Mike Hembree: Beat Jimmie Johnson? Here’s how
Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson celebrates after locking up his fourth straight NASCAR Cup championship with a fifth-place finish in Sunday night's Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. // David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
Related stories: Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson wins record-setting fourth consecutive Cup title
What others say about Jimmie Johnson’s fourth consecutive NASCAR Cup title
COMMENTARY
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – The mercy killing is over. As expected, Jimmie Johnson rolled over the pretenders to the Sprint Cup crown Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, joining athletes like half-man/half-fish Michael Phelps in the virtually unbeatable category.
It will be a long winter for everybody else who drives a Sprint Cup car and every other team that hopes to redirect the hottest energy of the sport along a road that doesn’t include the No. 48. For four years, Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and the talented folks who build and maintain their cars have been brilliantly successful.
If anybody hopes to challenge Johnson and the rest of the 48 juggernaut in 2010, it’s clear some serious offseason work is ahead.
The task seems almost insurmountable, given the results of the previous four seasons, but there are numerous approaches that could work. Among them:
· Find the next Chad Knaus. He’s out there somewhere. He’s waiting for the opportunity. He can carry the same techno-load Knaus carries. He can be the same sort of fierce team leader. He can win. His name might even be Darian Grubb.
· If the next Knaus can’t be located, go into negotiations and hire the original Chad Knaus. Bring a big check. It’ll be worth it.
· Find more money and hire more people. Hendrick Motorsports employs 500. This is sort of like being “outlawyered." Big numbers don’t always mean success, but you can make a really good argument that throwing a boatload of people at a project can work. Hendrick is a prime example. It isn’t decisions by committee. It’s work by good people who report to smart leaders.
· Partner with a large home improvement business. Seems to pay benefits. And the freebies – hammers, wrenches – are cool.
· Divert Johnson’s attention. Buy him a yacht. Give him a one-way ticket to Paris. Encourage him to try Formula One.
· If nothing else works, we can borrow a suggestion from Ryan Newman, one of the Chase For The Sprint Cup drivers who watched Johnson zoom past this year: Dynamite. Take down the 48/24 Hendrick shop. Dismantle the power base. Send the team cars up in smoke.
He was just kidding. We think.
