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CUP: Hendrick Trio Hopes For Better Luck
Written by: Tom Jensen   
10/30/2009
Talladega, AL
 
Jimmie Johnson finished 30th in the spring race at Talladega. (Photo: LAT Photographic) ยป More Photos

Barring a collapse of epic proportions, someone from Hendrick Motorsports is going to walk away with the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.

Three-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson leads teammates Mark Martin by 118 points and Jeff Gordon by 150. No other driver is within 161 points of Johnson, the maximum number of points a driver can make up in one weekend.

So one way or another, a Hendrick driver will leave Talladega Superspeedway leading the points following Sunday’s AMP Energy 500.

And in all probability, no one will seriously threaten the team for the championship over the final four races of the year.

Still, Talladega remains a potential troubling obstacle. In the spring race here, Johnson finished 30th, Gordon 37th and Martin 43rd. All three drivers are past Talladega winners, yet all three are keenly aware that calamity is only an ill-timed bump draft away.

“Talladega is the track where you don't have any control,” said points leader Johnson. “So much can happen. We've got good tracks ahead for us, so from a team standpoint we're excited and optimistic, but at the same time there's a lot of danger out there and we've just got to be smart.”

If, say, Gordon or Martin wins on Sunday and Johnson finishes 30th or worse again, the points lead that today looks bulletproof could suddenly become very fragile.

“Again, one flat tire, one mechanical, Talladega — we all seem to know the risks at Talladega — that's just gone,” Johnson said of his points lead. “That 90 points is just gone. I'm not trying to downplay where we're at. I'm very, very, very happy where we're at. But there are still four races left. There's a lot of racing left.”

Martin has consistently avoided championship talk during the Chase for the Sprint Cup, but he knows that this truly is a make-it-or-break-it weekend for him. “If we wreck, then I am not going to worry about it,” he said. “If we wreck, we don’t have a chance to win the championship and if we win, we might … we just might. So we are going to go there and just see what it turns out.”

Gordon said he’s going for it on Sunday.

“We will
most likely take the aggressive approach and try to lead, but try to make smart decisions as well,” said the four-time series champion. “A lot of that will depend on where we start and what is going on around us once the race starts. If need be, we can change our game plan during the race. But there is one approach I prefer, and that’s racing from the drop of the green flag.”

As for the big, multi-car accidents that are endemic to restrictor-plate racing, Gordon has his theories about that, too.

“To avoid ‘the big one’ at Talladega, it seems simple, really. Just be ahead of it or way behind it – just don’t be in the middle of it,” he said. “Rarely do you escape when you are in the middle of it. You can be aggressive or you can be conservative – either approach can be good or bad. And I don’t believe one approach works better than the other. The big one is going to happen – it’s just whether you get caught up in the crash or not, or whether it comes early or late in the race.”

And which of the three Hendrick cars avoids it will go a long way to determining this year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED, and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to



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