It was one heck of a finish, one of the best last laps of the season, and when the smoke cleared from the final miles of Sunday's Camping World RV 400, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle had firm command of the Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship.Even though the Chase is just three weeks old, the only rival who looks like he might be able to crash the party is Matt Kenseth.The rest of the 12-pack of playoff drivers had mediocre afternoons, none more disappointing than Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose game plan of racing for top-five finishes through the opening weeks of the Chase has obviously fizzled. A driver has to be a player to make a good run for this championship, and so far, Earnhardt hasn't been one. He complained about his car's handling, which isn't a good sign, considering that four of the final seven races are on 1-1/2-mile tracks similar to Kansas Speedway.The Chase, far from being the expected Joe Gibbs romp, has developed into a battle between Chevy owner Rick Hendrick and Ford owner Jack Roush. And teammates might well play key roles, on the track and on pit road.Winning poles might be very important in the coming weeks, to avoid those pit-road blocking games."To be honest, the way we finished, man, it's hard to get any points on anybody," Johnson said. "Five or 10 here or there is nothing. At this pace it's going to take somebody having some bad luck to get a gap. You're not just going to outrun people like we're all performing right now."With two or three races to go, that's when you really start worrying about your position and protecting. Right now, we're all just running as hard as we can, and paying attention to who has bad luck, and how the points gaps develop. Right now my biggest concern is outrunning Carl and Greg. And Jeff Burton is hanging right in there."Johnson should be the favorite now that Kyle Busch (0-for-3 in the Chase) and Gibbs' other two drivers have self-destructed. But Edwards and Biffle have shown that Johnson will not have it easy in his bid for an historic third straight championship."I thought I was sitting in great shape with two to go," Johnson said of Sunday's end game. "Had a nice, comfortable lead. Next thing you know, Carl is all over me, and I had a battle on my hands."And if this weekend's Amp Energy 500 at Talladega takes the same hard-edged tone that this race did, hang on."I'm not looking forward to Talladega," said Johnson, the new tour leader. "But I am looking forward to everything else after Talladega."For much of the season Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus have been a mystery, seemingly unable to master some of tracks where they've dominated in the past."... I just can't say enough about Jimmie. He drove his heart out," Knaus said.So did Edwards, who pulled a classic "slide move" on Johnson the last lap, then bounced lightly off the soft walls and dived back inside Johnson, only to come up a few lengths shy.It was a breathtaking move."In off-road and stadium trucks the slide job was a common move, like on dirt ovals," Johnson said. "To be honest, I was cruising down the backstretch, had a decent lead.... I knew he would go to the bottom. My concern was just making sure I was at his quarter-panel coming off Turn 2."Next thing you know, that car goes flying by. I knew instantly there was no damn way he's making the turn. So I just stayed on the brake, tried to get redirected and turned down."I was so in awe of how fast he drove it in.... I watched him pound the wall and jump back on the gas. I thought 'Man, he's serious about this win. I'd better get back on the gas myself.'"Johnson said he felt comfortable with the lead he had with two laps left, but that Edwards "found some grip somewhere and just destroyed us those last few laps."As I entered the (last) turn, I was running my normal line, and I was concerned about over-driving the entry," Johnson said. "I got in a little cautious; not soft by any means, but I wanted to make sure I had the car pointed for a drag race to the finish line."Carl probably recognized what I was trying to do ... and then took it in way far beyond any sense of normal thinking and was committed to it. He'd cleared me by quite a bit. He had me by six or seven car lengths. I can't explain to you how surprised I was, and shocked ... and in some ways thought it was pretty damn cool to see him bomb it in there and see it skipping off the wall."But it caught me off guard. I didn't expect him to come in there and put the slide job on me with that much conviction. I figured he would stay on the bottom and try to drag race me around to the start/finish line...."I thought I had it in the bag. I'm just thankful we got it done."(Contact Mike Mulhern at mmulhern@wsjournal.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Post new comment