Title battle one to remember – under old system
Kris Johnson
Kris Johnson joined Street & Smith's Sports Group in 2003. He is Assistant Managing Editor at NASCAR Illustrated and SceneDaily.com.
Man, three races to go and what a battle we have going on to determine who the Sprint Cup champion will be 18 days hence at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Three former Cup champions separated by just 79 points! Jimmie Johnson hangs on to a tenuous seven-point lead over Stewart-Haas Racing’s Tony Stewart, but Jeff Gordon lurks just 79 points off the pace set by his Hendrick Motorsports teammate. Gordon, who won for the first time in 17 career starts this spring at Texas Motor Speedway, could leave Fort Worth with another victory and the points lead on Sunday should Johnson and Stewart find trouble on the fast and tricky 1.5-mile layout. This is shaping up as the most hotly contested championship race in …
What? Oh, that would be the scenario if the Chase For The Sprint Cup were never implemented.
As it stands, the reality is Johnson is waltzing his way to a fourth straight title with little or no drama remaining in the 2009 season. He’s up 184 points on teammate Mark Martin and 192 on Gordon, but it might as well be 600 the way his No. 48 team operates in the Chase.
This is not to suggest that NASCAR should revert back to its traditional point system. It’s a curious thing, though, and reminds me of the recurring trouble at Talladega in the sense that no matter what NASCAR does, nothing seems to work out the way the sanctioning body intends.
The reality is one team knows how to play the Chase game to perfection – and perform – when it matters most.
