Re: Racing to Win

On Nov 8, 8:29 pm, "Hammer" <av...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Johnson showed you can race for points and wins

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/columns/story?seriesId=2&columnist=smit...

Marty Smith ESPN.com
Updated: November 8, 2007, 11:58 AM ET

For years, drivers engaged in fierce points battles were thought at times
to "points race," i.e., throttle back, race not to lose, rather than to
win, in the name of big-picture conservation.

It happens at times, certainly, and quite frankly, it separates great
drivers from good ones. Every driver in the Cup Series is fast. Those
capable of pushing a car to its very limit and not an inch further win.
The others wreck.

That line is a thin one and thins further yet for a guy set to take the
championship points lead with a runner-up finish. Just bring 'er home and
head on out West with a 20-point lead.

Jimmie Johnson shot that theory all to hell Sunday night.

And NASCAR and its fans are the benefactors. That race was good for the
sport.

Johnson's prowling aggression in the waning moments of the Dickies 500
made Rick Hendrick a little grayer and Chad Knaus a little balder, but for
NASCAR fans all over this country, regardless of allegiance, it was one of
the most refreshing moments in years.

Why? It wasn't spawned by a green-white-checker. We see a lot of great
finishes in NASCAR these days, but rarely are they set up by one driver
blazing through traffic to mow down another. Great finishes these days
often are created by late-race cautions and green-white-checker shootouts.

They're exciting -- just not this exciting. This time, the cars were used
up, the tires smoldering, the drivers wrestling. It was one team using a
two-tire strategy and its driver willing his car to the brink of wrecking
to hold off a competitor with fresher tires and an agenda.

Matt Kenseth did a masterful job of fending off several charges by
Johnson, knowing all the while he was a sitting duck. (He told me so after
the race.) He all but wrecked once, and he admitted he nearly took out
both cars. Yet Johnson trusted him.

There are only four or five guys who have that level of trust from the
entire field. Kenseth has proven his merit time and again. Remember Dover
last fall? He and Jeff Burton staged an epic duel lap-upon-lap-upon-lap
and never so much as touched fenders.

So Johnson drove it in there. Hard.

And it stuck. Barely.

Like Kenseth, Johnson was sideways at times, too. One ill move, and he
could have wrecked them both. There was a moment when he backed off,
collected his emotions, hit the reset button and set sail again. Knaus
asked him to put on his cape. The Superman variety.

Car-owner Hendrick was nervous, thought long and hard about punching that
little black button on his radio headset and telling his driver to back
off. But he didn't. He supplies Johnson with racecars for moments like
this.

This was a championship moment.

Trust the kid, Hendrick thought. He knows the threshold. He knows the
stakes.

And he stood on it.

That points-racing theory? Johnson shot some holes in it.

Those Beretta pistols he was holding in Victory Lane stand as proof.

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I don't care what anyone says, Johnson has the heart and balls of a truly
great racer. And the next idiot that tells me how he'd be nothing without
Chad, better at least be willing to say the same about Gordon and
Evernham.

Ok Hammer First look at the writer. Marty Smith is as new to Nascar
as Eric Kouslis. He didn't watch the sport grow. He is brand new to
covering Nascar and took the gig when Espn got the contract back.
First of all that used to be the norm because the championship didn't
pay that much anyway. Why else would some of the greats like David
Pearson and Cale only run limited schedules. The money wasn't worth
it. Why points race?

As time went on the best drivers became smarter. They learned when to
push and when not to and more importantly had the experience to know
just how far they could push THAT race car on THAT day. That takes
time and seasoning. Its about being the best at what you do. The
back half of the field is so young now they don't have the seasoning
and experience to race like MK and JJ. There was a time when that
wasn't the case. In fact unless you could, you didn't have a ride.

Neil Bonnett in the booth once said that he went to an Earnhardt test
and they finally got the car like Dale wanted it. He went out and ran
most of a fuel run with a lap time within .1 th of a second.

Harry Gant could run the Richard Petty line for hours, and never
scratch a car.

Now as for your comment that JJ and JG would be nothing without Chad
or Ray. I will say this. Not long ago someone came out with the 10
biggest cheaters in the history of Nascar. Chad an Ray were both on
the list along with Gary Nelson and Robin Pemberton. Think that puts
that in perspective. Now JJ may actually have been just a bit better
off than JG when he first came up. Jeff had so little experience in
the beginning he knew very little about setups, tire temps ect. That
was Ray's job. He learned, but raw talent got him through the early
years. Something most couldn't get by with.

.

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