JENSEN: Time For Some Hard Truths

Sprint Cup

JENSEN: Time For Some Hard Truths

Did Jimmie Johnson win or lose on Sunday? We’ll know soon enough…

Tom Jensen | Posted October 22, 2012 Charlotte, NC

Jimmie Johnson battled back from adversity at Kansas. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

It’s Monday morning and that means a cold, clear dose of reality after a crazy weekend of racing.

So I’m not going to sugarcoat things this morning. Instead, it’s a morning of hard truths.

First off, one of two things happened on Sunday at Kansas Speedway: Either Jimmie Johnson lost the 2012 Chase for the Sprint Cup by spinning out his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and backing it into the wall, or his crew won it for him with a remarkable series of repairs that allowed him to finish ninth and not lose any ground to points leader Brad Keselowski.

Of course, we won’t know for sure which way the title battle will go until the final four races are complete, but I would suggest that the Kansas race so far has been the defining moment of the Chase. Johnson could have won the race and he just as easily could have finished 35th or worse; instead he finished ninth.

“I had a couple of hundred miles to think through the mistake I made,” said Johnson. “And I want to be happy because of this amazing comeback the team had, but one little mistake. … It could have been so much more. You don’t want to leave points on the table.”

As for Keselowski, one of his strong suits is his confidence, which borders on cockiness. That’s a big part of his personality.

But after Kansas, when Keselowski dodged who knows how many wrecks around him, he actually looked a little rattled for the first time in the Chase. Whether the nerves are starting to get to him or the race was just nuts is debatable.

Right now, I say the championship is a virtual dead heat between Keselowski and Johnson. And I think the final four weeks of the season will be great fun.

• Denny Hamlin had a disappointing weekend, for sure, as his 13th-place finish marked the third time in six Chase races that he failed to finish in the top 10. And he lost a golden opportunity to gain ground on Keselowski and Johnson.

At 20 points back with four races to go, Hamlin can only win the title if closes out the season with a couple of victories and the two guys in front of him both stumble. Frankly, I don’t see that happening.

You have to wonder how much Hamlin’s 200+ mile per hour testing crash on Thursday affected him this weekend, because he clearly was a step behind for much of the weekend.

• It was good see Matt Kenseth get another victory as his career with Roush Fenway Racing winds down. Although the Chase has been an up-and-down period for Kenseth, he was clearly emotional after winning on Sunday. He is a class act and truly a champion. Congrats on a big victory.

• How tough has this year been for Kyle Busch? Since joining Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008, Busch has consistently won races in all three of NASCAR’s top divisions. In 2008, he won 21 races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series. In 2009, he won 20 races, followed by 24 in 2010 and 18 last year. This year? The hard-luck Busch has won just once in a total of 52 starts. He’s got to be counting the days until this season is through.

• Danica Patrick did what is generally regarded as the dumbest thing a driver can do in a race: Wrecked herself and got a DNF while trying to wreck another driver, in this case Landon Cassill, who escaped unscathed. Patrick’s 32nd-place finish gives her an average finish of 30.25 in 10 starts this season.

I’m sure her crew is furious that she wrecked her Texas car for no reason other than trying to look tough and not get pushed around. This is the second time this season Patrick deliberately wrecked another driver — she turned Sam Hornish Jr. after the checkered flag had fallen in the Talladega Nationwide race — and one wonders if NASCAR will take any action this time.

The bigger issue, of course, comes next year. GoDaddy.com will sponsor Patrick’s full-time move to the Cup Series in 2013, but as her role as the company pitchwoman continues to decrease, whether they’ll be back in 2014 remains to be seen. And at some point, Patrick needs to start racing people instead of just logging laps. Because when you run in the back, you’re going to get run over. Period.

Maybe Patrick can improve dramatically next year, but right now she looks way out of her element.

• Kudos to Michael Waltrip Racing for another strong day, as Martin Truex Jr. was runner-up to Kenseth, and Clint Bowyer finished sixth. A year ago, everyone thought Bowyer was nuts for leaving Richard Childress Racing, but this team has exploded into the headlines in a big way this year.

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Jensen

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