James: Can NASCAR title hopefuls overcome Jimmie Johnson surge?
FORT WORTH — The Chase for the Sprint Cup has effectively become a chase to stop Jimmie Johnson.
With three races left in the season for NASCAR’s top series and with the six-time defending series champion qualified for the championship final at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the first time in this version of the Chase, that old gnawing reality must be percolating in the other seven drivers capable of denying him.
They’re not saying it out loud, of course. They’re probably trying to suppress the inner voices, too. Hard-bitten types such as 2014 series champion Kevin Harvick probably has an easier time of it, what with his penchant for Chase dramatics and a likely anticipation over the chance to square off against his fellow Southern Californian and Ron Hornaday protégé.
Even if they’re not unnerved, they must be thinking about it. And that helps Johnson even more.
All of this is understandable, of course. In winning five consecutive championships beginning in 2006, Johnson gouged a chunk of the primes of multiple Sprint Cup drivers, among them Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards — both of whom remain title eligible in this Chase — and former teammate Jeff Gordon, who retired from full-time racing after last season.
Neither Hamlin, 35, nor Edwards, 37, has won a championship. Given opportunity when a fuel miscalculation ruined Hamlin’s chance to effectively clinch a title in the penultimate race of the season at Phoenix in 2010, Johnson closed within 15 points and bolted to a championship at Homestead the next week. After watching Johnson claim a sixth title in 2013, Hamlin bemoaned the travails of life during the blitz.
“Unfortunately, we're racing during the Jimmie Johnson era,” Hamlin said. “We're just unlucky in that sense. I think being out there and racing with him, I can say that I think he's the best that there ever was. He's racing against competition that is tougher than this sport's ever seen.”
That era went briefly on the wane the following season, as NASCAR introduced a new elimination-style Chase format which parceled the 10-race playoffs into three-race segments and seemingly blunted the type of late-season runs Johnson had used in winning championships from 2006 through 2010.
His performance also waned as his Hendrick Motorsports team stopped producing the type of consistently sleek race cars that atoned for most any mistake and put him in consistent position to contend. Johnson missed the second-round cut in 2014 and again last season when a broken part axle seal doomed him in the first-round elimination at Dover International Speedway.
Johnson’s advancement into the third round this year — after a winning at Charlotte Motor Speedway to open the second round — seemed to cue something less than dread but more than inconvenienced concern in the remaining Chase field this year.
No matter the momentum he takes to Homestead, he faces the daunting task of defeating three other high-level contenders with 36 non-combatants in the way. He could even begin to feel the weight of attempting to tie Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty for the most titles in NASCAR history. His “Chasing 7” helmet sticker would seem to dispel that notion, though.
So Johnson’s victory last week at Martinsville seemed to incite a bit more consternation, as JGR teammates Kyle Busch, Hamlin and Matt Kenseth carped over team radio over how Hamlin’s tough tactics were allowing Johnson to escape with an eventual win.
Certainly, they would have wanted no one but themselves in front. That’s their job. And it’s not that Johnson wasn’t expected to be a factor at Martinsville. He’s now won there nine times, leaving Busch and Hamlin to lament a lost opportunity at a track where Hamlin has won five times, Busch once. But Johnson has been even better at Texas recently — site of Sunday's race — winning four in a row at the 1.5-mile oval.
So there was Johnson, stealing the oxygen supply again. That has to be disconcerting for Busch, whose attempt at a title defense has been more consistent and much less eventful than 2016. And it has to be unnerving for Hamlin, who has seen how this turns out before. It’s unsettling for any of the Chase drivers who have a couple extra seconds to divert from what they can actually control.
And when everything seems as right as it currently does for Johnson, that’s less and less.
Follow James on Twitter @brantjames