hendrick. "That sort of takes a little bit of the shine off of it. But congratulations to Hendrick Motorsports, to Jimmie Johnson — Superman — and to my team."
Superman, indeed. Johnson now stands atop NASCAR as a one-man dynasty, much like Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Lance Armstrong in their sports.
Only Johnson hasn't been feted under a blizzard of confetti by himself. His mighty Hendrick team rules NASCAR the way UCLA once dominated the hardwood or Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls reigned supreme.
There's seemingly plenty of chances left for Johnson's tag-team with crew chief Chad Knaus to keep Hendrick and the No. 48 in the title hunt for another decade.
Johnson signed a five-year contract extension to drive for Hendrick through 2015, and Knaus has insisted the No. 48 team can keep this pace for the next several years.
Johnson doesn't want to take anything for granted along the way.
"I don't know if we'll win another championship," he said. "I feel in my heart we'll be competitive, but at some point in time, we won't be that team."
That's why Johnson never let up in pursuit of the championship. He raced hard for wins in nine of the 10 Chase races, and for all 400 miles at Homestead, where he threatened to try to run down the leaders to better his eventual fifth-place finish.
It made for a sometimes testy drive into history for Johnson, who was at times annoyed at rival drivers and even Gordon, the mentor and teammate who helped him land his job with Hendrick Motorsports.
Nobody gave Johnson anything, either. The other drivers raced hard around him all day, making Johnson earn every point in a race won by Denny Hamlin, who established himself as a driver to watch in 2010 by winning a career-high four races this season.
Hamlin also managed to keep pace with Johnson at times but fell out of contention with three DNFs.
"We're going to be there, I promise you," Hamlin said. "I promise you, the next couple years, we're going to win the championship. But right now, there's no one more deserving than Jimmie."
Johnson won seven races this season, four after the Chase began in September. In fact, since the Chase format began in 2004, Johnson has won 18 of 60 Chase races.
He's done it by almost never choosing the safe route. He did it just once this year, at Talladega when he ran near the back of the field most of the day to avoid the trouble at the Alabama track.
Only the joke was on him when his problems popped up a week later, at Texas, where he was wrecked on the third lap and lost 111 points from his cushion over Martin. It still left him with a cozy 78-point margin headed into last weekend's race at Phoenix, where he probably could have laid back and protected his lead.
Instead, he pounced and earned a dominating victory that set the stage for an easy Sunday.
"The pressure of winning the fourth didn't really hit me until hitting the wall at Texas," he admitted. "And then it was like 'Oh, man.' It was a great reality check."
Of course, he couldn't get off the gas.
After several tense laps chasing Gordon for fifth place — Johnson at one point complained over his radio "I let him go, now why won't he just go somewhere!" — he asked Knaus if he had enough time to catch Hamlin and the leaders.
Johnson didn't like being told no by his crew chief.
"Is that a dare?" he asked Knaus.
"No. That is a fact," Knaus replied.
So is Johnson's place in history, which seems to be undervalued despite 47 victories since 2002. He's never finished lower than fifth in the final standings and actually had a shot at winning the championship in 2004 and 2005 — only to fall short in the finale.
"Jimmie is an incredible, incredible talent. He is the most underrated driver in this garage," Knaus said. "That guy can do things in a race car that I've never seen before. I hope this proves it to everybody."
His competitors insist time will take care of Johnson's legacy, but they continue to marvel at his success.
"If you would have told me four years ago that someone would win four championships in a row, I would have told you you were crazy," said Jeff Burton, who finished second in Sunday's race.
Even Gordon, who won four quick titles early in his career but has been shut out since 2001, is impressed.
"As a competitor, that Johnson ticks me off. As a friend, teammate, fellow car owner, they're amazing," Gordon said. "I never thought in my career, in my lifetime, I'd see somebody win four in a row. To see it happening right in front of your eyes makes it even more extraordinary."
Martin settles for second again
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Mark Martin thought for a second. Laughed. Then laughed again.
Finishing second in the yearlong battle for the NASCAR championship, there was a time that easily could have crushed his emotions, left him angry and frustrated.
Not this time. At 50, his perspective has changed.
Martin accepted NASCAR's silver medal for the fifth time Sunday night, unable in the season-ending Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway to derail Jimmie Johnson's march toward stock-car immortality. Johnson became the first driver to win four straight NASCAR titles — while Martin joined Richard Petty and Bobby Allison as the only drivers to finish No. 2 in the points standings five times.
"There's no frustration, man," said Martin, a half-hour after championship confetti again filled the air in someone else's honor. "I know you'd love it. I know you'd love it. I know all y'all would love it. But there's no frustration. There's none. I'm very proud of what we accomplished."
Martin finished this season 141 points behind Johnson, a gap 33 points larger than it was when the race began. Jeff Gordon was third, another 38 points back, but giving Hendrick Motorsports a historic 1-2-3 finish in the standings. And soon after the checkered flag fell, Martin was among the first people to offer a congratulatory handshake to Johnson and the No. 48 car's crew chief, Chad Knaus.
"It was such an incredible achievement to have a chance," said Martin, also NASCAR's runner-up in 1990, 1994, 1998 and 2002.
Petty was NASCAR's runner-up six times; of course, he also won the title seven times.
Allison's lone NASCAR title came in 1983 to go along with his five runner-up showings, and Martin sharing another link with him comes tinged with some irony. Allison was the one who made the recommendation to Jack Roush to give Martin a ride more than 20 years ago.
"I have to say how much I appreciate Mark Martin and what he's done for the team and the friendship and the respect and the competition he's brought," Johnson said. "He's made me step my game up, be a better race car driver."
There was sadness for Martin, and it had nothing to do with missing a chance to spray champagne.
He repeatedly paid homage to team owner Rick Hendrick — who wasn't there for Sunday's celebration. Hendrick was back in North Carolina with a critically ill 29-year-old niece, who was undergoing emergency liver transplant surgery during the race, team officials said.
"We're all praying for our Hendrick tragedy that we're dealing with," Martin said.
The way this season began, not many probably expected Martin to be a contender.
He was 16th in the Daytona 500, followed that by back-to-back 40th-place showings, only to soon rally with seven top-10s in a span of eight races. And four straight top-five finishes from Aug. 22 through Sept. 20 not only vaulted him into the Chase for the Sprint Cup — but left him atop the pack.
Johnson was the only one who kept him from staying there.
"I probably picked the hardest one ever to try to win, but my race team was so awesome," Martin said. "I just want to thank the fans and the competitors for their support. Means more to me than that trophy would, I swear."
On the day Martin got his first NASCAR win, Oct. 22, 1989, he hopped out of his car and said, "this is a preview of things to come."
In a way, it was.
In all, 39 more wins, five of them this season, followed over the past 21 years. But the big one — the yearlong title — hasn't happened yet, although there's some who still wonder what might have been in 1990, the year he might have been a half-inch away from winning it all.
That was the year Martin was docked 46 points for an illegal carburetor spacer in a race at Richmond. NASCAR found the spacer was 2½ inches tall, a half-inch more than allowed, and fined him $40,000 for what was then a record. When announcing the spacer violation and fine, though, NASCAR's competition director acknowledged, "we don't know if it's an advantage or not."
Martin lost the championship that season by 26 points to Dale Earnhardt.
"We accomplished more than anybody in the garage than the 48," Martin said. "That ought to make you proud."
-- Tim Reynolds
Notebook: Hamlin established as 2010 contender
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Denny Hamlin put the rest of the Cup field on notice for 2010.
Hamlin's victory Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway was his fourth of the season and sixth top-five in the 10-race Chase for the championship. Hamlin posted strong enough finishes at various races to contend for the Cup, but had just enough misfires to derail a serious run at Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.
Yes, Johnson is the early 2010 favorite to win a fifth straight championship.
Hamlin intends to wrest it away.
"I promise you the next couple of years we're going to win a championship," Hamlin said.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver had his share of bad races in the Chase. Back-to-back poor finishes at California and Charlotte (37th, 42nd) all but ended his title hunt and he finished fifth in the standings, 317 points back of Johnson.
"There's 10 races and you have to perform really good and be flawless in those ten," Hamlin said. "It looks like the trend has been you get one bad race if you want to be a champion."
Hamlin's win total and points finish were the best of his four full seasons.
Hamlin was determined this season to develop into a team leader for JGR and fill the void left by two-time champion Tony Stewart. Hamlin followed through on his preseason promise and was the only JGR driver to qualify for the Chase.
Stewart's decision to bolt JGR to own his own team opened the door for Hamlin to mature and show more confidence in voicing what he wanted for the No. 11 Toyota.
Hamlin said when he started with the organization, he wanted to pattern his style after Stewart. Or at least that was the expected method.
Hamlin learned his way works, too.
"When Tony left, it was like, I kind of want things this way," Hamlin said. "Next thing you know, we start building cars more to my liking. You start setting up these different departments working on the things that I feel is the most important, maybe not somebody else."
The 29-year-old Hamlin posted 20 top 10s this season and won his eighth career race in 151 career starts.
"I think everyone's focused and fired up about next year knowing that we're one of the few guys that can run with that 48 every single week," Hamlin said.
LAST RIDES
Casey Mears and Reed Sorenson face an uncertain racing future in 2010. Both drivers made their final starts for the respective teams, don't have a deal for next season — and potential rides already appear dried up.
Sorenson made his last start in the No. 43 for Richard Petty Motorsports and finished 40th. He'll lose his job once the RPM merges with Yates Racing.
Mears has no firm deal in place for next year and his on his way out at Richard Childress Racing. He was 19th at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Michael Waltrip, who actually led one lap, finished 30th in his last race as a full-time Cup driver. Waltrip will scale back to a partial schedule in 2010 to make room for Martin Truex Jr. to join Michael Waltrip Racing.
"He was a guy that always talks in a positive manner about NASCAR," race winner Denny Hamlin said. "A lot of people were negative. He's kind of that voice of reason of getting us back to reality that this is a fan's sport regardless of what us drivers feel some time. I think he's just done a really good job of that."
JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENTS
Before Denny Hamlin starts thinking too much about how this year's success will carryover into next season, he should consider the case of Carl Edwards.
The preseason pick to win the championship, Edwards was winless this season, hobbled by a broken foot and fell way back in the Chase pack in 11th place in the final standings.
"I know it's been a tough year, but we'll be back next year," Edwards said. "We're going to be all right. It's just frustrating."
Edwards was seventh Sunday.
"I'd like to be happy with seventh place, but I'm not," Edwards said. "We needed two or three more positions to beat Kasey (Kahne) for 10th in the points."
By falling out of the top 10, Edwards will not be recognized on stage at the season-ending banquet, but at least Edwards can take small solace in making the Chase.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. had another dismal finish in a dismal season. He suffered a flat tire, briefly fell a lap down and finished 28th on Sunday. Junior was 25th in the points standings while Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon finished 1-2-3 in the standings.
-- Dan Gelston
Hendrick misses finale to be with niece
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick is not at Homestead-Miami Speedway because he stayed in North Carolina to be with an ailing niece.
A Hendrick spokesman says that Alesha Gainey is in critical condition at a North Carolina hospital awaiting an emergency liver transplant. She is the 29-year-old daughter of John Hendrick, one of the 10 people killed in a 2004 plane crash.
Also killed in that accident were John Hendrick's twin daughters.
Rick Hendrick is poised to win a Cup Series record ninth championship Sunday when either Jimmie Johnson or Mark Martin wins the Sprint Cup title.
The title will be Hendrick's 12th overall in NASCAR, also a record.
Montoya-Stewart add spark to finale
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Juan Pablo Montoya and Tony Stewart could have used a referee.
The final two races of the NASCAR season were more like a throwback to the good ol' boys who settled their feuds on the track.
Montoya and Stewart must have watched the Nationwide Series race a night earlier when Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin added another explosive edition to their long-running conflict.
"Maybe they looked at it and said, 'It's worth it,'" Hamlin said.
Montoya and Stewart became tangled in separate blatant acts of retaliation in the Sprint Cup finale Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Stewart temporarily sent Montoya to the garage; NASCAR kept Montoya parked on pit road.
It's a type of fiery attitude fans feel NASCAR could use to inject some life into a series where crowning Jimmie Johnson the champion has become a staid formality.
"I'm glad I was an inspiration," Hamlin said after he won the race. "I think everyone's got a little fight in them every now and then, especially when they get done wrong. After our performance today, it's easy to put yesterday behind me."
Hamlin-Keselowski and Montoya-Stewart were an unexpected heavyweight double-bill caused by frayed nerves and a "nothing to lose" mentality with the season down to the final laps.
Keselowski and Hamlin's on-track issues deteriorated into a war of words. Montoya and Stewart skipped out without talking to the media.
"I haven't seen all the replays and I don't know what happened first and when," Stewart crew chief Darian Grubb said. "They were racing each other pretty hard and both got frustrated."
The trouble started Sunday when Montoya tagged Stewart from behind on lap 117, something the two-time Cup champ wouldn't let slide. Stewart got his payback when he sideswiped the No. 42, slicing the right front tire of Montoya's Chevrolet and sending the car into the wall. Montoya was forced into the garage to have the car repaired.
Perhaps that's when Montoya, who enjoyed the best season of his three-year Cup career, plotted revenge.
Montoya returned to the track on lap 145 and quickly had another run-in with Stewart.
NASCAR warned both drivers, "enough is enough and it's over." Not so fast.
Montoya used his bumper to send Stewart sliding into the grass along the frontstretch. That was all NASCAR officials had to see, as they immediately black-flagged Montoya for two laps.
The race finished without another road-rage incident between the two. Stewart finished 22nd and Montoya was 38th.
All 267 laps ticked off without another flare-up between Keselowski and Hamlin. Contact between the two led to five Hamlin wrecks in the Nationwide Series dating back to last season, and Hamlin vowed revenge.
He followed through when he tapped Keselowski from behind and spun him out on lap 35, though not a serious enough hit to end his day.
Keselowski made it personal when he said Hamlin "has a lot of problems on and off the racetrack."
Respected veteran driver Jeff Burton said the sport could do without the trash talking.
"What this sport needs is good racing, it doesn't need running that mouth," he said. "I think running that mouth is not what it's all about. Good hard racing is what fans want to see. There's a certain portion of people that want to see people yell at each other, but I think the general population is better off."
The portion of people who want to see a stock car throwdown camped out near Stewart's hauler. Once Stewart cooled off and came back to his hauler to shake hands with his crew, one fan yelled, "Go punch Juan Pablo!" A couple of fans were specific with the part of the anatomy where they wanted Stewart to kick Montoya.
Most drivers feel should they self-police the field in the garage and on the track.
"NASCAR does a really good job of letting us handle it," Hamlin said. "They don't want to get involved. But if it's something blatant, they feel like they have to do something about it or they'll hear repercussions from fans."
-- Dan Gelston
Aldrin over the moon at NASCAR race
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin checked out a new kind of orbit: watching some spins on a NASCAR track.
Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, served as the honorary race chairman for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Neil Armstrong and Aldrin were on Apollo 11's lunar module, which landed on the moon on July 20, 1969.
Aldrin said he wants NASA to take the checkered flag on a new destination.
"Forget the moon," Aldrin said. "Let's go to Mars."
The 79-year-old Aldrin has made a career of being the second man on the moon. NASCAR's Cup series was set to crown its champion on Sunday — Jimmie Johnson was shooting for an unprecedented fourth straight title — in a sport where the runner-up is often an afterthought.
"First means a lot; second means hardly a damn thing," Aldrin said. "I've managed to make a pretty good public visibility recently because I have things that I think are important to talk about. I was very adversely affected by the public intention that came after going to the moon. I certainly realize that being the first instead of being the second would make that far more complicated."
Space shuttle Atlantis lifted off on Monday with six astronauts and a full load of spare parts for the International Space Station. Aldrin said the Space Shuttle has endured with mixed results.
"It's never really lived up to its expectations in flight rate and economy and safety," Aldrin said. "The same thing is kind of true of the Space Station."
Aldrin gave two enthusiastic thumbs up to the drivers when he was introduced in the prerace meeting.
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