by richard teague tinynascars@yahoo.com
This past week I received an email from one of my readers (a Jeff Gordon fan) in which they said, “God, I hope he pulls it off. I am too nervous to watch the last two races.” To which I replied, “Have a little faith, baby.” Well, I watched today’s race and saw Jeff fall even further behind, but I’ve got the faith. Next week, during the last race, I think I’ll just listen with my eyes closed. With it being either he or Johnson (since Bowyer can’t make it), Gordon needs to drive like he did the first 33 or 34 races to win the dang championship. These past couple have not been what you would call stellar performances for him. Jimmie has done his part by driving the wheels off the car. That bout with Kenseth last week on the last few laps shows that he is fearless and wants not only the trophy for the season, but for as many races as he can get.
Jimmie Johnson has matched Gordon’s second best seasons, where he had ten wins each, and is one win away to even up with Dale Earnhardt’s best of eleven wins for a year. The way Johnson has a chance to win back-to-back championships is really something else for a relatively young driver. If he was to do it for a third time in 2008… Well, let’s wait and see. I know that Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon keep slapping each other on the back for picking this rookie back in 2001 and they’re double glad he’s signed through 2010. I liked him when he started in the Lowe’s car, but didn’t really know just where the heck he came from except for two partial years with Herzog Motorsports and then one partial and one full season in the Busch series.
The story goes that after losing a sponsor in 2000, Johnson talked with Gordon about the situation. Later on that year he was signed with Hendrick on recommendation from Gordon with only 72 Busch races in 4 seasons, a single win in his last season and 3 Cup starts as well as a full time ride with Terry Labonte and Jeff Gordon in 2002. Talk about getting a good start. In his first season he got 3 wins and finished fifth in the points. In 2003 he had the same amount of victories but a better season, ending at second and losing by just 8 points with the new Chase format. Then in 2004, Johnson finished second for the year and won eight times. For 2005 he only had four wins and fell back to the 5th spot for the season. That’s a 5th , 2nd , 2nd and 5th in just his first four years.
As you know, the fifth year was his charm. He paid Matt Kenseth back, leaving him in second place as he had done in 2003, for this Cup Championship season. Whenever I see those two side-by-side on a track in the closing laps when they’re running 1st and 2nd, it makes for some real exciting racing, don’t you think? You know if (and I mean if) Johnson does win it all next week, that will be a 5-2-2-5-1-1 in finishes for him. Me being the gambler and dog track player I used to be, it gives me some numbers to play. Now my wife Ann used to pick numbers out of the air or off car license plates and the 12-5 was one of her favorite sets. She won a bunch playing them, or rather me playing them for her when I went to the track. I’m rushing down to Publix and buying a Cash Three box ten times next Sunday night.
I’ve already said that I don’t mind if Johnson does beat Gordon this year because he is one of my favorite drivers. I think I need to remind y’all just who my favorites are. I have five guys on that list, which is probably more than most fans and maybe fewer than some, so here they are in order: Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick (surprise?), Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the fifth (which I finally admitted to last year) Tony ‘Smoke’ Stewart. Yeah yeah, I know they are all top guys, but you have to know that I chose all of them either from Busch or their rookie Cup season. Jeff, as I said, because I met him early on. Kevin, because he was Dale’s replacement. Jimmie because of Gordon. Hendrick and Junior, well, we all know why we chose him.
Next Sunday I won’t have my eyes closed, they will be wide a** open watching Jeff Gordon win the NA$CAR Nextel Cup Championship. Heck, it’s just 86 points! I will not use titles for columns, like they’re doing at NA$CAR.com, such as “Eighty-six this Chase,” even if Jeff has conceded to Johnson. I will not give up, I will not lose the faith. It’s just a tactic Gordon is using to make Jimmie feel comfortable this week and into the race. The lady ain’t sung and the bell ain’t rung. Another saying I can think of right now is: it ain’t over til it’s over. But I will buy those Cash Three tickets a little early, just to be safe. I have a syndrome we old hippies seem to have. You young people don’t even know what it is, but I think it can be found in a book by Jack Margolis and Richard Clorfene titled A Child’s Garden of Grass. It’s called “CRS.“
Well folks, that is going to be all this week only because I am on a writer’s slowdown, you know, like the unions do when they what more money or better conditions, they tend to give their employers shorter efforts over longer times. Hey, it’s worked for more than a hundred years, so why not for me while I’m in my contract negotiations with my employer? Remember you can reach me at tinynascars@yahoo.com, but more importantly with just one race left this year before the long cold ‘without’ winter, If it ain’t NA$CAR, It ain’t s**t!!
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