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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Talladega Last Chance To Stop Johnson?
Talladega Superspeedway is perhaps the least predictable track in NASCAR....
Tom Jensen  |  Posted October 26, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Jimmie Johnson finished 30th in the spring race at Talladega after crashing. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Talk to any driver in NASCAR about the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway, and to a man they will tell you the same thing: “Anything can happen at Talladega.”

And that’s exactly what 11 Chase drivers are hoping for in Sunday’s Amp Energy 500.

Anything.

Except another Jimmie Johnson victory or top-five finish.

Johnson, the three-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion leads his Hendrick Motorsports teammates Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon by 118 and 150 points, respectively. Four other Chase drivers — Tony Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman — are all at least one full race behind Johnson. Greg Biffle, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers are all more than two full races behind Johnson with just four to go.

About the only hope anyone has of stopping Johnson’s runaway charge to a record fourth straight title is for calamity to befall him at Talladega — engine failure, getting caught in a multi-car accident or some other gremlin.

It could happen.

Johnson finished 30th here in the spring after being tangled in a wreck. It was the fifth time in his still-young career that he’s finished 30th or worse at the 2.66-mile superspeedway.

Of course, that was still better than Martin’s most recent visit to Talladega, when he finished 43rd. “I have a feeling that I'm going to have a great Talladega race,” said Martin. “I don't know if our competition will or not. But I wrecked on lap 5 last time there. I've got a feeling that this just isn't going to happen this time. The law of averages is going to get you sooner or later and I think I've got some good karma going in there so I'm very optimistic. It could be a great equalizer.”

So Martin plays on taking the fight to Johnson at Talladega, instead of playing defense.

“To me it's my opportunity to really get back into the running for it,” he said. “So I plan on going there and driving like I know I am not going to wreck. … If I am in a wreck on lap one, it is what it is and I am going to go there and not worry about it. I’m going to go there and race and I am going to race like I am not concerned about getting in an accident.”

Regardless of what happens with the points leaders, though, Talladega is place where bizarre and memorable races occur. Richard Brickhouse, Lenny Pond, Ron Bouchard, Bobby Hillin Jr., Davey Allison, Phil Parsons, Brian Vickers and Brad Keselowski all won their first Sprint Cup races here.

Bill Elliott won the Winston 500 in 1985, coming from two laps down under green to win — something that ought to be impossible, given that the cars run much faster in packs than they do by themselves.

Two years later, Bobby Allison triggered the movement to restrictor plates and roof flaps after a terrifying airborne crash that saw his Buick tear down a huge section of catch fence on the frontstretch.

More recently, the late Dale Earnhardt won his last Cup race at Talladega in 2000, when he came from 18th place with four laps to go to stun the field.

In 2006, Vickers ran into the back of then-teammate Johnson on the backstretch on the final lap. Johnson, in turn, tagged leader Dale Earnhardt Jr., Earnhardt and Johnson crashing out of the race, as Vickers scored his first career victory.

And earlier this year, Keselowski drove to victory after colliding with Carl Edwards on the final lap, sending Edwards first onto Ryan Newman’s hood and then into the catchfence. The shocking upset victory not only was the first for Keselowski, but the first for car owner James Finch, too.

For the rest of the Chase field, they’re hoping for another upset, in the form of something happening to halt Johnson’s charge — even if that’s an unlikely scenario.

“Right now, they’re just unbelievable,” Carl Edwards said of Johnson and the No. 48 team. “The way those guys run, you’d spin the guy out and he would back in the wall and they’d fix it and he’d come back and win anyway. I don’t know how you beat those guys other than just figure out how to emulate them and then beat them at their own game. They’re very good and I know everyone, including myself, has a lot of respect for them.”

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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