Johnson makes parody of parity in Sprint Cup

CHARLOTTE --

This season was supposed to have the most competitive title race since the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship format began six years ago.

Instead, it's once again been the Jimmie Johnson Show.

With only two races remaining to crown NASCAR's 2009 champion, Mark Martin is the only driver with a realistic shot of dethroning Johnson. But with a 73-point cushion, Johnson only needs to hold steady the next two weeks to win a record fourth consecutive title.

So what went wrong?

Here's a look at the problems for the drivers who were expected to challenge Johnson when the Chase started eight weeks ago, only to be left behind the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team:

■ Martin, second in points, 73 out: He opened the Chase with a win at New Hampshire, the fifth win of the season for the resurgent 50-year-old. Martin, the sentimental favorite, finished second in four previous title races, stayed neck-and-neck with Johnson through the first four rounds. His trouble came at Charlotte, when he ran into the back of Juan Pablo Montoya on a restart and couldn't overcome the gaping hole in the front of his No. 5 Chevrolet.

Martin ran 17th at Charlotte, while Johnson won the race and finally put a cushion between himself and his teammate.

His only other setback came at Talladega, when he was caught in a last-lap wreck that sent his car flipping across the track for the first time in his storied career. That 28th-place finish likely sealed his fate, even though he returns to Phoenix, site of his first win of ‘09.

■ Jeff Gordon, third in points, 112 out: His Chase got off to a bad start with a 15th-place finish in the New Hampshire opener that stuck him in a big hole. But he ran great the next five weeks, grabbing five finishes of sixth or better, including two second places. Then at Talladega, he ran out of fuel late and finished 20th.

But if Johnson struggles the next two weeks, Gordon will look back at Texas as where he failed to capitalize on a chance to really make it a tight title race. After Johnson's early accident opened up the field, Gordon had a chance to pounce but couldn't because of his career struggles at Texas. He nearly went a lap down and wound up a frustrated 13th.

■ Kurt Busch, fourth in points, 171 out: Busch ran well most of the Chase, just not good enough to keep pace with Johnson. An 11th at Kansas caused him to fall back from the leaders, and a 17th at Martinsville in his only real off race sort of sealed his fate.

He could be closer because he ran well at Talladega, only to be wrecked, as was Martin, on the final lap as a likely top-10 finish plummeted to a 30th. He bounced back with a victory last week in Texas, but it was too little too late for the 2004 Chase winner.

■ Tony Stewart, fifth in points, 178 out: Stewart, a two-time series champion, is perhaps the biggest disappointment of the Chase. Although he won at Kansas to regain some of his swagger, he's fallen off the pace he set all season long as he cruised to a sizable "regular season" points lead.

Stewart, trying to become the first owner/driver to win a title since Alan Kulwicki in 1992, only briefly flirted with the possibility once the Chase began. He was just OK in the opener, but came back from an earlier accident at Dover to finish ninth. Then came the win at Kansas that pushed him back into contention.

The rest of the races, though, have been memorable for Stewart only in that he didn't stand out.

■ Juan Pablo Montoya, sixth in points, 236 out: The biggest surprise of the Chase, Montoya has run much better than his spot in the standings shows. He opened the Chase with four top-four finishes and hovered inside the top three of the standings all the way to Charlotte.

That's where his luck ran out, as he struggled in with a 35th-place finish. Any chance he had to recover was lost when he ran out of gas at Talladega, finishing 19th, then wrecking at Texas.

■ Denny Hamlin, eighth in points, 322 out: Hamlin is the most disappointed driver of the Chase, with good reason. He's probably been the only one to keep pace with Johnson, only to have bad luck and mechanical woes take him out of contention.

He was off at Dover to fall back in the standings, but he rallied and was back in contention at California until he wrecked while leading with about 60 laps to go. It was driver error, and it cost him.

An engine failure at Charlotte negated his win at Martinsville . Then came another engine failure at Talladega, leaving him lower in the standings than he should be.

■ Carl Edwards, 11th in points, 440 out: This is the man everyone said would beat Johnson this year.But he's instead winless and been handcuffed by company-wide struggles at Roush Fenway Racing. His season has been so mediocre, he wasn't even really considered a factor once the Chase began.