Kenny Bruce: Jimmie Johnson maintains status as preseason favorite
Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson won his fourth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship in 2009. // Mark Sluder, NASCAR Scene
COMMENTARY
Now that Jimmie Johnson’s rewritten NASCAR’s record book, is there any reason to believe the Hendrick Motorsports driver shouldn’t be the odds-on favorite for 2010?
Better take a minute and chew on that one before answering. Don’t forget, it was barely a year ago that plenty of folks were listing numerous reasons Johnson wouldn’t win a record-breaking fourth consecutive championship.
Those reasons ranged from the valid to the merely wishful. Other teams such as those of Roush Fenway Racing or Richard Childress Racing stepped up in ’08 and would continue to do so in ’09; No one had won four in a row before, and it probably wouldn’t happen this time, either.
The truth of the matter is that the teams that stepped up were those within the Hendrick organization. Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon were the ones giving Johnson a run for the money, literally, by season’s end.
Roush Fenway drivers, so close a year earlier, were anything but a threat to win the Chase. Of course, at least the organization put two teams – those of Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle – in the Chase. RCR, on the other hand, failed to get a single driver in the Chase and didn’t begin to show signs of life until the last few weeks of the season.
Are the odds that one of those teams will step up and contend that much better than they were a year ago?
Can any team that got into this year’s Chase contend with the No. 48 team next year? Denny Hamlin finally appeared to find his Chase footing; Kurt Busch was steady and Juan Pablo Montoya raced as hard in the last 10 races as he had all season.
But do any of those teams have what it takes?
What about two other Chase stalwarts, Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman?
Stewart managed to come out of his first season as an owner/driver with four wins and a sixth-place finish in points. Teammate Newman didn’t find the win column, but did make the Chase and finished ninth.
“We’ve still far exceeded what everybody said we could do,” Stewart noted as the season wound down. “To be able to come out our first year and even be in the situation we’re in is pretty gratifying.”
Will simply making the Chase be enough next year, or do the gloves come off after year one?
What about teams outside the Chase? Is anyone out there worth consideration?
Can Kyle Busch, who won four times in Cup and countless more in other series, be the guy who gives Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus a run for the money?
A lot of folks think so, but that was the case in 2009 as well. And Busch came up short. You’ve got to get in before you can contend.
There are teams that can be as good as Johnson’s group on any given weekend. We’ve seen that plenty of times. But so far, there’s not been anyone who can be as good, as often.
Johnson may or may not win another championship. But heading toward 2010, it would be foolish to list him as anything other than the favorite. There’s simply no valid reason to consider him anything else.
