Hotlanta…, and the Chase that was!
Written by Rich Hemstreet · October 26, 2008
Something had to go wrong for the pack to catch up with points leader Jimmie Johnson, and everybody else would have to bring their “A” effort. Of course Jimmie started on the pole again, thanks to Nascar’s rainy route to the championship. So Johnson once again got the choice of his pit spot. Maybe the top twelve could draw straws… or toss lug nuts against a wet #1 pit wall to see who starts there. Jimmie Johnson actually messed up. He was caught speeding on pit road. The penalty put him a lap down early. Even after he eventually became the recipient of a “lucky dog” pass to get back on the lead lap he still didn’t come charging to the front. But very slowly he made his way through the pack, one car here, one car there.
As the race came to a close Carl Edwards squeezed the most performance he could out of his Office Depot Ford and got past Denny Hamlin’s Fed-Ex Toyota on the next to the last restarts. On the final lap Jimmie Johnson showed what Champions are made of as he got past Hamlin to finish second overall, after a tough race. Jimmie has tenacity and an excellent team. He gets the most out of every part of his team every week I don’t think it will possibly for any body to make up 183+ points during the final three races.
With only three events to go, barring injury, I think you can stick a fork in the Chase. it is over. Edwards got all but five of the possible points, and he only gained 15 points on Johnson. With the team work the #48 crew shows, week after week, and a cool driver that just continues to persevere while hitting his mark lap after lap. Jimmie Johson is going to become a three time Winston Cup Champion. I heard him running as low as 30th at Atlanta, but it’s where you finish that counts. And Jimmie Knows how to finish races when it counts the most.
There were nine Chase drivers included in the top 11 finishing position. Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth each finished in the top five. Edwards is now 183 points behind Johnson. Greg Biffle is 185points behind. I don’t see how they can catch Johnson.
The only question will be… will Nascar continually use this failed system to find their champions. Is the Chase” really a better way then the old system? Doesn’t it make sense for the points to carry through the entire season. Nascar has their ill-advised All-Star weekend. Why don’t they simply stand behind the magic of the whole season counting. If you still want to keep the Chase formatclose change the Chase to only the final six tracks. That would give the Chaser’as a better chance at keeping it close.
As I close, I just have to bring up Jeff Gordon again. While he ran near the front much of the day he never figured our how to lead a single lap for the 5 point bonus. Gordon has become a “Stroker,” a driver that is just content to run well within his cars limits, and will never push to finish one position above where they are when they take the wite flag. In fact they will usually lose ground on the white flag lap, rather than finishing strong themselves. Gordon is omly in the Chase, and finishing as well as he does becasue his team is currently performing much above him.
My suggestion, not that anybody will take it, but switch the crews next year for the #24 team and the #5 team. Give Mark Martin a Championship qualifying crew and try to wake up Jeff Gordon at the same time. Martin would get in the Chase and have at least a couple of victories to show for it.
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I’ll be interested to see how Jeff runs next season. If it’s another season like this one, it will be pretty obvious that Gordon is in the decline stage of his career.