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JENSEN: Only A Matter of Time
Written by:
Tom Jensen
04/14/2008 - 07:32 AM
Harrisburg, N.C.
Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe's Chevrolet, does a burnout after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway on April 12, 2008 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) ยป More Photos
C’mon, you didn’t really think Jimmie Johnson was going to go through the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season winless. Did you?
Of course not.
Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and the rest of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team are too good, too deep and too talented to stay in the winless column very long. In fact, the bigger surprise isn’t that Johnson won Saturday night’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, but that it took him eight races to break into victory lane this season.
After all, Johnson is riding consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championships and won 10 races last season. He was going to break out sooner or later. What we’ll be watching starting two weeks from now in Talladega is whether the Phoenix victory was an anomaly or whether the No. 48 will go on one of its patented hot streaks.
Over the next six weeks or so, the Sprint Cup Series races at Talladega, Richmond, Darlington and twice at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, most all places where Johnson could so some serious damage.
And before you start chalking Johnson’s victory to a fuel-mileage gamble, remember that he did lead 120 laps of 312 in the race, a total that represented 33 more laps than anyone else led.
Up until Saturday night, the question everyone’s been asking all year is, what’s wrong with Hendrick Motorsports? I wonder if around June 1, people will be asking if anyone can stop Hendrick Motorsports? We’ll see, but I wouldn’t bet against it.
Some other observations from the Valley of the Sun: Mark Martin was royally ticked off after the race, as well he should have been. Martin has way too much class to throw his crew chief Tony Gibson under the bus, but clearly Martin felt he had done a good job saving gas and thought maybe that he, too, should have stayed out as Johnson and runner-up Clint Bowyer did. And since Martin isn’t racing for points, he could have afforded the gamble, even if he ran out. Still, it was good to see Martin running well after a disappointing start to the season.
After hearing driver after driver talk about how physically difficult the new-style NASCAR Sprint Cup car is to drive, I’m beginning to think that there’s something to the notion that the drivers in the best physical shape are going to be the ones winning races. Carl Edwards, Johnson, Mark Martin — all those guys are devoted fitness addicts who have highly thought out and rigorously adhered to exercise regimens.
Some others
Speaking of Edwards, The Carl drove an awesome race to recover from a pit-road penalty that left him 34th and a lap behind at the race’s one-third mark to finish fourth. He is fast and confident right now, and he’s going to be awfully tough to beat as the season rolls on.
Jeff Burton quietly put together another first-rate effort at PIR, recovering from a 39th-place qualifying run and getting caught in an early accident to rebound to a decent sixth place. Burton isn’t the least bit flashy, but boy is he solid.
I know it’s early, but NASCAR’s regular season is nearly one-third complete. Barring anything weird happening, I think the top 10 guys in the points – Burton, Kyle Busch, Junior, Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Stewart, Bowyer, Edwards and Greg Biffle — all will make it in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Then it gets interesting.
Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch are 11th through 16th now, separated by 61 points. Two will make the Chase, four won’t. And with all due respect to 17th-place Juan Pablo Montoya, he won’t make it into the Chase and no one behind him will, either. Kenseth and Johnson are the only two drivers to qualify for all four Chases so far, but Kenseth’s streak is in jeopardy. All in all, it’s been a good and interesting start to the season and I’ll look forward to picking it back up in two weeks in Talladega. Enjoy the off-week, folks.
SUBWAY FRESH FIT 500 RESULTS
Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor 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 numerous television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. 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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