It’s been said that it ain’t over til it’s over, but the 2009 season is a close to an ending as it possibly could be.
Jimmie Johnson should win an unprecedented fourth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup title Sunday at Homestead-Miami, while Mark Martin should finish the season as the championship runner-up for the fifth time in his illustrious career.
But anything can happen, and when you’re talking about drivers like Martin and Johnson, Sunday’s South Florida race should be a good one.
Johnson carries a 108-point lead into Homestead-Miami after a dominating win at Phoenix last weekend and needs to finish just 25th or better to seal the deal.
Every driver in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup has been eliminated from the fourth position in the point’s standings down, and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon will be eliminated on the first lap.
Martin, on the other hand, is the only one who can make things interesting for the three-time champ, but it isn’t going to be easy. He basically needs to either win the race and have Johnson finish worse than 25th; win the race, lead a lap and have Johnson finish worse than 27th; or win the race, lead the most laps and have Johnson finish 28th or better.
Not a problem, right?
Well, it’s not like Martin hasn’t overcome a 100-plus point lead by Johnson in a single race before. He’s actually done it nine times, including once (2005) at Homestead-Miami when Martin picked up 132 points on Johnson, the most Martin has ever overcome against his teammate. He also picked up 116 points on Johnson two weeks ago at Texas Motor Speedway when a wreck ended Johnson’s chances of a top-10 finish there. As a matter of fact, since the 2005 run at Homestead-Miami, Martin has overcome the large deficit four times, three of them during the 2007 campaign.
Johnson has also finished worse than 25th 47 times over his 290-race career
But if history has any say this time around, it will be Johnson popping the champagne in Victory Lane in what has become a yearly event for the nine-year veteran.
According to NASCAR’s statistical services, since the current points system was instituted in 1975, the largest deficit overcome on the final race of the season was just 30 points by Alan Kulwicki in 1992 when he overtook Davey Allison at Georgia for the title.
But anything can happen on Sunday, and in the world of NASCAR, one learns not to start the celebrating until the race is over.
As previously stated, Johnson should be the 2009 champion when all is said and done, and then the talk will begin as to just where he fits into the NASCAR history books.
Did You Know?
HMS owner Rick Hendrick is in line to win his ninth series own championship, which will tie him with Petty Enterprises for the most all-time.
Either Johnson or Martin, both HMS drivers, are guaranteed the championship this weekend, and Hendrick will have title No. 9 no matter what happens on Sunday.
Petty Enterprises actually won 10 driver championships, according to NASCAR’s statistical services, but the team’s 1954 championship was a driver/owner title when Lee Petty won the driver championship and Herb Thomas took the owner title.
Sunday’s championship will also be Hendrick’s 12th national series title, which is good enough for most all-time, one better than Richard Childress’ 11.
Here is a look at Hendrick’s owner titles: Jeff Gordon (1995, 1997, 1998, 2001); Terry Labonte (1996); Johnson 2006-08); either Johnson or Martin (2009); and Jack Sprague (1997, 1999, 2001) on the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
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Rank…Driver … Points … Behind
1. … Jimmie Johnson … 6492 … ---
2. … Mark Martin … 6384 … 108
3. … Jeff Gordon … 6323 … 169
4. … Kurt Busch … 6281 … 211
5. … Tony Stewart … 6207 … 285
6. … Juan Montoya … 6203 … 289
7. … Greg Biffle … 6171 … 321
8. … Denny Hamlin … 6140 … 352
9. … Ryan Newman … 6081 … 411
10. … Kasey Kahne … 6016 … 476
11. … Carl Edwards … 5972 … 520
12. … Brian Vickers … 5826 … 666
