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Blame it on Jeff Gordon.

If only he had averted his eyes from the kid in the red and white car running the perfect line around Darlington Raceway at that test session so many years ago. If only he hadn't passed his name on to team owner Rick Hendrick. If only he hadn't sat in a conference room with the chief executive officer of Lowe's, swallowed hard, and said, yeah, sure, of course the guy is capable of winning races and championships.
Gordon / Johnson
Points/Rank (full years)

Year Gordon Johnson Diff.
2002 4,607/4 4,600/5 +7
2003 4,785/4 4,932/2 -147
2004* 6,490/2 6,498/2 -8
2005* 4,174/11^ 6,406/5 -2,232
2006* 6,256/6 6,475/1 -219
2007* 6,646 6,723/1 -77
2008* 6,316 6,684/1 -368
2009*~ 6,323/3 6,492/1 -169
* Chase years
^ Didn't make Chase
~ 35 races

How different modern NASCAR history would be. How ironic that the man most responsible for unleashing Jimmie Johnson upon the world is the driver who likely would have gained the most had the once-unknown Busch driver never been unearthed.

"I'm very proud of what that team has accomplished. I'm proud to have been a part of it from the beginning," Gordon said at Homestead-Miami Speedway, site of Sunday's season finale, where Johnson likely will secure his record-breaking fourth consecutive championship on NASCAR's highest level.

"It's a bittersweet thing, because as a driver, you know, we won the championship in '01 when they ran their first race. They watched us win that championship in '01. I think maybe in '02 I finished ahead of him in points. I don't think I've finished ahead of him in points since then. It just reminds me of when the 24 team came together, the people that made that happen, how it came together, how it clicked, all the right things happening. It reminds me a lot about that. You know, I'm happy for those guys, being able to be a part of something like that."

Gordon laughs about it now, this realization that he created a monster. But without Johnson in the way, the driver of the No. 24 car unquestionably wins a fifth championship in 2007, the season when he stockpiled an amazing 30 top-10s yet fell 77 points short of the crown. He'd have a more-than-realistic shot at a sixth title this year, given that he's 61 points behind second place Mark Martin. As it stands now, though, they're all watching Johnson continue a march that may not end until the sport's greatest record is equaled.

Even Gordon, made wary of such prognostications by personal experience -- he heard plenty of talk about seven championships himself after he won his fourth and still most recent title in 2001 -- concedes the possibility given Johnson's success under the current championship format.

"Those guys are on a roll right now, and I don't really see it slowing down," Gordon said. "I think they're very capable of doing it again next year. You know, that's still just five. Seven is a big number. That's tough to get to. I remember a lot of people telling me or asking me, oh man, seven is in reach, seven is in reach. A lot changed.

"To me the only difference is, I don't compare the championships those guys won, or the ones I won, to the new championship. It's totally different. If they continue to keep the 10 races in the Chase that are in there now, I don't know if there's anybody better than the 48 team at those 10 races, those 10 tracks.

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"How 'bout some history?!" Jimmie Johnson shouted as the crossed the finish line at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

No, Johnson didn't win Sunday's Ford 400. Denny Hamlin did. But Johnson accomplished something far more significant than a victory in a single event. His fifth-place finish was more than good enough to clinch his fourth Cup Series title in a row, breaking a tie with Cale Yarborough for most consecutive championships.

"History, boys," Johnson continued. "No one ever -- ever! I don't know how to thank you guys. Thank you so much."

Johnson's title run also completed Hendrick Motorsports' sweep of the top three positions in the final standings, the first time an organization has achieved that distinction. In winning his fourth Chase, Johnson finished 141 points ahead of Mark Martin, who entered Sunday's race 108 points behind his teammate and finished 12th.

Jeff Gordon secured a third-place finish in the points with a sixth-place run.

All but lost in the hoopla surrounding Johnson's record run was Hamlin's fourth victory of the season and his second in the Chase. Surging into the lead after a restart on Lap 222 of 267, Hamlin crossed the stripe 2.632 seconds ahead of Jeff Burton, who posted his second consecutive runner-up finish and his fourth top-10 in a row.

Burton's Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick ran third, and Kurt Busch locked up fourth in the Chase standings with a fourth-place finish.

After Hamlin did a celebratory burnout on the frontstretch, and the championship stage was rolled into position, Johnson did an elaborate burnout of his own that started near the entrance to pit road and continued down the front straightaway.

After the smoke settled, Johnson embraced the enormity of what he had just accomplished.

"The truth of it is, to do something that's never been done in this sport -- to love the sport like I do and respect it like I do -- and the greats: Petty, Earnhardt, Gordon ... to do something they've never done is so awesome. To win four championships in eight years, what this team has done ... I don't know where to start. It's unbelievable."

With his niece Alesha Gainey facing an emergency liver transplant in North Carolina, team owner Rick Hendrick wasn't at Homestead to celebrate Johnson's record and several others that accrued to the organization. Hendrick Motorsports won its ninth owners' championship, tying Petty Enterprises for most all time.

In addition, Hendrick won its aggregate 12th owners' championship in NASCAR's top three national series, a NASCAR best. Crew chief Chad Knaus also extended his record number of consecutive Cup titles to four.

"Heavy hearts and prayers with the boss man and the family," Martin said, paying homage to Hendrick. "That sort of takes a little bit of the shine off of it. But congratulations to Hendrick Motorsports, to Jimmie Johnson -- Superman -- and to my team."

Johnson never let up in pursuit of the championship. He raced hard for wins in nine of the 10 Chase races, and for all 400 miles at Homestead, where he threatened to try to run down the leaders to better his eventual fifth-place finish.

It made for a sometimes testy drive into history for Johnson, who was at times annoyed at rival drivers and even Gordon, the mentor and teammate who helped him land his job with Hendrick Motorsports.

Nobody gave Johnson anything, either. The other drivers raced hard around him all day, making Johnson earn every point.

After several tense laps chasing Gordon for fifth place -- Johnson at one point complained over his radio, "I let him go, now why won't he just go somewhere!" -- he asked Knaus if he had enough time to catch Hamlin and the leaders.

Hamlin, who collected his eighth career victory, won from the 38th starting position in a No. 11 Toyota that improved as daylight turned to night, thanks to crew chief Mike Ford's astute adjustments to the car. He managed to keep pace with Johnson at times during the Chase but fell out of contention with three DNFs.

"We're going to be there, I promise you," Hamlin said. "I promise you, the next couple years, we're going to win the championship. But right now, there's no one more deserving than Jimmie."

Even Gordon, who won four quick titles early in his career but has been shut out since 2001, is impressed.

"As a competitor, that Johnson ticks me off. As a friend, teammate, fellow car owner, they're amazing," Gordon said. "I never thought in my career, in my lifetime, I'd see somebody win four in a row. To see it happening right in front of your eyes makes it even more extraordinary."

Added Burton: "If you would have told me four years ago that someone would win four championships in a row, I would have told you you were crazy."

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Rusty Wallace Racing will switch from Chevrolet to Toyota next season, with Steve Wallace and Brendan Gaughan running the Nos. 66 and 62 Camrys, respectively, in NASCAR's Nationwide Series.

In addition, team owner Rusty Wallace has signed a personal services agreement under which the former Cup champion and current ESPN analyst will represent the Toyota brand nationally. Wallace owns a Toyota dealership in Morristown, Tenn.

"Our team's decision on manufacturers involved input from a lot of people within the organization," Wallace said. "We decided that, at the end of the day, our goal as a race team is simple: to win races and championships. Thus, we all had to take a long look at which manufacturer partner could best help us reach that goal."

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Springfield-based Bass Pro Shops will have a southwest Missourian driving its NASCAR Sprint Cup vehicle for the 2010 season.

Joplin native Jamie McMurray will be behind the wheel of the No. 1 Bass Pro Chevrolet as he joins Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. He replaces Martin Truex Jr., who has been sponsored by Bass Pro since 2003. Truex is leaving Earnhardt Ganassi for Michael Waltrip Racing next season.

McMurray is a seven-year NASCAR veteran, and his career began with what was then Chip Ganassi Racing in 2002, when he took the checkered flag at Lowe's Motor Speedway in his second career race.

"We are proud to be able to continue our long relationship with Teresa Earnhardt and Chip Ganassi and we are also excited that a fine young feller from our home state, Jamie McMurray, will be our driver," Bass Pro Shops's Johnny Morris said in a news release.

The 2010 season will be Bass Pro's fifth as a primary sponsor on the NASCAR circuit.
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One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team. Kareem Abdul-Jabbor http://twitter.com/efusjonmmi

Teamplayer: Once who unites others toward a shared destiny through information & ideas, empowering others & developing trust. D Kinlaw http://twitter.com/efusjonmmi

The greatest danger a team faces isn't that it won't become successful, but that it will, and then cease to improve. Mark Sanborn http://twitter.com/efusjonmmi

The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team. John Wooden
http://twitter.com/efusjonmmi

One day, it is going to end. Jimmie Johnson knows this. One day someone else will be the dominant driver on the Sprint Cup circuit, and Johnson will be chasing him, just as everyone is currently chasing Johnson. Although it seems difficult to believe now, as the Hendrick Motorsports driver and his invincible No. 48 team charge toward their fourth consecutive championship, the cyclical nature of NASCAR will at some point inevitably topple them from the summit.

There's a reason why, over nearly six decades of competition, only one man was able to win three straight championships. There's a reason why, before Johnson, nobody seriously threatened to win four in a row.
johnson2.193.jpg
"
When that day comes, I hope I can handle it as well as the guys I've respected growing up have, because it won't be easy. Losing sucks. We all hate it.
"
JIMMIE JOHNSON

They say the only constant in NASCAR is change, and over time change will wear anyone down -- even Johnson, although right now he looks like he could go on winning titles forever. At some point, he'll take a step backward, begin to decline. He knows this as well as anyone else. Mentally, he's even begun to prepare for it.

"I'm well aware that things have gone great for the last three years. I'm obviously hoping for a fourth," he said. "But at some point I won't be that guy. It will be somebody else. Somebody else will be doing it. I've always been aware of those things through my career. I've been very fortunate to race with and be mentored by other champions and guys that have been very successful. To watch how graceful they've been, [motocross legend] Rick Johnson, [ASA champion] Gary St. Amant, Jeff Gordon, there have been a lot of guys through the years that have worked with me. I've been aware of that, and I've always in the back of my mind said, 'That's how I want to kind of handle things, to be and act.' I do pay attention to that. I am aware of it. When that day comes, I hope I can handle it as well as the guys I've respected growing up have, because it won't be easy. Losing sucks. We all hate it."

And yet, it may be a while still before Johnson has to deal with it. A 25th-place finish Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway will net him an expected fourth straight crown, and he'll undoubtedly be the favorite to win his fifth next season. Johnson is in the midst of a historic, unprecedented stretch of success, one which defies all the usual NASCAR caveats about how difficult it is to stay on top. Today, Johnson and his team look every bit as flawless and as bulletproof as they did in 2006, an eternity ago by the standards of this sport. It could be years and years still before they come back to the field. And by then, this former unknown from El Cajon, Calif., could be well on his way to becoming the greatest NASCAR driver of all time.

Usurping the holy trinity of Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, and Jeff Gordon? Should Johnson take care of business on Sunday, it's absolutely and completely possible. No question, getting there would be fraught with difficulty, and clearly Johnson's smooth, unflappable style makes all this look much easier than it really is. But everything, from his age to the state of the sport today, is on his side. Given what he's already accomplished, and the potential he still has in front of him, there are no limits to what he may achieve. continue>>>

Much has been made, and rightly so, of the record. It stood for nearly three decades, owned solely by one simple, private man who lived on a South Carolina plantation, and as the years passed it came to be seen as unbreakable. And then came this unknown from Southern California, this former dirt biker and off-road racer, who attacked his sport with a surgical precision and an unflappable cool. Cale Yarborough and Jimmie Johnson stand side-by-side in history, the only drivers to win three consecutive championships on NASCAR's premier division, but only for a few more days.

Sunday, that all changes. Barring an unforeseen and uncharacteristic collapse, Johnson will become the first driver to claim four consecutive crowns on what is now known as the Sprint Cup circuit. The evening at Homestead-Miami Speedway will be capped with the now-familiar sight of No. 48 team members holding up index fingers and spraying champagne. Johnson will move into a chapter of his own writing, as his four consecutive championships -- and counting, given that he'll be favored to win another next year -- take their rightful place among the greatest accomplishments the sport has ever seen.

But the record is only part of it. Four championships put Johnson in elite company, and would do so even if they had not come one after the other. At NASCAR's highest level, it's a plateau only three other men have reached. Even the numeral itself carries a great deal of significance; in some cultures the number four is a symbol of wholeness and completion, something that seems all too appropriate in this case. There are four seasons, four directions, four elements, four sides to a square.

And soon, for Johnson, there will be four championships. In one way he stands alone, but in another he has company. For in NASCAR, fourth titles have proven noteworthy for reasons other than just the number. Richard Petty's fourth championship season in 1972 ushered in the era of national sponsorship. Dale Earnhardt's fourth title in 1990 came amid one of the most gut-wrenching championship races the old points system ever produced. Jeff Gordon's fourth title in 2001 proved that he could stand on his own.

Now here comes Johnson, with his four-in-a-row record-breaker, ready to join an exclusive club. But he's not the charter member, mind you. As far as four championships are concerned, there are those who came before him -- drivers who may not have won their titles consecutively, but whose quartet of crowns set the bar equally as high. And it all begins with a snowy day in Chicago, a $250,000 handshake, and the man they call the King. source>>>

Welcome to the 500 Home Run Club®, LLC, the exclusively authorized, internationally recognized organization founded to celebrate the awe inspiring achievements of the greatest home run hitters in baseball history. The club operates with the endorsement and support of both Major League Baseball and the Baseball Hall of Fame.

A NASCAR tripleheader at Texas Motor Speedway and the season finale for the World of Outlaws headline the racing weekend's calendar.

The 1.5-mile TMS track hosts all three of NASCAR's top series this weekend highlighted by Sunday's Sprint Cup Series Dickies 500.

Jimmie Johnson carries a 184-point lead over Mark Martin in the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings heading into the Lone Star State weekend and needs to average a finish of 10th or better over the final three races of the season to lock up an unprecedented fourth straight series title.

Jeff Gordon won last April's visit to Texas with Johnson coming home second.

RacingOne will have comprehensive coverage from Texas all weekend long beginning with Friday's Live Qualifying session for the Dickies 500 beginning at 4:40 p.m. (ET).

Later that night the Camping World Truck Series tackles Texas for the WinStar World Casino 350. SPEED and MRN will provide live television and radio coverage beginning at 9 p.m. (ET).

Saturday afternoon the Nationwide Series will be in action at Texas for the O'Reilly Challenge, slated for a 12:45 p.m. (ET) green flag. ESPN2 and PRN have the TV and radio coverage.

Sunday's Dickies 500 will take the green flag at 3:15 p.m. (ET) with live coverage set for ABC and PRN.

Stay with RacingOne for the latest from the Lone Star State including late breaking news, results, statistics, photos, audio, video and post-race analysis.

The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway hosts the season finale for the World of Outlaws Sprints Car Series as well as the late models. Donny Schatz leads Jason Meyers by 19 points heading into the final weekend of racing which includes shows Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. SPEED will air Saturday night's finale at 9 p.m. (ET). RacingOne will be trackside in Charlotte for the latest.

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IndyCar Racing League driver Danica Patrick is finally going to get a dose of NASCAR. She's apparently very close to signing a two-year deal with the team run by Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: JR Motorsports, according to ESPN.

The negotiations are supposedly "in the final phase" and it will mean that Patrick takes a NASCAR wheel for the first time when next February's Daytona 500 rolls around.

So she'll race full-time for Andretti Green Racing in IndyCar and part-time for JR in NASCAR. Both Earnhardt and Patrick have some sponsorship dollars from GoDaddy.com.

Sports Illustrated was reporting that Patrick was looking to snag $300,000 per race in NASCAR, no mater if it's Nationwide or Camping World Truck Series races. But it's not likely that she's getting that kind of dough.

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The Dam Letter This is an actual letter sent to a man named Ryan DeVries

For the first time since July 7, 2007, Jamie McMurray found himself in the right place at the right time.

Jimmie Johnson, on the other hand, can't seem to put himself in a wrong position -- even when he thinks he has.

McMurray was at the front of the field in Sunday's Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway when the inevitable "big one," a 13-car wreck off Turn 4, caused the sixth caution of the race and froze the running order with just more than one lap left. All McMurray had to do was complete the white flag lap to claim his first NASCAR Sprint Cup victory since he edged Kyle Busch by .005 seconds at Daytona in 2007.

Johnson, the series points leader, wallowed around in the back of the field for most of the afternoon, but a fortuitous stop for fuel under caution for Ryan Newman's unnerving crash on Lap 185 helped him get to the finish line past a score of cars that either wrecked or ran out of gas.

Johnson leaves Talladega with a 184-point advantage over second-place Mark Martin, whose car hurtled through the air, flipped and slammed into the frontstretch wall during the final melee on an otherwise ho-hum day -- thanks to a stern prerace warning against bump-drafting and push-drafting from NASCAR -- that turned ugly in the closing laps at the 2.66-mile superspeedway.

Kasey Kahne overcame a start from the rear of the field because of an engine change to finish second. Rookie Joey Logano came home third. Because of the late caution for the wreck during which Newman's Chevrolet flip once end-over-end and land on its roof, the race went three laps beyond its scheduled distance of 188 laps, and McMurray was one of many drivers worried about running out of fuel.

"I saw the guys wreck behind me, and I didn't know if you had to take the white (flag) in order (to win the race) -- I wasn't real sure what the rules were -- and the 9 (Kahne) went to the outside because he saw the same issue, but I just moved up and kind of tried to block him," said McMurray, who won the third Cup race of his career. "As soon as I crossed the start-finish line, I shut the engine off and pushed the clutch in and coasted around as far as I could.

"What an exciting day. It's been a long time since I've won, and I want to assure every fan out there that I appreciate this as much as anybody. So thanks to all my fans who have stuck with me. I just can't believe it's here again."

As late as the final restart, which took place on Lap 190 after a 12-minute, 34-second red-flag period for Newman's wreck, Johnson was resigned to a finish in the 20s, where he was running after pitting for fuel right before NASCAR threw the red flag.

"From where we were with the red flag to where we finished -- I'm still in shock," said Johnson, who can clinch his record fourth straight title by finishing 10th or better in the final three races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. "I can't believe that it worked out. I can't believe that that many guys ran out of fuel and put themselves in that position. We almost stayed out.

"It was such a relief to finish and make up points. ... I do feel bad that the guys crashed coming to the finish, and we got wrecked cars. I was really concerned for Mark, because when I looked in the mirror I saw the 5 roof number tumbling and flipping and then it hit the outside fence. I hate to see things take place that way.

"So the crash part, yeah. But making up points on them, that's what we're here to do. I wish it would have been under fuel circumstances not under a crash, for sure. But we'll take them."

Note: McMurray's victory was the first for a Ford and the first for Roush Fenway Racing since Matt Kenseth won the first two races of the season. McMurray is looking for a ride for next season because of a NASCAR mandate that requires Roush Fenway to pare its roster from five teams to four.

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Whatever slim chance the rest of the Chase for the Sprint Cup field had of making major inroads into Jimmie Johnson's points lead pretty much ran out of gas in the closing laps of Sunday's Amp Energy 500.

Mired at the back of the pack with only a handful of laps remaining, Johnson was almost certain his conservative strategy was about to backfire in a big way. Instead, just before NASCAR officials threw the red flag to extricate Ryan Newman from his destroyed car on Lap 184, Johnson was able to duck onto pit road for a splash of fuel.
Autostock
Sound Off

Jimmie Johnson talks about his strategy at Talladega and his surprising finish.

* Watch

Once again, it was crew chief Chad Knaus who came to the rescue.

"To be honest with you, the strategies completely backfired," Johnson said. "The only thing that saved our butts was Chad's decision for fuel. We were in big trouble -- 25th or something on that red flag -- so all the credit goes to Chad and making us come down pit road and put some fuel in that thing. That was really the strategy that did it."

Fellow contenders Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon and Juan Montoya thought they had enough fuel for the remaining distance, but when the engines were refired, they found that wasn't the case. Up and down pit road, many crew chiefs realized the same thing, and several cars rolled or were pushed to their stalls for refueling. So when the race restarted, Johnson suddenly found himself in the top 10.

And when Kurt Busch was tapped by Brad Keselowski, setting off a 13-car melee on the frontstretch just as the white flag was unfurled -- collecting Martin, Gordon and Montoya in the process -- Johnson not only escaped Talladega's clutches, but piled up a bigger lead on his closest competition.

"I'm still in shock," Johnson said. "I can't believe that it worked out. I can't believe that many guys ran out of fuel and put themselves in that position. We almost stayed out."

Not bad for a guy who realized his wait-and-see strategy wasn't working to his satisfaction as the laps wound down.

"With about six [laps] to go, that's the last time I remember [Knaus] giving me a number of laps to go," Johnson said. "It dawned on me that we were in a bad position."

At that point, Johnson knew his options on the track were becoming extremely limited.

"They were three-wide in front of me, nowhere to go and you're just stuck," he said. "You hope that your lane moves forward a little bit. If it does, you pass four cars, five cars, that's about it.

"Then the inside lane or middle lane comes surging forward. And I knew I was in big trouble then. You could see guys pushing and shoving, and wondering if the big wreck was going to take place. But then I'm like, 'I can't be conservative now and try to miss it because if this thing goes green like it looks, we're in even more trouble.' "

At the finish, Johnson's focus was split between the points battle and making sure his Hendrick teammates were OK, especially Martin, whose car flipped before landing on its wheels.

"I do feel bad that the guys crashed coming to the finish and we've got wrecked cars," Johnson said. "I was really concerned for Mark, because when I looked in the mirror, I saw the No. 5 roof number tumbling and flipping and then it hit the outside fence. I hate to see things take place that way."

This was the race that Johnson and Knaus had targeted on their racing calendars well before the start of this year's Chase as a bellweather. On Friday, Johnson admitted he'd be happy to come away from Talladega Superspeedway with the same lead over Martin that he had coming in. Things couldn't have turned out much better, as he's now 184 points ahead of Martin, 192 in front of Gordon and 239 clear of Montoya with three races remaining. Still, Johnson isn't taking anything for granted.

"I'm not going to let up and lose focus to the job I need to do and allow the championship to be in the forefront of my mind until it's mathematically locked up," he said. "I can still lose 165 points next week if I miss a shift and blow the engine at the start of the Texas race and Mark has a perfect day.

"So with all that in mind, yes, I am feeling much better about things. I was so concerned about this race. I thought I was going to lose points with about three or four [laps] to go. So to have it turn around and leave with points, I didn't expect it.

"It's a very, very good situation we're in."

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