Four-time and defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson has cameras follow his every move in the garage during practice Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla. for Sunday's Ford 400. Johnson qualified sixth, well ahead of Kevin Harvick (28th) and Denny Hamlin (37th). (Photo: Getty Images)
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – For the two contenders seeking to deprive Jimmie Johnson of a fifth straight Sprint Cup championship, qualifying was no cause for celebration.
Johnson qualified sixth at176.482 mph. It was a nice solid run, leaving him well situated for the start of Sunday’s Ford 400.
Kevin Harvick qualified 28th, which wasn’t that unusual. Denny Hamlin qualified 37th, which was. Hamlin’s previous low in qualifying was 34th at Auto Club Speedway on Oct. 8. On the positive side, Hamlin did manage to salvage top-10 finishes in each of his previous qualifying performances that were 30th or worse, and he won after starting 30th just two weeks ago at Texas Motor Speedway.
A poor qualifying performance is also a poor predictor of race-day success, but starting deep in the field adds a certain amount of pressure to an already overheated championship battle.
Johnson held a press conference before qualifying, but what he said seemed pertinent: “I slept great. I don’t know if Denny (Hamlin) did, but I know I did.”
Hamlin’s response? “I feel the same as I do every week. No, I’m never uptight.”
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SPEECHLESS--If Foster Gillett meant to quiet rumors regarding the future of Richard Petty Motorsports, this wasn’t the way to do it.
Gillett, whose father George is the official owner of the team that carries the seven-time champion’s name, was at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Friday. His presence spread quickly, but he refused to responded to any questions posed by media members.
Rumors have the team going out of business, going out of business temporarily while other investors are acquired and being sunk by the reputed mountain of indebtedness faced by the Gillett family.
Foster Gillett’s presence reportedly did nothing to allay fears among team members that their jobs are endangered.
STEWART’S TAKE-- Tony Stewart is the only driver who has won championships under both the “season-long” and current “Chase” format. Long relegated to the nether regions of the Chase field, Stewart offered his analysis of the three-way battle for the title.
“I think they’re all playing mind games with each other,” he said. “You don’t get this far in the season and be in this position by racing guys dirty. I don’t see it coming down to the last race with guys racing each other dirty.”
TITLE MAY GO THROUGH HIM--As expected, Carl Edwards established himself as a contender to win the race. He ended a 70-race winless streak last week at Phoenix and qualified second. Edwards won this race in 2008 and has finished eighth or better in five straight races at Homestead.
Referring to Hamlin, Johnson and Harvick, Edwards said, “They’re all going to be aggressive. That’s the way it’s going to be, no matter what they say. That’s how they got in the position they’re in, and now it’s going to be a great race for everyone to watch.
“I hope I’m watching the whole thing in my rear-view mirror, though.”
Will Denny Hamlin join the Miami posse of Lebron James? The opposite is unlikely.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – It’s all about the South down here. No drawls. No plantations (well, there is a city near here called Plantation). But there’s South Beach, and the geography is unmistakable. Homestead-Miami Speedway may not be Southern but it’s as south as the United States of America gets.
NASCAR takes its traveling show to most parts of the country, but it doesn’t get much glitzier than this. Juan Pablo Montoya held his annual South Beach gala – or soiree or extravaganza, or whatever – on Thursday night.
In other big news, Denny Hamlin met LeBron James.
“It was just at our hotel, basically,” said the Sprint Cup point leader. “One of the guys that I know, that works at the hotel, asked if I cared to meet him, and I said, ‘Of course. Sure.’ I just briefly talked to him for just a second. It really wasn’t anything too big. Obviously, he’s one of the most interesting guys of the past year, so it was good to experience that.”
Asked if the NBA star knew anything about NASCAR, Hamlin said not too much.
“He’s heard of it. I don’t know,” said Hamlin. “I really didn’t ask him too much about to be honest with you. I got to thinking, though, I was sitting there and looking around and the scene around him, and what-not, and I was thinking, why in the world would he leave Cleveland for this?”
It may have been a bit like the time Red Grange visited the White House. Grange was introduced to Pres. Calvin Coolidge, who was told, “This is Red Grange of the Chicago Bears,” and the president replied, “I’ve always enjoyed animal acts.”
NASCAR is known here. Every Chase has ended here, not to mention the seasons of 2002-03 before there was a Chase. NASCAR holds its grand finale in a city made famous at various times by Jackie Gleason, Tony Montana and Dan Marino. It’s going to take at least a Montoya championship to make NASCAR a household name.
Or maybe Hamlin can win the championship and thus earn a place in LeBron’s posse.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Heartfelt apologies to Jimmie Johnson. The reluctant words below are neither partisan nor personal. My job is writing about NASCAR. Given a choice, my priority is having something to write.
I hope Johnson loses. There, I’ve said it. I sometimes get accused of writing too much about Johnson. Oh, wait. Here’s one:
“I have waited a week to see if you have corrected your biased view of any driver who isn’t Jimmie Johnson. … You did not disappoint!”
Why, thank you, ma’am. And you’re right. I never wrote nearly as much about all those other drivers who won four straight Sprint Cup championships.
But it’s time for a change. Johnson has already won more consecutive championships than anyone else in history. Only two drivers have won more total championships. He can’t set a record. He can only extend it. Losing it is a bigger story than winning it.
First of all, it would be a great story if Kevin Harvick wins it because that would mean the other two in front of him, Denny Hamlin and Johnson, would have to falter inexplicably. The guess here is that it will take bad luck.
And Hamlin! This has been his coming-out party, both as a driver and a man. He overcame a knee injury – and a pseudo-secret fine for speaking his mind – but won more races than any other driver. Last week at Phoenix, he blinked and squandered most of his lead. Now it’s precarious.
No Chase has been comparable since the first, when the most intelligent tire in the history of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company aided Kurt Busch. Even though that tire flew off Busch’s Ford, it still had enough presence to roll around the track while Busch was limping into the pits, thus bringing out a caution flag. That tire even knew the right place to fly off.
I saw one Chase determined by the way the ball, er, uh, tire, bounced. Now I want to see one determined by old-fashioned, hard racing. One scenario would find Harvick running up front, while Hamlin and Johnson struggle with track position, trying to get close enough to defeat Harvick if there isn’t enough time actually to pass him.
The more delicious treat would be a lap-by-lap battle between Hamlin, the emerging superstar, and Johnson, the established superstar.
I’ll gladly write about either one of them.
The winner of the Sprint Cup at the conclusion of Sunday's Ford 400 in Homestead may or may not have the best car. What really counts -- in that race, and for the very survival of Racin' -- is what comes from the other side of the tracks of the mind: A dark woman's lucky smile. It's a Stone Agel truth which science getting to from the futurel side of the brain. Or so 'tis said at Ovalscreams today.
Jimmie Johnson is hoping the No. 48 will hit the track at Homestead with plenty of thunder down under the hood. (Photo: Getty Images)
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Somehow, Jimmie Johnson managed to narrow Denny Hamlin’s Sprint Cup point lead to 15 points entering the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Johnson is thus on the cusp of a fifth straight championship, which doesn’t seem as significant because no one else has even won four straight. Johnson is merely attempting to extend a record he already possesses.
To win that unprecedented fifth, though, Johnson said he could use some more speed. Even though events turned against him at Phoenix, Hamlin’s Toyota has outperformed Johnson’s Chevy in recent races.
“We're doing everything we can,” said Johnson. “We're trying as hard as we can. We're … making sure we have the best engines, go through … (everything to) make sure our car is as fast as it can be, and then race.
“I wish we had more speed. … Last couple weeks we've been good and they've (Hamlin) been great. We need to get that turned around and be great. … First goal is to have enough speed to run away from them, not worry about it. If not, you have to back up, and punt, and figure out what to do from there.”
REMAIN CALM--The continuing decline in attendance and television ratings was initially greeted with bewilderment in many quarters of NASCAR. Stage two was denial. Stage three is that everything will be fine.
“I don't think Rome is burning in NASCAR,” said Richard Childress, who put three of his Chevys in the Chase. “I think we still have a great sport. We have great fans. I think the economy has touched every sport at some point. I think that we will come back and be as strong as we ever were.
“I don't know financially-wise, but I think with the fans, they're going to get their NASCAR fix, and I just think it'll be back.”
The most successful owner, Rick Hendrick, said the racing “is the best I’ve ever seen.”
PRESSURE? NOT A PROBLEM--Three contenders remain, but Kevin Harvick has to get some help in the form of missteps by the two, Hamlin and Johnson, in front of him.
Harvick’s crew chief, Gil Martin, praised the driver for his ability to cope with pressure.
“He (Harvick) works his best under these kinds of conditions I think that we're going to be under,” said Martin. “Head games will not bother him because he's one of the best that there is at playing head games to start with. I'm very, very happy that we have a driver with that strong of a mental aspect about him going into this race.
“I wouldn't swap him for anybody right now.”
JUST A LITTLE LESS-- All three contenders have to go into the race determined to win not just the championship but the actual race.
Only Hamlin has some small control of his own destiny. Only Hamlin, technically speaking, doesn’t have to win. If Johnson wins the race – he has never won in Homestead, by the way –Hamlin still wins the championship as long as he finishes second, leads at least a lap and neither leads the most laps. In that scenario, the two would finish with the same number of points, but Hamlin would claim the title by virtue of winning one more race than Johnson.
THE MONKEY WRENCH--It also benefits Hamlin slightly if NONE of the three contenders manages to win. Hamlin won it last year, but Ford drivers had won five straight before that.
The Roush Fenway team, flagship of the Ford fleet, has been improving rapidly on intermediate tracks, thanks in part to a new engine design. All three of its Chase drivers – Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth – have won the season finale over the past five years.
For whatever reason, Homestead-Miami has been “a Ford track.”
Great idea #4: Sprint Cup racin' on dirt tracks.
Dear NASCAR This Week,
I read your newspaper offerings weekly, and enjoy them, especially the comments from NASCAR fans. I've been a race fan for 65-plus years and enjoy sprints on dirt and NASCAR. Was talking to some buddies recently about what NASCAR could do to get fans “returning to the track,” and we came up with some suggestions:
Thanks. -- Gary H., Newburgh, Ind.
Monte replies: Thanks to you and your friends for putting so much thought into this. We’d love to see Cup races on dirt, too, but there aren’t any dirt tracks capable of accommodating 50,000 or more fans.
Kurt Busch won the 2004 Chase with Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon literally on his tail.
The first Chase (for the then Nextel Cup) was as dramatic as this one figures to be. In the final race, then as now in Homestead, Fla., Jimmie Johnson finished second and Jeff Gordon third, but Kurt Busch, then in a Ford was able to manage a fifth-place finish to win the championship over Chevy drivers Johnson (minus eight points) and Gordon (-16). Who won the race? Ford driver Greg Biffle.
photos: Getty Images
Ford, crew chief if point leader Denny Hamlin, and Knaus, leading the team of reigning champ Jimmie Johnson, have developed a rivalry as fierce as their drivers. After Hamlin’s Texas victory, Ford suggested Johnson’s crew had essentially choked under pressure. It was Knaus’ strategy that prevailed at Phoenix, though, as he managed to bring his driver home fifth without having to make a late pit stop. Hamlin had to make such a stop, for fuel, and Hamlin finished 12th. The difference between Hamlin and Johnson is a mere 15 points with one race remaining.
My take: Johnson could have suggested it was Ford who blinked this time with the championship on the line. But he didn’t. The final verdict comes at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
It’s a simple case of the Cinderella story versus the truth of who has the best damn car on the track.
AVONDALE, Ariz. – This Chase race is a bouncing ball. Each week. Back and forth.
Intangibles run rampant. Let’s see.
On Friday, Denny Hamlin was in breakout mode. His crew chief, Mike Ford, has supposedly gotten under the skin of Jimmie Johnson’s crew, which, by the way, wasn’t the same as it had been a week earlier.
On Monday, Johnson still trailed by 15 points, but it seemed as if it was time to get the cases of champagne ordered. Hamlin had played it a bit too safe by pitting near the end of the Kobalt Tools 500, apparently not realizing that most everyone else was going to try to conserve fuel and make it to the end, and more importantly, that most were going to succeed.
At Phoenix International Raceway, Hamlin snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, leaving him to wander aimlessly out of the track’s media center, muttering that he didn’t think he had done anything wrong.
Meanwhile, there was Kevin Harvick lurking, eyeing the two in front of him with the stare of a vulture waiting to snatch up the pieces.
But what if we stopped putting so much weight into the tangibles? What if the tangibles are really going to decide who wins this heated contest?
What if what happens just … happens?
If Johnson emerges next week as the champion, the prevailing view is going to be that Hamlin’s crew chief, Ford, spat on Superman’s (Johnson crew chief Chad Knaus) cape and got what was coming to him. If Hamlin wins it all, it’s going be because he kept a level head and didn’t let anyone get to him.
If Harvick wins, well, it’s going to require some alleged choking or bad luck by not one, but two. Thus will emerge the Cinderella story.
But maybe, just maybe, this championship is to be decided simply by which driver has the fastest car. Maybe no one’s going to choke. Maybe the attention should be justly slanted toward a tale of winning, not losing.
If so, few will notice. What’s between the ears trumps what’s under the hood.
A day late and a dollar short: Though he failed to make the Chase, Joey logano (has finished in the top 10 in eight straight races, finishing third at Phoenix last weekend. (Photo: Getty Images)
- What goes around comes around. A week after pulling out a win in Texas, Denny Hamlin dominated most of the race at Phoenix, only to see everything go wrong in the late stages.
- The margin from first to second in points, 15 points with one race remaining is the closest in the seven-year history of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
- Entering the final race in 2004, Kurt Busch led Jimmie Johnson by 18 points.
- Johnson’s style of gamesmanship is subtle. After exerting some pressure with his superior strategy at Phoenix, Johnson said of rival Hamlin, “Nine years being in Cup, I’ve lived in championship pressure, especially the last four years. I know how badly he wants to win a championship. I also know this is going to be a tough week for him, because I’ve been there.”
- “I’m going to be disappointed for the next couple hours,” said Hamlin afterwards, “but trust me. When I get home, I’m done with it. I’m going to try to figure out how to win next week.”
- Is there life outside the Chase? Well, Mark Martin occupies 13th place behind the 12 Chase drivers, and he holds a 24-point edge over Jamie McMurray in the “best in class” competition.
- Brendan Gaughan made his first Cup start of the year and crashed on the second lap. In other words, his Cup season consists of one lap.
- Carl Edwards won nine races in 2008 but 70 races passed before he finally earned career victory No. 17.
- Note Joey Logano’s last five finishes: 7, 6, 5, 4, 3. He’s finished in the top 10 in eight straight races.
- On the one hand, the Sprint Cup Series enters its final race with a three-way scramble at the top. The championships have already been wrapped up in both the Nationwide (Brad Keselowski) and Camping World Truck (Todd Bodine) series.