Congratulations to Jimmie Johsnon

[ricklou]

Even now Nascar is unique in that many different personalites have and are making their mark on the sport. Part of what makes Nascar special is that even if you are not the Champion just by winning a race or more makes it a good year. The perception may not be the reality but many fans have much to be happy about if their driver visits victory lane. A winning driver can also be pleased that he has won at the top level of racing.

Jimmie Johsnon has not only made his mark but he has found new territory by winning 4 consecutive titles. This has been done with little fan fare as he does not seem to be very poplular and avoids controversy.

Years from now he will be remembered for taking it to the house 4 years in a row. Any way you cut it Jimmie gets it done. It is no fluke to hold a steering wheel better than anyone for so long. Amazingly Johnson is young enough to do the deal several more times. Love him or hate him, like him or not Jimmie Johsnon is a great driver and a great chamion.

In the land of a King, Jimmie Johnson has made his mark as Richard Petty happilly congratulates him for his accomplishments.

[songsmith1950]

Though begrudgingly so, I do have to congratulate Jimmie and Chad on this accomplishment. Though I wonder as to cheating on occaisions, which would not be enough to offset the overall feat, I have to give them thier due.
They did have to do this four times in a row. Nobody has ever done this and I don't believe anyone else ever will.
Congrats. At this point in Nascar, nobody can touch them.

[pb1945]

I don't see anything stopping them from 5 except some bad luck. They are the creme de creme.
Now then if jealousy and big money tears some of their support people out and some get big offers and jump ship look out that's what happens. no one is irreplaceable but sometimes it doesn't take but just a few empty holes and then allof a sudden stupid stuff begins to happen, And once the momentum turns it's hard to get it started again.
I have no problem at all giving them their due absolutely incredible feat. When you consider the competition level it's even more remarkable.
A certain amount of racing luck is involved for sure. One blown motor down the stretch you're toast. One bad set of tires that put you on the fence. Late in yesterdays race I saw sparks on the pit stop when he ran over a lug nut leaving .

Like Hendrick or not they are the bench mark right now. If you can run with'em you're going to be winning some races.

I sure hope this whole who is who and who is what at RPM can settle soon.

I'm looking forward to a good start and finish at Daytona.

pb ;D

[donmoos]

I extend congradulations to Jimmy and the Hendricks organizations.

I see alot getting in their way next year. If RCR can win 1 or 2 races and Rousch can win 1 or 2 races more.

AND if RPM can increase it's wins by 1 or 2 the whole mix will change alot.

There are so many more teams coming into competativeness. Even sharing of top 10's will make it harder for JJ to win again.

It has got to be getting harder and harder for JJ and Knaus to keep this up. All it takes is for things to happen around them. Just look at a Luck transfer from Marting to JJ.

If JJ makes it 5 in a row then there are 42 other teams that better start looking at themselves.

[ricklou]

Good points Don.

I think there are two reasons why 4 in a row happened outside of the great effort by JJ, Chad and HMS. The Chase Format allows a top running team like the 48 to back off. During the late summer they were just playing games. They did it at Michigan. Jimmie was walking away and then they ran out of gas. That decision would not have been made in a non Chase Format.

We do know that their cars are great and when you know that the car is there it is alot easier.

The second point is that the cars are different now and this plays right into HMS's hands. Their resourses and satellite teams help them stay ahead of the curve. Nascar says that the COT is supposed to save money but the reality is that HMS has an advantage with the new narrow box defined by the COT. There is something going on from an engineering aspect and HMS has it figured. I just have a feeling that if the cars were opened up chassis and aero wise that we would not see such domination.

I could be wrong, just my take on it. I also think that Chad knows something about chassis that even his team cars are not getting. Mark Martin could not get out of his own way Sunday and Gordon has been suffering from a car that goes away during long runs. It could be that Chad just has it covered and no one can stop them right now.

Johnson is young enough to do some real damaged to the record book if you know what I mean.

[pmossberg]

JJ would have won under the "classic" point format too.

If you build up enough of a lead in any sport, you can coast for a bit to catch your breath and prepare for the home stretch. I don't think it is necessarily the Chase format that allowed JJ to take that breather.

And even if the pre-Chase points system woudl have kept things closer, I'd bet JJ, Chad and team would have simply kept the pressure on at a higher level.

The COT definitely has less of a margin for error than the Pre-COT (did I just write "pre-tomorrow"?)

HMS has the car figured out. And Chad has it figured out even more than the other HMS crew chiefs.

The "narrow box defined by the COT" has consequences beyond the difficulty in figuring it out. I think the fact that the COT is so inflexible is the biggest issue. You either have it perfect, or you are not in the running.

While you are doing your figuring, even a small miss will have a much larger negative effect than a small miss on the old car. Mark's experience at Homestead shows that.

He's run well all year. But at Homestead, he and his team missed the set-up, probably by justthismuch. The result...he was never really in contention.

[ricklou]

I partially retract my remark that the Chase may make it easier. Not so sure that a 10 race shoot is that easy, the 48 bunch makes it look easy.

[apttyfn]

Congrats to Jimmy Johnson. Like him or not those guys have their act together. Who knows how many they could win. We can say we saw a part of history but for some of us we have seen history made before but it is great feat.

[chilipepper]

You guys go ahead and be generous to JJ. I'd rather rip my tongue out.

[pmossberg]

I love it. Don't hold back there Chili...let us know how you feel!
Although since we are all typing, maybe it would be tear your fingers off!

[pb1945]

Chili bless your heart, there's no being generous.... Jimmy Johnson and Chad Knaus just plain kicked butt.

There's not an ounce of jealousy in my heart and I'll tell you why.

I would be burning some SERIOUS and I mean SERIOUS midnight oil finding out why we aren't runnin with'em. If it takes a spy so be it. If you are getting left and you keep on doing the same old thing you are going to keep getting left. You can cry foul, just lucky, better equipment, more money, yada, yada, yada.

But when you aren't even remotely competitive you have to find out why. You can't fix it until you finally find out WHY. There may be more than one WHY and you have to attack the one WHY first that will get you the most gain.

I've been through this kind of thing during a couple competitive adventures in my life, (competitive shooting & fast pitch softball). Until I found out the real reasons I wasn't improving and getting to a higher level I was just spinning my wheels. It's one of these deals too..... where you have to be brutally honest and find oiut where you're real limits are.

I just want to whine just a little....... It's killen me to see the 43 running in the rear. Sometimes I can hardly watch, my wife says why in the wrold do you want to keep getting yourt heart broken. All I can tell here is......... It's the 43 Yvonne it's the 43.

pb ;D

[ricklou]

Good points pb and Chili I am not high on JJ either. Richard had his day and Jimmie is having his.

I think the crew chief has alot to do with what happens on race day, more so in recent years.

Chad Knauss has been working on race cars since he was a child with his father as they hammered the Midwest short tracks. As pb said, what does it take and what do I or we have to do ?

I know very little about chassis but I do know this from reading about crew chiefs over the years. The best chassis guys bring the same basic setup to the track every week with only minor changes. Robert Gee was known for this. The best find or have found the sweet spot and work with in it. There has to be a common denominator when a team performs well at different types of tracks ie Dover versus Martinsville.

Knauss knows whats up from working the short tracks where handling is a premium. Handling becomes less of an issue with bigger more banked tracks but still is the key. Certain tracks seem to throw away the intagibles. For instance Daytona is layed out like Talladega but is completely different and any driver will tell you that getting the car to go through the turns wide open will win you the race. That is the way it used toi be until the restrictor plate and all of the aero stuff. Bristol is another track that falls out of that denominator as it is a race of survival and muscle.

I think the Nascar's current formula has played right into Knauss's hands because he knows where that sweet spot is. As good as the top three HMS cars are Jeff Gordon cannot run with Johnson and Mark Martin is kind of in the middle or close but even his deal was out to lunch to finish the season. It is the crew chief. Chad was Gordon's car chief when he was red hot during the 90's but Ray Evernham gets the credit. I know better.

In 1967 when Richard obliterated the competition Maurice Petty was asked what the deal was as they were running the same car from the year before. Maurice just shrugged his shoulders and said,"I dont know". I know better. "The" car they used in 1967 was soo good that at a short track race Richard smacked the wall and bent the front end. They wanted to park it but Richard said forget that, fix it ! He made up 7 laps and won the race by 4 laps. There just as well have been no other cars on the race track. They just flat out knew their stuff.

The core of Hendricks Dynasty started with who he tabbed to start it all and that was Harry Hyde. He was one of the best ever. Harry brought in a young Randy Dorton to do the engines. They were competitive right off the bat with Geoff Bodine as their wheel man. Bodine was a great short track driver in his own right and showed it by winning their first race at Martinsville in 1984.

They built on it from there. HMS slowly built the business and were highly competitive by the end of the 80's. In the 90's they further expanded the multi car deal with a great amount of success as Jeff Gordon won three titles and Terry Labonte snatched one. Knauss left Hendrick after his success with Gordon and came back to start the 48 team. Now we see what this guy can really do.

[donmoos]

Rick,

I love the insight you brought to this. I particularly like the part about the common starting point. It made me think and this brings us back to the combination of JJ and Knaus.

I think alot of teams do this, PE was doing this with B. Labonte for a bit. but the responses back from each run didn't seem to be consistant.

You need a very consistant driver for that to be plausible. Consistant and capable of driving a car that has a much broader feel. Being able to react to differnt conditions. I was listening to shrubby on Sirus this morning. He talks about searching for the line that works best. Jimmy comments are similar.

Drivers like Earnhardt Jr. Kyle Petty as examples want to drive the same all the time and expect the car to conform to their lines. This can work from time to time and from time to time Kyle and Jr have had tremendous races.

I think it's time for drivers to stand up and start driving. This I see in Kasey and in AJ. I see Saddler being competative in a segment of NASCAR races not a driver for the season.

I for one am tired of the BAD equipment, The margins on this equipment is measured in 100ths of a second. Drivers need to find a way to make the best of what they have.

[chilipepper]

I can't comment - no tongue.

[ricklou]

Thanks Don and Chili, put your tongue back in. Food tastes better that way unless it's Jimmie Johnson Cupcakes !

Don, to dig deeper into your take on the drivers. It is my opinion that the new car makes it more of a fine line for the driver and his car needs to be dead on. Jr's. problem to me is that he is trying to run that high line in every race. That may have worked 30 years ago but not now although Kurt Bush did just that at Atlanta in the Spring.

Your theory holds true in that Kurt is not playing the same game on a weekly as we watch Jr slap the wall every week running the high line. Regardless these are among the best drivers in the world and they have to know whats up to get it done at this level.