FORT WORTH, Texas
Jimmie Johnson has been riding an endless wave for several years now, but his prowess could be dragging down NASCAR's TV ratings, and his third straight Sprint Cup championship, which seems inevitable, might have NASCAR executives scratching their heads about what to do next season.
But for many Sprint Cup teams, 2009 can't come soon enough, as bad as this season has been. For most drivers not named Johnson, Edwards, Biffle or Busch, this has been a forgettable season.
Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus aren't clicking at their finishing pace of the 2007 Chase (an average of 5.0), but their 10.5 finishing average for the season is deceptive, because the average over the seven Chase races is a sizzling 3.7.
Carl Edwards, Johnson's closest rival, is averaging 10.5 through the Chase, with those bad days at Talladega and Concord.
Edwards has to win at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday to cut into Johnson's 183-point lead. But Johnson finished second here in the spring, even though his team was struggling, and he won here last fall.
Still, there's more than a little unfinished business at hand than Johnson vs. Edwards, specifically winning. Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick are at the top of the list of drivers without a victory this season.
Gordon has won at least two Cup races each of the last 14 seasons and has never been dry this late in the season. His last victory was at Lowe's Motor Speedway, more than a year ago.
Gordon has not run badly -- he has had chances to win -- and he looked good at Atlanta Motor Speedway last weekend. But he has never won at Texas or at Homestead-Miami, and he has rarely run well at Texas.
Barring an upset, then, scratch Gordon this weekend.
"We know this is our weakest track, and we're going in a completely different direction," Gordon said.
Kenseth, on the other hand, is suddenly hot. He could have won at Atlanta. And at Texas last fall, his narrow loss to Johnson came in one of the best races of the season.
"Texas has always been a pretty good track for us, and right now all the Roush stuff seems really good at the intermediate tracks," Kenseth said. "We had all five cars in the top 10 last weekend, so we've got a lot of confidence."
But Johnson and Knaus have everyone frustrated.
"It's been hard to race against them," Kenseth said. "But it's been amazing to watch the last bunch of years.
"Last fall, Jimmie won Atlanta … but Chad made a call not to pit. There were only two cars out there with old tires, and for sure if it had gone back to green, they would have gotten beat. We were the first car with four tires, and there was a crash on the restart, and they finish under yellow and win the race.
"This year they do the opposite, and come back from a lap down, 11th on the last restart, driving to second. They just do everything right.
"They have everything going their way, and they make great decisions, and things seem to fall their way. When it goes like that, it's a lot of fun. And you just have to keep riding it."
Kenseth said he believes that the best team-driver combination "should be the champion … just like in any other professional sport."
"The Patriots won all those Super Bowls, but they didn't change the playoff system," Kenseth said. "They had the best team, and they had the best coaching, and all the best stuff.
"I don't think it's really any different here right now. Jimmie and Chad have just been the team to beat. You could throw at them whatever you want, and they're still going to figure out how to win it. There's nothing wrong with that.
"I think it's amazing what they've been able to do, especially as tight as the competition is with this car, and all the rules, and with everything going on.
"They've been able to adapt, and anything they've faced they've come out on top. They're just on top of their game."
■ Mike Mulhern can be reached at mmulhern@wsjournal.com.
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