NASCAR has warned the teams of championship leaders Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson that their Chevrolets were dangerously close to failing post-race inspection last week at Dover, Del., where the three-time defending series champion Johnson won the race and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Martin finished runner-up.
Johnson's crew chief Chad Knaus cautioned that there was no wrong-doing, no intent to do wrong and that the attention this is receiving is mostly media sensationalism.
"The cars were legal, that's the thing everybody has to understand,'' Knaus said Friday from this week's Sprint Cup Series venue, Kansas Speedway. "It's turned into a bigger issue than what it really should."
Jimmie Johnson left Lowe's Motor Speedway with a 69-point lead Saturday night following the Bank of America 500, but don't fall in line with those in the NASCAR media who are already etching his name on the Sprint Cup trophy.
Why, you ask, should we not see Johnson as the clear favorite despite him winning the last two championships?
Well, just take a look back to one year ago.
Teammate Jeff Gordon had just won his 6th race of 2007, his second in-a-row, and had a 68-point lead in the championship standings over Johnson as the Chase for the Sprint Cup entered the last half of the ten race stretch.
Yes, Jeff Gordon was en route to finally winning his fifth NASCAR title.
Jeff Gordon said it best last week when he said Jimmie Johnson "has flat killed everyone" in the Chase for the Nextel Cup.
That didn't change Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Jimmie Johnson finished seventh in the Ford 400 to wrap up his second NASCAR Nextel Cup Championship in a row by 77 points over Hendrick Motorsports teammate and co-team owner, Jeff Gordon. Johnson is the first Cup series repeat champion since Gordon did it in 1997-98.
Johnson, who was going for his 5th win in a row, led only the first lap of the race after starting from the pole and was a steady Top-10 fixture for the rest of the race. Gordon managed to earn 9 points in the final tally on Johnson by finishing fourth, but it wouldn't be enough for the four-time champion who also had a season to remember by recording his 30th Top-10 of the season, a new NASCAR record.
Oh Yeah, Matt Kenseth Won, Too
Also celebrating Sunday night at Homestead was the Roush-Fenway Racing team after Matt Kenseth won his second race of the year.
Heading to Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend for the tenth and final race of the Chase for the Nextel Cup, things in the Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson Show changed dramatically since last week's edition. Gordon now trails Johnson by 86 points in the standings. Here's a breakdown of their stats at Homestead and the possibilities that loom within the last Chase race of the season.
Homestead Stats: Neither Gordon nor Johnson have a win at Homestead, a track that has seen a myriad of layout changes since it first came on the Nextel Cup tour. Johnson has the best career finish with a 2nd-place in 2004. Gordon's best finish also came in 2004 with a 3rd-place.
A year ago, Gordon finished 24th while Johnson finished ninth to wrap up his first title. A 40th-place finish in 2005 left Johnson with an average finish at HMS of 14.5 while Gordon has average 11.4.
Chase Stats: Phoenix stuck a fork in Jeff Gordon's title hopes after Johnson won his fourth-straight to Gordon's 10th-place finish. The 86-point deficit will be nearly impossible to overcome unless Johnson has serious trouble in the race. If Johnson finishes 18th or better, he automatically looks up the title, even if Gordon leads every lap and wins the race.
In doomsday scenarios for Johnson, if he finishes 40th or worse, Gordon could take the title with a 10th place finish or better. A 43rd-place finish for Johnson would mean Gordon would have to finish 14th or better.
I wouldn't put too much stock in those possibilities this year knowing that he has only failed to finish a race four times. Johnson should have his second NASCAR Nextel Cup title in hand come Sunday evening.
Last week at Texas Motor Speedway, we heard plenty about how Jeff Gordon didn't have a good-handling car in the Saturday practice sessions leading up to the Dickie's 500.
And if Jeff Gordon wants any chance at re-capturing that Nextel Cup point lead and his fifth series championship, the No. 24 team is indeed going to have to make amends on how well they get the car dialed in.
"We're doing a great job on Friday qualifying and we need to do that again here today and next week in Homestead. But Saturday getting prepared for the race, we got to do a little bit better job," said Gordon Friday before qualifying at Phoenix.
Starting positions haven't been a problem for Gordon in the past few weeks. Gordon started second at Texas last week and at Atlanta two weeks back, he rolled off eighth. He starts third Sunday at Phoenix.
In each race, Gordon has finished seventh after battling a race car that often wanted to find contact with the SAFER barrier instead of with victory lane. Unfortunately for Gordon fans, the strong effort to salvage a decent finish has been significantly trumped by two-straight wins by teammate and Chase contender Jimmie Johnson.
It's definitely not lost on Gordon that the Saturday program needs to improve immediately at Phoenix and next week at Homestead if the No. 24 team wants any shot at Jimmie Johnson.
"We've got to step it up. There's no hiding that and I hope we can pull that off right here in Phoenix," said Gordon.
Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway gave me that feeling of something I haven't seen in a while.
Most likely, I had that feeling because, well, I hadn't.
Sunday's race, the third win in-a-row for Jimmie Johnson, had a grand total of 55 loop lead changes -- the most NASCAR has had in a race since it started keeping tabs on the data provided by the several different scoring loops around the track.
Yes, NASCAR stars of today swapped position, for the lead, multiple times, with much at stake. Awesome!
I can imagine that those high numbers could be easily chalked up to a couple of quality battles -- side by side nonetheless -- that happened during the Dickie's 500 for the lead. (The best example starts at about 8:41)
First, it was Denny Hamlin vs. Matt Kenseth with less than 100 laps to go. Hamlin drove like he hasn't won a race in awhile to battle Kenseth for the lead for several laps. Swapping the position back and forth, Kenseth finally got the better side of the deal when Hamlin lost control of his No. 11 Chevrolet off of turn two. Hamlin never spun the car, but he impacted the wall hard enough to end any chances at a win (starts about 7:57).
Kenseth luckily avoided Hamlin's mess to find himself dueled in another battle in the closing stages on the event.
(Yes, that picture IS the most ridiculous one you've ever seen. Anyways, back to the regularly scheduled programming...)
Jimmie Johnson looked a chef in the final laps of the Dickie's 500 at Texas Motor Speedway Sunday night.
First, he sat Matt Kenseth on the table with a charge to his rear bumper with 15 laps to go.
Then, Johnson backed off and let Kenseth cool down -- as well as the tires on his No. 48 -- and read the perfect recipe for the win.
With four circuits left, Johnson pounced with a knife, cutting into Kenseth's lead and finally cutting him off out of turn two, grabbing the race lead and showing the No. 48 team's brilliance in the Chase for the Nextel Cup.
Reports from Talladega indicate that Nextel Cup inspection for the Cookie Cutter UAW-Ford 500 went off without a hitch.
Points leading crew chief Chad Knaus indicates that is because NASCAR gives everybody wings, but doesn't let teams spread them and fly:
"They don't want somebody to think somebody has an advantage on them, which is kind of against the way the sport was built. Last I checked it was our job to build the best race car."
These are his comments after NASCAR passed out mandated "side plates and wickers" for the COT wings, evidently eliminating one of only two ways crew chiefs could adjust the already restricted air flow.
"They say those are supposed to be the tools they're going to give us to work with. Now they've taken those tools away and there is nothing to work with."
Apparently, there will be even less to work with by the time the drivers take the green flag. NASCAR is expected to suck even more life out of the cars by changing the restrictor plates, too, to slow super speed at the super speedway.
Not surprising. Nor is NASCAR's new motto:
We're NASCAR. Our half-baked ideas burn the competitors' buns.
NASCAR Nextel Cup point leader is now in a must-win situation Saturday night at Richmond if he wishes to be part of the point lead heading into the Chase for the Championship.
Jimmie Johnson cruised to victory lane Sunday night at California Speedway, scoring his fifth victory of the season and ten more bonus points for the Chase, which starts in two weeks at New Hampshire.
Gordon wasn't a factor after an incident late in the race and now faces the possibility that his 317-point lead could wind up being a 10 or 20 point deficit after 400 laps at Richmond International Raceway with Johnson's win.
On the other end of the Chase spectrum, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was all but locked out of the 2007 edition of the Chase despite finishing 5th. He sits 13th in the standings, 128 points behind 12th-place Kevin Harvick with the lone regular season race remaining.
All Harvick has to do is finish 32nd Saturday and he is locked in, even if Junior leads the most laps and wins.
The race had a higher number of wrecks than normal, including two mildly series incidents.
NASCAR has warned the teams of championship leaders Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson that their Chevrolets were dangerously close to failing post-race inspection last week at Dover, Del., where the three-time defending series champion Johnson won the race and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Martin finished runner-up.
Jimmie Johnson
Jeff Gordon said it best last week when he said Jimmie Johnson "has flat killed everyone" in the Chase for the Nextel Cup.
Heading to Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend for the tenth and final race of the Chase for the Nextel Cup, things in the Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson Show changed dramatically since 
Last week at Texas Motor Speedway, we heard plenty about how Jeff Gordon didn't have a good-handling car in the Saturday practice sessions leading up to the Dickie's 500.
Reports from Talladega indicate that Nextel Cup inspection for the 
NASCAR Nextel Cup point leader is now in a must-win situation Saturday night at Richmond if he wishes to be part of the point lead heading into the Chase for the Championship.
