Drive for Five still Alive. Johnson Wins
September 28th 2010 13:15
Uh-oh. Look who has his Chase for the Sprint Cup game face on.
It's four-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who led a race-high 191 laps after starting from the pole Sunday en route to winning the AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway.
The victory did more than simply vault Johnson from sixth to second in the point standings, merely 35 behind leader Denny Hamlin with eight races remaining in Johnson's latest title defense. It also sent a strong message throughout the garage that Johnson has no intention of going away quietly in this 10-race Chase, and that reports of his No. 48 team's "vulnerability" in this Chase vs. others have been greatly exaggerated.
The rumors had grown with Johnson's uncharacteristic 25th-place finish a week earlier at New Hampshire in the opening race of the Chase.
"I think a lot of people were counting them out," team owner Rick Hendrick said while celebrating Sunday's win. "We were counting on Loudon and this race to really give us that springboard we needed in the Chase."
Whatever bounce was missing from their collective step after the debacle at Loudon was replaced at Dover by something more tangible than the mythical Hendrick springboard. Even afterward, their sixth win of the season in the bag, it was as if Johnson and crafty crew chief Chad Knaus simply were offering a matter-of-fact confirmation that they're not really back because they never really fell off all that much to begin with.
Observers were left with the distinct impression that in a weekend dominated earlier by off-the-track hi-jinks that seemed to distract some of the other top Chase competitors, Johnson and Knaus were smiling to themselves all along. Let the others squabble amongst themselves and distract each other while we just get along with our business at hand, they seemed to be saying to each other with a wink and a nod.
Asked about the squabble between Hamlin and Kevin Harvick, who had entered the weekend one-two in the standings, Johnson chuckled and admitted he got a kick out of it.
"We were watching them because it was entertaining," said Johnson, laughing. "Who wasn't watching?"
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