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PITPASS: Martin’s time to shine

by Timothy J. Raub
Weekender Correspondent

NASCAR fans were waiting for this moment throughout the first four races of the 2009 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

On Sunday, those same fans got exactly what they were waiting for — in a big way.

Jimmie Johnson, the three-time defending Sprint Cup champion, held off Chase points leader Mark Martin, and in the process, claimed his spot atop the points standings.

It is still way too early to hand Johnson an unprecedented fourth straight title, but with the halfway point of this season’s Chase just one race away, the champ is writing the storyline for one heck of a cinematic ending. Martin is still most certainly in this thing, as are the surprising Juan Pablo Montoya, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon, while Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards are hanging on by a thread, but this is the time of year when Johnson shines.

This is the time of year when Johnson puts himself in a category all his own and establishes himself as a superhero, ala Mariano Rivera, where domination in the postseason has become the staple of his career.

Heading into the halfway point of the Chase, Johnson is exactly where he wants to be and exactly where he needs to be.

He’s 12 points ahead of teammate Martin heading to a track — Lowe’s Motor Speedway — where he’s been able to dominate with five wins all-time — including a string of four straight between 2004 and 2005, which is just one victory short of the all-time record shared by Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip.

This is nearly the same point where Johnson took the Chase lead for good a year ago — he actually took the lead after the third Chase race before going on to hold off second-place Edwards by 69 points — and with the likes of Lowe’s, Martinsville and Phoenix still ahead, this may just be setting the stage for title No. 4 for Johnson. He’s won the last three Chase races at Martinsville and has won the last two in Phoenix. Now, this isn’t to say that Martin can’t retake the lead at some point down the stretch, and if there is anyone who’s going to do it, it’s going to be Martin.

Over the first four Chase races this season, Martin is averaging a race finish of 3.5, which is tied for the best with Montoya but only three-tenths of a point ahead of Johnson. Martin can still pick up championship No. 1 of his lengthy and storied career, but it isn’t going to be easy.

One can’t leave the door open for a driver like Johnson, and, as earlier stated, it is going to take a lot to push him back out of the top spot and close that door.

Martin can still do it, but it isn’t going to be easy.

NEW ON THE TUBE

SPEED TV’s new nightly NASCAR show, “NASCAR Race Hub,” premiered on Monday night with special guest Richard Petty on the set ahead of NASCAR’s much anticipated announcement of its inaugural Hall of Fame class.

The 30-minute studio show airs at 7:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday on the network with co-hosts Krista Voda and Adam Alexander talking everything NASCAR.