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Welcome to the Cup Scene Daily for
Vol. III,No.VIXII FINAL EDITION
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Quote Of The Day: 7 DAY ARCHIVE SundayMonday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday INSIDE TODAY'S ISSUE: 10 drivers remain in Roush's “Race for the Ride” Knaus wins crew chief award Phoenix sold out Rudd crew wins weekly award "NASCAR Nation" to replace "Totally NASCAR" in 2005 Wallace will announce two-driver lineup, new sponsor Friday Zebras stolen from Atlanta Motor Speedway Court settlement hits SMI bottom line Ward gets nod as No. 10 truck chief Wishes: Shorter races and props for the old guys Top ten heading to Phoenix Cup Scene readers speak out
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Happy Birthday: Charley Pressley Jimmie Johnson is back in the chase for his first Nextel Cup title because of an unbelieveable streak of three consecutive victories. Johnson has shot eight spots in the standings and now trails points leader Kurt Busch by just 59 points.
And if last fall's final stretch is an indication of what to expect from here on out, the title could be Johnson's. In the final six races last season, Johnson scored six top-three finishes - three seconds and three thirds. In winning the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway Sunday, Johnson said he had 10 angels watching over his car, referring to a plane crash in which several key members of Hendrick Motorsports perished en route to Martinsville, Va., two weeks ago. There is no doubt that Johnson is focused on bringing the Nextel Cup crown to his car owner, Rick Hendrick. The driver also is just one win away from tying NASCAR's modern-era (1972-present) record of four straight victories, which has only been accomplished seven times. "When we have to go out there and work for it and fight for it and really get in the ditches and dig in, that is where this team comes in and really shows what we are made of," Johnson said. "I look forward to these final three races and, to be honest with you, I want to win the championship, but I want to win the next race. "The points have closed up, it is anybody's championship, and we are going to try to win six [races] in a row. I don't want to sound cocky or anything, but the mind-set that we have had, of going out and taking care of business, has worked." Despite leading the standings for most of the summer - building a 232-point lead after winning at Pocono in August - he was bitten by three straight engine failures that wiped out his comfortable margin and robbed his team of valuable momentum. Now, the momentum is back in a big way. "When we had a 230-some points lead and we were in a position to defend, it just fell through our fingers and something off the wall happens," said Johnson. "But when we play offense, we are as good as anybody." That fact has not been lost on his fellow competitors, including his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jeff Gordon, a four-time Cup champion. Gordon is third in the standings, 72 points behind. "Jimmie deserves to be in it," said Gordon. "They were so strong all year long, leading in the points. When they got into trouble, they just went for broke and it's certainly been paying off with three wins in a row. "That's what's going to get you back into it, and it certainly has. But the trouble that all the guys in the points have, it's anybody's race now." Chad Knaus, Johnson's crew chief, said that if the team could win at Atlanta under such trying circumstances, it should send a warning signal to the other teams competing for the championship that it will be a factor in the title run. "Three weeks ago, we were, for all intents and purposes, out of the championship," Knaus said. "for the simple fact we had some problems and we'd fallen out of some races. We were relying on somebody else to have some problems. Those guys have had some problems. "Fortunately we were there and ready to capitalize on them. "The biggest triumph for Hendrick Motorsports [last] week was the simple fact that we were just able to get to the race track," Knaus said. "It's a testimony to Hendrick Motorsports, and the people that we hired to do their jobs just did them. "That let us concentrate and focus on what we were supposed to do, which was to come [to Atlanta] and try to win the race." "I'm worried about Phoenix and figuring out how to win that race." Knaus added. "We didn't win the race last year,but we were pretty close. I'd like to win it this year."
Knaus knew that his driver was putting his team back in the thick of things in Sunday's Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 in Atlanta. "I told Jimmie when there were 11 laps to go right before we took the green flag, 'Buddy, we've got to finish this race. I want that trophy as badly as you do, but we've just got to finish this race. For big-picture reasons it's going to be very important.' "You have to do that, you have to make everybody aware of what's going on. "But we're racing race by race right now." Johnson said it is not all about winning his first championship. He wants to be able to honor the families of the team members who were lost in the plane crash and help the team heal. "I definitely feel like this is some type of medication," Johnson said. "In a weird way, it will help the healing process. First and foremost, it will put a smile on everyone's faces. "The win [at Atlanta] put a smile on the face of all the families involved. That is a start for all of us." So with three races to go and the championship well within his grasp, Johnson and his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team are not headed into overdrive in a hot pursuit of Busch. Instead, they're staying in the same low-key mode they went into after Kansas. "The best thing this team can do is to act and feel like we did three weeks ago, (like) we don't have a shot at it and we just need to go out there and win races," Johnson said. "That's worked for us. When we play offense, we do a lot better job than when we play defense. "That's the way we're going to finish out the year. We're going to try not to say the c-word too many times." Who would blame Johnson for refusing to look too far ahead? He was the most dominant driver for the first seven months of the season, and had NASCAR not changed its points system this year, Johnson likely would have run away with the title. Armed with a cushy 232-point lead following his Aug. 1 win at Pocono, Johnson and his team would have been able to sit back in cruise control and conservatively try to protect the lead. That's the formula drivers have used in the past, and that's how Matt Kenseth won his title last year. But it made for a non-eventful championship race, and NASCAR changed the rules to add a little excitement. Under the new system, the slate is wiped clean after 26 races and the eligible drivers are separated by five-point increments. So Johnson and his team played around with setups and strategy, and ended up losing the big lead before the 10-race playoffs began. He started the playoffs in second place, trailing teammate Jeff Gordon by five points. Then disaster struck. A 37th-place finish at Talladega and a 32nd at Kansas dropped Johnson to ninth in the standings, 247 points behind Busch. Of course he was angry - maybe even devastated - but Johnson refused to show it publicly and stoically went home without comment. He could have spent the next few weeks blasting the system, but that's not his character. Johnson instead set out to beat it. The three consecutive wins certainly have made a difference, but Johnson needed a little help from the drivers in front of him in the standings. He got it last week in Atlanta when Busch blew an engine, Gordon had mechanical problems and Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrecked. It's all come full circle, and even Johnson acknowledges control now is back in his hands. "Technically it is, but mentally, we're not going to look at that," he said. "We're just going to keep doing what we're doing. We can do that for three races - just look forward, look down the road and don't look in the mirror." Aside from the strong push Busch and Earnhardt will make, Johnson also will have to battle Gordon, his friend, mentor and teammate.
Gordon, seeking his fifth title, is adamant he wants to be the one to give Rick Hendrick the championship. "As a teammate, it's great to see Jimmie and the No. 48 team doing so well right now," Gordon said. "As a competitor, we need to stop his momentum and gain some of our own. The best way to do that is to win this weekend." Going for four in a row, Johnson said, "is really special. But I don't think it's my style to sit and think about what we've accomplished. There has been so much going on in the last couple of weeks that's helped us as a team not to look at what we've done but to continue to look forward. "I think that's the best way our team works - If we're not paying attention to what took place or where we're at, things always work out better for us. "So it's been a great run of races. We'll just keep plugging away. Johnson said he likes the final three stops of the season: "They're great tracks. The last six races of the last season, we finished in the top three or top five in all of them. "If this point system were in affect last year, we would have been the champions. "So I feel good about where we are with those final races." |
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