Jimmie Johnson is your 2006 NEXTEL Cup Champion. Jimmie Johnson is your 2007 NEXTEL Cup Champion. Jimmie Johnson is your 2008 Sprint Cup Champion. Jimmie Johnson is your 2009 Sprint Cup Champion. For four years in a row now, the announcement at the year ending race in Homestead has been the same: Jimmie Johnson is your NASCAR Cup champion, making history as the first driver in the sport to win four in a row. The honor earned him the Associated Press’ Male Athlete of the Year award in ‘09. But entering this weekend’s Ford 400, Johnson is swimming in unfamiliar territory. He’s entering the final race of the 2010 season out of the points lead, at a track he’s never won at. Johnson has to not only pass current points leader Denny Hamlin to capture his fifth straight championship, but will also have to hold off a hard charging Kevin Harvick. It’s been an unusually off year for the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet. Despite capturing five wins during the regular season (six for the whole year), Johnson has finished nine races outside the top 20, and his once solid No. 48 pit crew was flawed throughout the year. Johnson has the worst average finish in Chase between the top three title contenders; a 6.6 compared to Harvick’s 6.1 and Hamlin’s 6.4. He’s also got the worst average finish at Homestead (12th), and has never won at the track. Hamlin has also led 35 more laps than him during the Chase, and has one more victory. Despite this, however, Johnson has history on his side: he’s been unbeaten when it comes to the Chase for the past four years, and despite minor inconsistencies throughout the season, looks poised enough to do it again. Not only that, but Double J has finished in front of Hamlin and Harvick is five of the nine playoff races this year. The No. 48 team had three dismal stops on the day that had all cost their driver spots, and when Jeff Gordon retired from the race after his lap 191 incident with Jeff Burton, the decision was made by crew chief Chad Knaus to replace his Lowe’s team with that of the No. 24. Johnson and his new crew would rebound and finish ninth, just 33 points behind Hamlin. Hendrick Motorsports made the decision the week before Phoenix that the switch would be in state for the rest of the season. Johnson also got on what ESPN’s Ryan McGee called “Muhammad Ali-like mind games” aimed at Hamlin. During Thursday’s championship press conference Johnson claimed he had “nothing to lose“, and, nudging Hamlin, added “this guy does.” And on Friday, Johnson took aim at Hamlin’s mental toughness again, saying “I got a great night’s sleep. I don’t know if Denny did.” While Johnson appears confident, this is unfamiliar territory for Double J; for the first time in four years, he’s behind going into the last race of the season. The last time Johnson was behind in the title hunt was in 2004- six years ago- and he ended up losing the title to Kurt Busch. He would lose it again in 2005, when he finished fifth. Since then, he’s been unbeaten. Will Sunday prove to be the same old tale? Or will this year’s Ford 400 be the scene of an upset for the champ? Thanks to ESPN, Scene Daily, Racing Reference, and NASCAR.com for the quotes, information and statistics used in this piece.
Written by:
