Jeff Gordon
Just two races remain in the Chase to the Sprint Cup and many wonder if Jimmie Johnson’s 73 point lead will be enough to carry him to an unprecedented fourth straight NASCAR championship. Mathematically only Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards and Brian Vickers are eliminated but realistically only Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart are close enough in points to pull off a two race coup that would snare the championship.
The No. 48 team can lose the championship but they are going to have to falter uncharacteristically in a big point way as in another early race crash or mechanical failures. Given the consistency and resiliency of the Hendrick Motorsports team, Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus are likely to produce top finish results.
If the number spread between the top five teams diminish, an exciting finale awaits NASCAR fans at Homestead- Miami Speedway.
Tampa Bay area fans have the opportunity to drive to the third local (somewhat) NASCAR event of 2009 -- Daytona in February and July and Homestead in November. The Ford Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway is only an I-75 interstate trek along Florida’s West Coast and across Alligator Alley to the racetrack near the gateway to the Keys.
Fresh quotes from the Chase challengers:
1. Jimmie Johnson
“Luckily we have a big points lead,” Johnson said. “All along we've been trying to tell everybody this thing is far from over, what our mindset has been. Luckily we've raced for every point throughout this Chase. We still have a decent points lead right now. We need to dust ourselves off, head to Phoenix, get a good one in the bank there.
“At the end of the day I feel very confident. I feel very strong about the performance Hendrick Motorsports will have. I just hope it's the 48 car on top of the heap. “
2. Mark Martin
“It's not over yet,” Martin said. “The top six, I'm still kind of baffled why everybody is so preoccupied with first and second. The top-six spots are being raced for like a dog fight. I've got to past champions that knocked me out of championships breathing down my neck so the race is still on for all of us.
“I still have got my hands full for the top-six positions (in the points) with all those guys.”
3. Jeff Gordon
“A lot can happen in these final two races,” Gordon said. “There are hundreds of moments that you have as a team every single weekend that maybe don’t materialize, or that don’t get seen by the public or even the media. But we see it. There are close calls all the time, and it can happen at any time.”
4. Kurt Busch
“I mean, we race the races” Busch said. ‘That's why we do it. We don't do it off paper. We go challenge ourselves to be the best at Phoenix and challenge ourselves to be the best at Homestead in two weeks to try to see how we can move up in points. We don't wish any bad luck upon anybody else. I have a great car owner, great crew chief by my side, great engineering staff. We're doing what we can to put ourselves in position.”
5. Tony Stewart
“You learned to read what the car was telling you as far as what it liked and disliked, and learned how to change your driving style accordingly,” Stewart said of the past. “Especially at Phoenix, every car we’ve driven there, even though the track’s the same, they all drove different. You just had to adapt to it and learn to read the race car, instead of thinking this is what the car I ran last night felt like and it’s supposed to feel like this today. It doesn’t work that way.”
6. Juan Montoya
“The good thing with being in ten races, you're either in it or you're out of it,” Montoya said. “There's no middle ground. We were in it at the beginning, and I feel now that we're out of it. I know we wanted to have better results and we'll work very hard to finish a little better. But I think as a team we've done a great thing this year.”
7. Greg Biffle
“I feel like making The Chase this year was a lot of momentum for the team,” Biffle said. ”And this sport is a lot about momentum. Certainly we'd like to win one of these last two races, but we're looking forward to finishing off the season the best we can in the points and then being better next year, being higher up on the points. Get locked in earlier in that chase and then compete for this title even better than we did this year.”
8. Denny Hamlin
I think it’s going to be the bottom line is going to be the preferred line,” Hamlin said. “It’s tough to say though, when you get to the front and you’re in that front row, the guy on the inside is at the mercy to the guy on the outside, it’s almost a good, vulnerable place to be on the outside.”
9. Ryan Newman
“Scoring strong results in the last two races could move us up a few more positions,” Newman said. “It's been a good year with our first-year team and first-year Stewart-Haas organization. We want to continue to have strong performances to carry over into 2010."
NASCAR Sprint Cup Point Standings
[After Race 34 of 36 - Includes Points Behind Leader]
1. Jimmie Johnson [Leader] [6297]
2. Mark Martin [ -73]
3. Jeff Gordon [-112]
4. Kurt Busch [-171]
5. Tony Stewart [-178]
6. Juan Montoya [-236]
7. Greg Biffle [-247]
8. Denny Hamlin [-322]
9. Ryan Newman [-324]
10. Kasey Kahne [-399]
11. Carl Edwards [-440]
12. Brian Vickers [-551]
Comments