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Johnson's easy win all but wraps up Cup title
AP Photo
Victory Lane has become a familiar spot for Jimmie Johnson, who has all but wrapped up another Sprint Cup championship.
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Published: November 10, 2008
AVONDALE, Ariz.
Jimmie Johnson made a mockery of the Chase for the Sprint Cup with a dominant victory in the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 yesterday at Phoenix International Raceway.
The race was the ninth of NASCAR's 10-race playoffs, and Johnson will go to Homestead, Fla., this week for the tour finale with a 141-point lead against Carl Edwards. Johnson needs to finish 36th or better in the final race to take the title.
ABC cut away from the broadcast with 30 miles to go -- at 7:30 p.m. -- to switch to America's Funniest Home Videos and Desperate Housewives on the East Coast.
There was no immediate comment from NASCAR executives about the decision by ABC, which moved coverage of the final miles to ESPN2.
"To go to America's Funniest Home Videos? Man, that hurts," Johnson said with a wry grimace, after his seventh win of the year.
Rick Hendrick, Johnson's car owner, said that the ABC move "doesn't say much" about the importance of the Sprint Cup championship in ABC's eyes. "I'm disappointed," Hendrick said. "I'm glad my phone went dead."
The ABC cutaway stunned Jamie McMurray, who finished third and who has been running strong the past month:
"It seems a little odd to me, as big as NASCAR is, and as many people as watch this sport. I can't imagine being a race fan on the East Coast and watching this race and then them going to that…..
"I could see it if the President were speaking…. But I just can't believe that America's Funniest Home Videos would take priority over us."
Edwards started the warm, sunny afternoon 106 points down, with hopes of chopping more out of Johnson's lead. However, Edwards was never a factor. Greg Biffle likewise, and Biffle is 203 points behind.
Johnson totally dominated the race, leading 217 of the 313 laps. But the final 30 miles were filled with numerous crashes.
Johnson finished three lengths ahead of Kurt Busch, one of the few men who could even keep Johnson in sight.
"Jimmie is just doing something very, very special," Busch said. "That combination Jimmie and Chad Knaus have is hard to beat.
"It's a privilege to run second to Jimmie here.
"I had as a game plan to at least get close enough to him to make him think big picture and to force him into actually making it cross his mind. I just couldn't get that close.
"Of course I want to race a guy clean when he's running for the championship. I would want him to do the same for me. It was a matter of trying to get to his bumper, but I couldn't quite get there."
"Man, you never know in this sport," a clearly relieved Johnson said. "I can't tell you how tough the last week has been. When that weight is on your shoulders, it's tough."
"Jimmie is just tremendous," crew chief Knaus said. "We came here with something different, and it was great for qualifying, but in practice it just didn't work that well. So we changed it all for Sunday morning.
"And Carl finished fourth -- he's still right there on us. And he'll be tough at Homestead. But I just like winning races."
Edwards: "We had a great run. But Jimmie is just doing it.
"It's still possible … though not probable. We can hope something happens … it happened with Jeff Gordon right here."
Gordon's day ended with a blown engine, and he is still winless this year: "I felt it start to lose power early on, but the car was still running good.
"This is the kind of year we've had. We've had a lot of things happen ... never anything with the engine, though."
"Jeff had a bad valve spring," Hendrick said. "But that part was introduced in June and never gave us any problem before."
"I was very concerned about that valve spring," Knaus said. "When Jeff had that issue, it was nerve-racking for us, for sure."
Edwards came in here looking for his ninth win of the year, but he left dejected. He never led a lap.
"If he would have some real terrible luck in Homestead, we would still have a chance," Edwards said slowly. "But they did their jobs here. We did the best we could … but it's just too big a spread now.
"But I guarantee you that's not going to change the way we do business. We're going to Homestead with everything we've got, and be aggressive, and try to win. I just wish we could have run a little better here. We ran pretty well, we just didn't have enough time; maybe if this were a 400-lap or 500-lap race, it would be different."
"Saturday practice was a challenge for us," Johnson said. "We had a decent car, but we knew we needed more. Chad and the guys worked to convince me what they thought we needed was something we needed … and after Texas….
"I didn't sleep very well Saturday night. And Sunday morning I called Chad several times … and once he yelled at me and told me to go back to bed and let me work."
The race was slowed several times, once for rain, several times for debris, twice for long red-flag delays -- once for a big crash (18 minutes) and once for rain (24 minutes).
Hendrick has won a lot of championships -- four with Gordon, one with Terry Labonte, and now on the verge of three straight with Johnson.
But Hendrick has never played this championship game with a team as bold a bunch of gamblers and hard-chargers as this one.
"This was the longest short race I've ever seen," Hendrick said after the 31/2-hour race.
"Jimmy and Chad have shown nerves of steel. I wish I had their cool."
"Where we are in the points now will take a little pressure off my brain," Johnson said. "Last week I just beat it senseless.
"Now I can go to Homestead and just relax…. Set up the car and go race.
"There's no need to do anything stupid … but how cool would it be to win. And I think we can do that. Now if I got to drive 110 percent to try to win, why do that. But if we can do it like we did it here, hey, why not go for it."
One of the wildest crashes finished with David Gilliland's car on top of Scott Speed's car. "Somebody got in the back of somebody, maybe Casey Mears … and the rest was just ‘Hang on,' Gilliland said.
"I got in the back of Sam Hornish, and then Scott Speed got in the back of me pretty hard … and his car ended up under our car."
"There was a lot of smoke…. and my spotter said there's no one out there, and I throttled down in the gas," Speed said. "We saw a spin, and we all started stopping -- and that's where it ended. I tried to slow down. Closed my eyes, screamed a little bit, and it was all over.
"Honestly, I didn't see much. I got out as quick as possible because David was still trying to get going and he was burning rubber all over me. Luckily, I don't think anyone got hurt."
■ Mike Mulhern can be reached at mmulhern@wsjournal.com.
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