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Tue, Nov 24 2009 

Published: November 04, 2009 12:02 am    print this story   email this story  

Jimmie Johnson close to racing into NASCAR history

By Tom Reck
Tribune-Star Correspondent

Jimmie Johnson is on the verge of making history in NASCAR Sprint Cup racing and doesn’t plan to get conservative in the last three races of the season.

With those three races left, Johnson leads fellow Hendrick Motorsports driver Mark Martin by 184 points in his bid to become the first driver to win four straight championships. He now is tied with Cale Yarborough as the only drivers to win three in a row.

Next up is Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday. Johnson won the race in 2007.

If Martin would do everything right in the last three events, Johnson would win the title with no better than a 10th-place finish in the races.

“There’s lots of racing left and things can still go wrong. I am in as good a position as I could be [but] I am going to try and get every point I can get until it is mathematically wrapped up … I need to race the next two races as if I were behind in the points,” Johnson said on Tuesday on a teleconference.

He said he and his team will prepare for the final three races just as they have all season. “We still have lots of pit stops to make,” said the 33-year-old native of California who is in his eighth full season of Cup racing.

He began his career in off-road events and got his start in stock cars with Herzog Motorsports in 1998, competing in the Nationwide Series.

“I owe them everything,” he said.

Johnson won the Cup race at Indianapolis for the third time in July to give a clue that he would have the chance to make history. The winner at Indy in recent years has gone on to win the Cup title.

After Texas, the last two races are slated at Phoenix and Homestead-Miami.

Hendrick drivers have won the last five races at Phoenix International Raceway. Martin won in April and Johnson won the three previous events -- winning both races a year ago.

“Phoenix is the best track remaining for me … it is one where I think I can win. I had a fast car in the spring,” Johnson said.

Asked if he thought he would be going for a fourth straight championship when he began Cup racing, he said he did not. “I’m honored and enjoying every minute of it. I hope to do something no one has ever done,” he said.

His crew chief is Chad Knaus and he says the fact that they have different personalities is a key to their working together so well.

“We work to manage our emotions and patience prevails. And we both have the desire to win and the commitment,” he said.





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