Is there another sport that turns on its winners so?And cheering against the New York Yankees doesn't count.
Another superb run in NASCAR's Chase for the Championship has put Jimmie Johnson in position for a historic fourth consecutive Sprint Cup title. He's on the verge of accomplishing something Richard Petty, the late Dale Earnhardt, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Gordon never did.
And for all his hard work and performance under pressure here's the thanks he gets: people are accusing him of stinking up the show.
Do we say that when Tiger Woods has 10 shots on the field in the final round of The Masters? No, we tune in and soak it up.
Through the first six races of the 10-race playoff, Johnson has three wins and scored a runner-up Sunday at Martinsville, Va., which extended his advantage over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate and second-place driver Mark Martin by 118 points.
It's Johnson's championship to lose and his pursuit is something that should be celebrated and embraced. In this ultra-competitive era of NASCAR there will never be another driver in position to win four straight again.
With the odds stacked against such an accomplishment, Johnson wasn't even considered the championship favorite by most of the voting media in a preseason NASCAR poll.
We hear so much about how "hungry" the 50-year-old, four-time championship runner-up Martin is to finally earn his first title. Imagine Johnson's motivation. His quest isn't just personal. It's historic.
For goodness sakes, what's it take to give the guy his due?
He now leads his other teammate, four-time champ Jeff Gordon by 150 points. Regular season points leader and two-time champ Tony Stewart is now 192 points back in fourth place.
Johnson's best competition is turning in top-five and top-10 runs every week and they can't catch him.
It's becoming less about what they can do. The hard fact is it's looking more like Johnson's going to have to endure some tough luck or the engraving may as well begin.
"That is what everybody in the whole series is thinking right now,'' said Darien Grubb, crew chief on Stewart's No. 14 Chevy and a former Hendrick Motorsports engineer. "He [Johnson] has got that dominant performance going and he is out there pulling away from everybody. You have a good strong run and you still lose points. That is a hard day to swallow.''
Other winners and losers this weekend at Martinsville, Va. ....
• Juan Pablo Montoya returned to form with a third-place run, moving him into fifth place in the points. He had been one of the best stories of the year before his title bid was derailed last week with a 35th-place run in Charlotte. He said then, no one will have 10 clean races and that's about all the hope he and the rest of Johnson's pursuers are clutching to as the series heads to the most unpredictable venue on the circuit, Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
To Montoya's credit, he's taken the high road regarding an uncalled-for remark made at his expense by ESPN's Bob Griese during a college football telecast Saturday night. A graphic promoting the race showed only the top-five drivers and Griese commented that sixth place, Colombian-born Montoya must have been "out getting a taco.'' Griese apologized for the comment.
Although he didn't directly address his reaction to Griese's comment, Montoya told reporters following Sunday's race that, "I could say I spent the last three hours eating tacos, but I was actually driving the car.''
• Mark Martin isn't exactly flashy, but he's at least keeping Johnson honest. The veteran would have us think he's just trying to win races with a great team and that all this championship talk is purely bonus. But he sure isn't driving that way. Every time you think he's "just glad to be here" he turns in another top-10 run.
• Denny Hamlin the hard luck kid finally finished one out. His win in his home state Virginia on Sunday stopped a two-race DNF skid and restored his confidence. Give the 28-year old credit, he's qualified for every Chase since he joined the Cup ranks full-time in 2006.
• Ryan Newman improved one position in the standings to seventh place, and in winning his second pole position of the year, is holding up his end of the bargain in the Stewart-Haas Racing storybook season. Now for a win. He and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are the only drivers in Hendrick equipment that haven't reached victory circle yet. The big difference being Newman is a Chase driver and on track for his best season since 2005.
• Kyle Busch's fourth-place finish Sunday was his first top-five in over a month and looked a whole lot more like the four-time winner he is than the hard-luck driver he became the latter half of the regular season.
• On the other end of the scale is Earnhardt Jr. His down-and-out demeanor in Charlotte last weekend was troublesome. He claimed to be "near the end of my rope" suffering through one of the toughest seasons in his career. And that was before a mechanical failure relegated him to 38th place at Charlotte and tire problems contributed to a 29th-place finish Sunday at Martinsville. He fell two more spots in the standings and is now 24th and on pace for his career-worst finish in the championship.
• Carl Edwards' crash with a lap to go Sunday kind of summed his season, at least the frustrating Chase portion. He kept his No. 99 Ford rolling to secure a 20th place spot, but has had only two top-10 runs since August and yet somehow managed to be 10th in points.
• Suspended driver Jeremy Mayfield didn't say anything he hasn't already said in a one-on-one interview on ESPN's "Outside the Lines" program Sunday. He insists he's innocent, that he is NASCAR's designated example and that his career is over. The latter, we know at least, is true.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
10-25-2009 @ 11:42PM
xxxsexyveronica said...
Congratulation to hamlin for a well fought win and the same for the runner up jimmy.Hamlin has been collecting top 5 for many months;i recall it begun before daytona in july and if it wasn't for a car problem last week and an accident 2 weeks ago, todays days he'd be well up there in points behind johnson and probably ahead of martin too.
Obviously he was a little faster then jimmy,and got the top spot.That should keep the anti chad and 48 haters with the cheat beat away from these blogs for this week at least.
No cheat,no win,right dummies?Surprising even top 2 puts him even more ahead in points and slaps the cheat haters in the face.
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10-26-2009 @ 1:05AM
jessemolson48 said...
hat 11 your reminding me of the cry baby 18, quit crying because 48 took you out before, do you remember you took 48 out too this year ,,keep crying 11 you sorry doo doo ring
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10-26-2009 @ 1:17AM
George said...
The media needs to understand that the people have spoken and they just don't care about Jimmie Johnson's quest for 4 straight, and no amount of indignation is going to change that. Why can't the people get behind JJ? Who knows. Maybe it's because he's not a good ol' Southern Boy. Maybe it's because he's about so bland and vanilla in his interviews. Maybe it's because they feel that he's cheating. Maybe they feel that he's nothing more than a product of the Chase points system. Maybe they feel that Chad Knaus and the numerous resources at Hendrick Motorsports are the real reasons he's done so well. But whatever the reason(s), the bottom line is that they have not embraced him and most likely never will.
Jeff Gordon had the same problem and I recall the same media asking the same questions back then: "Why don't the people appreciate what Jeff Gordon is doing? Why don't they embrace him? He's so well-spoken, why all the hatred?" Well, the same thing is happening now.
People like who they like, and the last thing they want or need is someone, in this case the media, telling them who they should like and why they should like him. Is Johnson's run historic? Sure. But just like he has his fans who are thrilled at what he's doing, he has his detractors who don't particularly care for him. And that's their right. Having people like Holly Cain continuously write columns about how great Jimmie Johnson is and what a historic feat he's accomplishing and how we should all embrace what he's doing, and having Johnson's fans call his detractors haters is all very simplistic, and doesn't change the fact of what's been happening in NASCAR for the last 3-4 years: attendance is down at tracks, ratings are down on TV, and sponsors are dropping out of NASCAR like flies, all during Johnson's historic run. Granted, money is a lot tighter these days, but then how do you explain the declining TV ratings?
People are tired of the Chase format, and they're tired of watching the same driver dominate the same races every year. And no matter how much you implore them to embrace Jimmie Johnson, they're not going to. Period.
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11-01-2009 @ 1:38AM
robsphase said...
That comment was the best I've ever read. Jimmie is..... well boring.....Hendrick.......well, he own's nascar.
10-26-2009 @ 7:26AM
Kim said...
First and foremost, thank you to Holly! Great article and as a fan of Johnson's I have been asking myself the very same questions. Why the hatred? Why the constant cheating accusations? Why not embrace him? He's not a Jerk. He's proven time and time again he is most likely the best driver of the decade. Yet, people still hate him. Like the poster above me said, that is their right. The only thing I can come up with is that people simply hate a winner!
Holly uses Tiger Woods as a comparisson and he is a good one to use. I live near Muirfield Golf Course in Dublin, OH. Jack Nicholson has a home here and built this course. This is "home course." Yet when he was still playing on it and Tiger Woods first time out, he wins it and has consistently won it since, do our fans who love Jack Nicholson yell out hatred? Nope, they love Tiger and even Nicholson himself has spoken to what an amazing talent Tiger Woods is. I will never understand the hatred against Jimmie Johnson. Perhaps the fans of golf are just more sophisticated than most of the NASCAR fans and they can see true raw talent and history making material in a person and appreciate it more than NASCAR fans can.
That being said, the comment above me also states the same old tired argument that Johnson is ruining NASCAR, hence the empty seats. Wake up, people!!!! ALL sports, pro-football, pro-baseball and pro-basketball all have empty seats these days. This is a reflection of our economy, not a reflection of hatred toward any one driver, especially Jimmie Johnson. If anything, I would think more people would show up if they could for one of two reasons, to either watch history in the making or to try (and hope) to watch someone put Jimmie in the wall and take away his championship run. Either way, this particular fan will keep watching.
Congratultions to Hamlin for a well deserved and well-driven win! Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson for yet another fantastic finish and run as to what will hopefully end in a historic fourth!
Kim
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10-26-2009 @ 7:33AM
Dwayne said...
Nascar has ruined nascar.
10-26-2009 @ 8:02AM
Tom1194 said...
I don’t care one way or the other about JJ. My problem has always been nascar fabricating a reality drama show called the Chase.
43+ cars show up at a track, the 43 fastest race on Sunday. They race all 36 races and the one on top wins. Right now JJ would just be catching Tony.
If they wanted to help the old format give the 1st and 2nd place driver 30 points and 20 points respectively. The drivers would have to drive for top finishes every week or be left behind. If JJ could win 4 in a row like that I would be impressed.
Right now the 48 team isn’t doing anything wrong, they are just masters of manipulation while staying in the rules. Good for them. It just shows how flawed this new system is. Will the 48 team win the chase this year? Probably. Is that team a 4 time championship team? Not in my book and not in a lot of others.
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10-26-2009 @ 8:23AM
illsell4u said...
Well at least I am not the only person that thinks the Chase has done exactly the opposite of what it was supposed to do. It is driving away fans by calling drivers champions that are undeserving of the name.
There have been 4 Chase cup winners and one actual Champion in this format. Equating what they now call the Sprint Cup Champion to the pre-chase years is not the same. Today we have a different format and if you want to compare the two you need to compare apples to apples. JJ has won only ONE Championship using the same scale that all the previous winners Holly Cain used as comparisons. At the same time, JJ is well on his way to winning his fourth Chase Cup in a row. Certainly a great accomplishment, but it is hardly the same.
Part of the problem may be the format and economy but I think there is also another small poece of the puzzle that effects those all important TV ratings. All ABC focuses on are the Chase drivers. Yes, if an NFL team is not in the playoffs they rarely get mentioned. However, when a driver is running in second or third or almost any place in the top 5-10 positions I believe their fans would like to hear it at least recognized. This is just one or the conflicts involving using a playoff system in NASCAR.
But other than that, ABC simply sucks when it comes to broadcasting races. Where do they dredge up the many on track reporters they use? Take the mic up to the beer line and you can get better, more informed commentary on the race and whatever event just happened that merrits a cut to the on track reporter.
So, under the original system that seemed to work fine for 50 years, there may have been a few runnaway Championships that were decided before the last 2 races of the season were even run. However, in those last few races of the season we did get to hear about more than just the top two drivers in the points system, they still focused on who was winning each race and who the top 5 or so drivers were whether they were in 1st or 21st place in points.
One other area has been mentioned even if only rarely by the TV reporting. Non Chase drivers are being warned to NOT race the Chase drivers too hard. WHAT??? Are you kidding me? What the hell are they even out there for if they are not allowed to try to WIN a race? Are they just supposed to be obstacles?
So, for the next 4 weeks you can expect to see nothing but Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson fans tuning in to watch the race on TV and less and less fans willing to go pay to see a race. A race that what is now down to only 2 people with a realistic chance at winning the Chase Cup will be driving to win and the rest will be told to not get in the way.
mbl
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10-26-2009 @ 8:53AM
Kim said...
Once again, you can all complain about the new chase format as much as you want, but the fact of the matter is, like it or not, it is here to stay. That being said, NONE of the current chase rules are Jimmie Johnson's fault and I think many of you fans, including you Mike, fail to see that. So it's okay to not like the chase and or its format, but is it really okay to hate the driver who has mastered it and should that diminish his accomplisments? In my book, NO! I don't care who that driver is/would be, I don't believe diminishing anyone's success under ANY format is fair to the driver himself, period!
Kim
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10-26-2009 @ 11:58AM
illsell4u said...
Kim, I do not fail to see anything. JJ has won fairly under the rules he has been given to race under. I have not been one to ever call them cheaters. But to compare winning the Chase to actually being the best driver all year is not the same. It is not the same circumstances that the other great drivers accomplished their marks in. It would be interesting to go back and see if any of them would have won more or actually less by using today's yardstick.
As for saying the current Chase system is here to stay, I would not bet my bank account on it. France has already shown he has no problem changing the rules, even in mid season.
The point was about the loss of fans in the stands and the loss of TV viewership. The Chase format has actually hurt those more than help. Unlike sports like football, baseball, and basketball, when Nascar gets down to where they are going to focus all the attention on 2 drivers, people turn it off. There are certainly a number of fans that may like JJ and Mark Martin but by no means would the two of them combined even make up 20% of the fan base. Nascar and its whole format does not translate over into a 2 driver competition whereby all fans will line up to support one or the other. And since the other drivers get no air time, their fans turn it off. The only way that the Chase is ever going to be popular is if Jr were to be one of the top two drivers in the last two weeks of racing. Plenty of people would tune in to see that one.
mbl
10-26-2009 @ 8:57PM
Kim said...
So then Mike, how do you explain the Superbowl then? With your rationalism, any one of us who are fans of any other team other than the two that are in the Superbowl, shouldn't be watching and or attending. That makes no sense what-so-ever. I can't stand The Steelers, but I still watched the Superbowl because it was afterall, the Superbowl. They won, I hated it, but I still watched.
Look, you're either a fan of racing and of NASCAR or you are not, (not just you personally, any of the complainers on here). I have a favorite driver and I like many others. I tune in each and every week however because I love to watch the racing, regardless of who is running or who is winning. I am still not understanding this rational you and so many others have, blaming the Chase, The France Family and Jimmie Johnson for viewer downship and attendance downfall.
Kim
10-27-2009 @ 6:56AM
illsell4u said...
Here, read it again. Maybe I should have changed the order of the sentences but I said that unlike football fans, nascar fans do not do that.
"""Unlike sports like football, baseball, and basketball, when Nascar gets down to where they are going to focus all the attention on 2 drivers, people turn it off. There are certainly a number of fans that may like JJ and Mark Martin but by no means would the two of them combined even make up 20% of the fan base. Nascar and its whole format does not translate over into a 2 driver competition whereby all fans will line up to support one or the other."""
10-26-2009 @ 10:15AM
zealotry said...
The Chase is not the problem, JJ is not the problem. NASCAR and the "Car of tomorrow/today" is the problem. Not only have they changed to this stupid car, they are remaking the tracks so that these cars won't fall apart on them. I was a season ticket holder at Bristol and after they ruined that track by "resurfacing" I e-mailed the track president and his response was that the new track promoted better racing by eliminating the "bump and run" ?!?!?!
This is the letter:
Michael:
Thanks for the email. I am sorry that you did not enjoy this year’s Food City 500. I thought the racing was good but there was not as much contact or as dramatic an ending as there sometimes is. I think sometimes even we have unrealistic expectations for our races. The truth of the matter is that Kyle Busch was just too good on Sunday. You saw the same thing yesterday at Martinsville.
I don't disagree that the new surface has changed things but I think the new car and the "new" drivers have been an even bigger factor. The reason I believe this is that the COT isn't designed for the bump and run. If you damage the splitter or the back wing, you are history. That wasn't true with the old car. I use every other series that races at Bristol as an example of what can be on the new surface. They have all put on tremendous races since we changed the surface.
Two out of the last three races have ended up with someone knocking another car out of the way. If the 11 had been a little bit better we would have seen the same thing at the Food City 500. I think the Earnhardt, Sr. - Labonte race had ten cautions. Last Sunday's Food City 500 had nine.
I believe our team did everything possible to prepare for the race weekend and we had great weather and excellent events on Friday and Saturday with more for the race fans to do than we have ever offered for the spring race week. Sunday was a good race but not a great race. I believe we will get back to great this August. I hope to see you then.
Thanks for writing and letting me know how we can make the Bristol experience better. I agree 100% that the fans should come first and we will explore every option available to keep them happy.
Jeff Byrd
BMS/GM
Hey Jeff, lets start with putting Bristol back togther and let NASCAR figure out how fix the damn car!!
Now Bristol is advertising all over NC, VA, SC, GA stating they have tickets available and they are blaming the economy and not the asinine, ridiculous, stupid decision to tear the track apart and rebuild it so that cars can go 3 wide in the turns AT BRISTOL!!!!! WTF???? 8 of the tickets they have available were mine and had been mine for over 10 years and if the racing was as good I would still be a ticket holder. Are these the same guys that ran the housing market for the last 10 years?? Because the result is going to be same, a crashed NASCAR economy! I haven’t watched a race all year, I was just reading the news feeds and came across this story and am sitting here in stunned disbelief at why everyone doesn’t see that NASCAR has destroyed NASCAR.... Someone please start a new series where real men driving real cars can RACE! For me, All of the kids like JJ can have this glorified go-cart mess.
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10-26-2009 @ 2:01PM
onewhoknows said...
Great debate. Not an idiot in the bunch. That's rare by today's blog standards. Someone mentioned if Jr was one of the top two drivers in the last 2 weeks of the chase it would be a big fan watcher. Probably true but I doubt that will happen under the present joke Nascar calls "the chase" and the COT. He hates the COT and the chase format. He comes from a long line of old school drivers and to him, this is destroying Nascar and may be a big reason for some of his present problems. He personally spoke out on this issue but was hung out to dry.
Johnson is a very good driver, but owes his success to Chad Knaus. That should be obvious to long time watchers. If you don't see that, you're not paying attention. The crewchief holds the key to the success of the driver week in and week out. Junior Johnson was asked a couple of months ago why Jimmie Johnson was so good. His reply was "because he has the best car". Is Jimmy Johnson a better driver than Jeff Gordon? Not in my book. Some fans make the mistake of putting all the success or failure on the driver and this is just not the case. There may be half-dozen or so (not afraid to hang it out) drivers out there but the driver talent is equally distributed for most part. Not so for crewchiefs. We have all watched "great" drivers struggle and "mediocre" drivers look great. Get the car right and they all look great. Chad Knaus, you are amazing!
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10-27-2009 @ 12:33AM
48 supercheat said...
You look alike a lot someone who pretends to know
everything but in reality you do not know s..t.
Change your screen name dreamer the 48 wins because they cheat a lot.
10-26-2009 @ 3:40PM
Sonny said...
Again J.J. haters are crying because he is winning. He has a great team and is a talented driver..What amazes me is all the other drivers are driving the same car with the same specs but because of the drivers or the teams they are not being competive..So instead of looking to their short comings and lack of skills on the track or in the pits they would rather blame nascar or JJ.. New system or old JJ would still be on his way to a fourth championship because of his talent and his teams dedication to being the best.
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11-01-2009 @ 1:22AM
robsphase said...
All the other cars are to the same specs??? Says who? Nascar which Hendrick has easily the most influence over. There's Jeff, Mark, Jimmie, Jr, Tony, Ryan and multiple teams he supplies engines to! If Hendrick pulled out nascar would fall. How else do you think the magical yellows fall? A Hendrick team has to win!
10-26-2009 @ 5:13PM
illsell4u said...
Sonny, there is almost no one that could argue with any of what you said except the last sentence. Last year was the only Cup Championship that JJ won where he had the most total points for the whole season. So underthe old system he would have only one title now and be behind Tony Stewart by about 100 points right now this season.
Math, learn it, live it, love it.
mbl
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10-26-2009 @ 5:29PM
grant06 said...
Until NASCAR gets rid of multi-car teams, who cares who wins? It seems like there's only three guys racing: Roush, Hendrick, or Gibbs....They've ruined F1 and Indy cars as well with this system. Thank goodness that football finally started!
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10-26-2009 @ 8:31PM
OINKJOHNSON2 said...
Good win for Denny Hamlin (not my favorite driver). Also a good run for Jimmie Johnson (again, not my favorite driver). But, realistically, what chance does a driver without multiple teammates and car-loads of money have? It reminds me of the good old (very old) days when Wendell Scott was racing with tires that Petty, Pearson, Yarborough, Allison, et al had "scuffed in" and discarded. Who cared if he finished 12 to 15 laps down? As I recall, he even made the top 10 one year! The sad fact is that Hendricks, Rousch, Gibbs, Stewart, Penske have 75% of the MONEY, while the remaining 25% is fragmented over the remainder of the field. As to why JJ is not popular--let's face it, he simply has a bland personality, much like any other Joe Six-Pack. The only difference is that he drives (extremely well, thank you)for the team with the best sponsorships, the most money, the best facilities, arguably the best engine and body shop builders, best crew chief, one of the best pit crews, etc. I don't have to like him, but I do respect his ability.
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