Only huge misfortune can derail Johnson
Back atop the standings, the No. 48 is poised for another Cup championship
 Jae C. Hong / AP Two wins in the Chase have propelled Jimmie Johnson to the top of the standings, a spot he's likely to relinquish only if his team suffers major problems. |
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So, here we sit again. Facing the halfway point of a Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship and pondering two things which have become annual areas of concern.
First, mini Snickers bars or little Kit Kat bars for Halloween? Second, will misfortune befall Jimmie Johnson and his team so that we can have a socko finish to the Chase?
Late Sunday afternoon at Auto Club Speedway, the second question had to be on the minds of 11 drivers and millions of NASCAR fans.
Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus had just turned a series of late-race restarts into demonstrations of horsepower and grip and in the process moved to Victory Lane and the top of the Chase standings in a way which had to put a size 12 on the throats of the 11 other Chasers.
Late-race restarts, which possess the potential to turn boring to thrilling only provided sick stomachs to a half dozen or so of the best stock car drivers in the world Sunday. The green flag would drop, noise and dust would rise and one of two things would happen at Auto Club; Johnson would take the lead or he would extend the lead he already had.
Jeff Gordon, a four-time champion and a teammate of Johnson's, led the Choir of the Frustrated after the Pepsi 500.
"They're in another category," Gordon said. "We've got to find out what we're missing. The only thing I felt bad about was that we finished second, and we're in a second-class category. We're good, but we're not good enough. We're doing everything we can to be good enough, but it's just not there. We've got to search and find something. We've got to be better than that."
Um, wow.
The fact appears to be – and this is based on the experience of three years of not-very-intense research – that there is nothing that Gordon or Juan Pablo Montoya or Tony Stewart or Mark Martin can find in their searches.
Oh, they might get better, but they won't get good enough. Their fate over the next six weeks may rest in the hands of somebody wearing a blue uniform which says Lowe's on it.
Once again, the Chase is closing in on that point where only misfortune will be able to stop Johnson and Knaus.
Their own misfortune.
Significant misfortune. Not a stumbling jack man and a 15-second pit stop. Not an invisible debris caution.
What will need to happen to breathe life back into the Chase is a shoddy Goodyear which comes apart in Turn 1, a poor qualifying effort which puts Johnson back in the field with the squirrels, getting too close to an on-going feud, sun in the eyes, Talladega.
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But this is also Johnson and Knaus and Hendrick. When they get going like they are now, at the time of the year it is now, well, they are 3 for their last 3 and heading to some of their favorite tracks.
But there is some very good news. Little Snickers bars are on sale at Target.
Jim Pedley is managing editor of Racin' Today. Read more NASCAR news at racintoday.com.
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