Waid's World
A NASCAR BLOG BY Steve Waid
Rattle Jimmie Johnson’s cage? That’s not happening
Throughout the news conferences for the contenders in NASCAR's Chase For The Sprint Cup at Martinsville, veteran motorsports writer Mike Mulhern focused nearly all of his questions on one subject.
He asked virtually all of the drivers if it wasn’t about time for them to become more aggressive, to, in effect, “rattle Johnson’s cage” in an effort to sidetrack his obvious dominance in the Chase?
After all, Mulhern pointed out, a driver like Dale Earnhardt would challenge the top contender in any way possible. He wouldn’t be afraid to rough him up on the track or even attempt mind games. Given the situation, if it fell to him, he’d do something.
I’ve known ol’ Mike for a lot of years. He knows racing and is darn good at what he does. When it comes to the issues of the day he can certainly stir the stew. When he asked Johnson’s rivals if it was time for them to get rough, he might have done that again.
But he had a point.
Given the situation going into Martinsville where Johnson was No. 1 in the standings with a 90-point pad over teammate Mark Martin - the biggest lead after five races in the Chase’s history – perhaps indeed the time had come for Johnson to be knocked around one way or another.
Mulhern may have stirred the stew, but the drivers weren’t about to taste it.
To a man they said that they were going to race Johnson hard, if the circumstances so dictated, but they were not going to deliberately do anything to “rattle his cage.”
This was the expected answer, of course. I suspect Mulhern would agree.
First, no driver, especially one in the Chase, is going to court NASCAR’s wrath when it comes to rough driving.
Second, at Martinsville, the only drivers with any shot to overtake Johnson were his Hendrick Motorsports teammates – Martin, Jeff Gordon and to a lesser extent, Tony Stewart, whose Stewart-Hass team receives engine and technical support from Hendrick.
I can’t imagine any of them biting the hand that feeds them. Can you?
At Martinsville, Johnson, who had won five of six races there prior to the Tums Fast Relief 500, finished second to Denny Hamlin.
But in so doing he expanded his points lead to 118 over Martin, 150 over Gordon and 192 over Stewart.
OK, given that, does the opportunity to rattle Johnson’s cage still exist with just four races remaining in the Chase?
Perhaps. But then, who’s going to do it?
The answer: no one.
For the conspiracy theorists who suggest that a team, or teams, out of the Chase could be paid a handsome sum to knock Johnson out of his quest for a fourth consecutive title by on-track tactics, well, blabber on; it ain’t happening.
My thinking is that if Johnson escapes the wildly unpredictable race at Talladega unscathed the championship is his to win – or lose.
If he loses it won’t be because his cage was rattled. That’s simply not going to happen.
Steve Waid
Steve Waid is the veteran sports writer on the NASCAR Scene staff. He's been covering racing since 1972 and has been at NASCAR Scene for 26 years.
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Comments
5 responses to "Rattle Jimmie Johnson’s cage? That’s not happening". Post a Comment.
merryweather20 said:
Oct 26, 2009 at 2:13 PMYou must have missed Biffles radio chatter at Lowe's all he was talking about was messing with the 48.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportTammy said:
Oct 26, 2009 at 2:38 PMBiffle wanted to mess with the 48? Might help if were racing in the same zip code. Biffle is a joke even being in the Chase, and his 25th place finish is just about where he belongs.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportgwen_susie388 said:
Oct 26, 2009 at 8:04 PMJuan Pablo was messing with Gordon several different times during the race. Gordon got mad but didn't do anything about it. Or if he did, I didn't see it. Johnson tapped Hamlin last year for the win. Why would anyone think that Hamlin or Edwards wouldn't tap Johnson for the win if they were in position to do it. Kyle is not in the chase but he sure has been known to tap or block someone to try for the win. The only reason some of these might not mess with Jimmie is because of the chase and they might get points taken away. I believe in the right situation Montoya would definitely mess with Jimmie for the win or even for a position. Just my Opinion.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportl84somewhere said:
Oct 26, 2009 at 9:28 PMDrivers have always said that they race others the way that they race them. Johnson is a gentleman driver and the other drivers respect him. It's as simple as that.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportgwen_susie388 said:
Oct 27, 2009 at 8:53 PMI am not sure Montoya respects anyone! He made a comment one time about taking Martin out! Now that says a lot about a man!
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