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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
BYRNES: Not So Beatable After All?
Jimmie Johnson and his team proved themselves both beatable and unbeatable during the 2010 season...
Steve Byrnes  |  Posted November 23, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Jimmie Johnson celebrates after finishing in second place in the Ford 400 to clinch his fifth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
We’ve said for months that Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team finally are beatable this season.

After witnessing their history-making feat in the season finale, maybe we should feast on a heaping helping of crow instead of the more traditional bird on Thanksgiving Day.

Well, don’t start carving yet … we were at least partially correct.

Johnson and his team proved themselves both beatable and unbeatable during the 2010 season. When it comes to winning races, the five-time champions were beatable for a change, as Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 team alone proved eight times this year. But when talk turns to winning championships, Johnson and company are invincible.

By no means does this contradictory designation imply that Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin or Kevin Harvick won’t come back and topple Johnson next season. But in doing so, the most daunting hurdle they face is the No. 48 team’s supreme confidence and its unparalleled experience in the art of waging and winning championships. They’re far superior at staging a formidable bid for the title from beginning to end, calmly negotiating any potholes or potential catastrophes along the way, whether mechanical or mental, such as the war of words we witnessed in the closing races between them and the No. 11 camp. Despite who or what you throw at the No. 48 team, they consistently rise to the occasion.

It’s not too often that Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus, and his team sustain disaster, but when one threatens, they minimize their mistakes and any associated fallout without panicking. They’re the most proficient on pit road when it comes to adapting to changing conditions and circumstances. Although the No. 48 team didn’t enjoy their characteristically dominant performance throughout the 2010 campaign, they still displayed the ability to adapt and overcome.

They’ve also got the heart of a champion. Johnson has said that although he didn’t always have the fastest car, especially during his summer “slump,” he was most impressed by the heart his team portrayed. Their overwhelming drive to persist in racking up championships is part of what makes them so hard to beat in the Chase.

Look for them to be even more difficult to stifle in next year’s Chase because I don’t expect to see the same vulnerability again. Knaus has said part of their 2010 struggles stemmed from NASCAR’s switch from the rear wing to the rear spoiler back in the spring. That transition left the entire Hendrick organization a bit behind, but I bet that will be irrelevant by the time we roll into Daytona in February.

The competition has less than three months to devise a game plan to throttle this remarkable dynasty, and the challengers will need every minute of their off-season. I truly think the No. 48 team will be harder to beat, both in races and in the championship hunt, in 2011.

I doubt they’ll be quite as beatable … they’ll just be the ones to beat in all respects.

Steve Byrnes is the host of NASCAR Race Hub on SPEED, the network’s nightly news and information program, in addition to his duties as a pit reporter for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races on FOX Sports. A NASCAR broadcaster for 25 years, Byrnes also hosts NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice and qualifying broadcasts, as well as NASCAR Nationwide Series sessions. Byrnes served as the longtime host of Trackside, SPEED’s popular at-track news and entertainment program, until mid-2010. He broke into NASCAR broadcasting in 1985 as the host of Inside NASCAR on TNN and went on to host Darrell Waltrip’s Racers on TNN, among numerous other programs. Byrnes also has served as a play-by-play announcer in the NFL.

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The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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