Sports
Johnson so close he can taste it
Borrowing the immortal words of the late, great, Dandy Don Meredith, the former Dallas Cowboy and Monday Night Football announcer -- "turn out the lights, this party's over."
And it means an unprecedented fourth straight Sprint Cup points championship for Jimmie Johnson.
OK, so there still is the formality of three more races to run before the season is over. But Johnson's 184-point margin from second-place Mark Martin is next to insurmountable. Barring perhaps three straight blown engines or early exits due to accidents, the championship is returning to Johnson's team.
"We're in as good of a position as we could have ever hoped to have been in," Johnson said. "But I'm really trying to keep my head down and keep this team focused on doing the job the next three weeks."
You believe it when you hear it, but it's hard to imagine Johnson and his team will be able to have quite the same intensity at this point.
It's sort of like a basketball team that gets way ahead. It's hard to go at it with quite the same intensity and invariably, the lead stops building.
Unlike basketball, where you might pull out of a full-court press or take your starters out of the game, the strategy doesn't change that much for Johnson. That being said, he isn't likely to push quite as hard to win every week when he essentially just needs to finish races in one piece.
Or is that true?
"I feel we could win one or two races here with the tracks we have left on the schedule, and we just need to keep going.
"What got us in this position was racing hard and going for every point, and until it's mathematically locked up, we're going to keep that mindset and try to get every point that we can."
Four years ago, it was almost unimaginable a driver could think of winning four straight championships, especially given that more cars than ever are capable of winning a race on a given week. (Jamie McMurray became the 15th different driver to win a race with his triumph at Talladega last week, a series record for different winners in a season.)
Johnson is showing that perhaps the parity doesn't apply to his team.
"I'm blown away and honored and enjoying every minute of what we're doing here, and hopeful that we can do it right these next three races and do something that's never been done before," he said.
Texas time
Right in the heart of football season in football country, auto racing converges on the Texas Motor Speedway for Sunday's Dickies 500. Tickets still are available and range from $20 to $135. They are available at www.texasmotorspeedway.com/Tickets/.
The Sprint Cup race starts at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, with Nationwide racing Saturday and the Camping World Truck Series Friday night.
Notes of note
As great as Johnson's lead is in the Sprint Cup Series, Kyle Busch is even further ahead on the Nationwide Series. He is 215 ahead of second-place Carl Edwards and 257 clear of Brad Keselowski ... Jeff Gordon broke a 16-race winless streak at Texas by winning the April race ... Bobby Labonte is the lone Texas-born driver in this weekend's field.
Christian Potts 366-3531 cpotts@normantranscript.com
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