Battling ‘Mates: Part I - the Championship Edition
This is the first of a three-part series I will be featuring this week as we explore just what can potentially happen and what does happen when teammates collide. What would inspire me to piece such a story together? Look no further than the race this past weekend at Martinsville, my friends, and then you tell me!
First on the list to discuss are – as you may have guessed from the “Championship Edition” portion of this title (brilliant!) – are non-other than Jeff Gordon (four time Cup Champ) and Jimmie Johnson (defending Cup Champ), both of whom race at Hendrick Motorsports. These two stars have been the hottest drivers in NASCAR absolutely all season long and have successfully carried that over into the Chase for the Nextel Cup, where they have found themselves competing in the number one and two spots for the majority of those six races. In fact, if you’ve followed the back-and-forth tendancies between these two in this year’s Chase, you might even say that all the critics claiming this year’s Chase has been nothing but a bore couldn’t be further from the truth, because the two Hendrick teammates have made this year’s Chase anything but boring. To recap for you, the “regular season” ended this year with Jeff Gordon sitting in first place with a huge points lead. The Chase began with Johnson in first, Gordon in second (based on NASCAR’s revised seeding system this year). They were tied after New Hampshire; Gordon took the points lead at Dover; Johnson reclaimed the lead after Kansas; and Gordon took the lead back again after winning Talladega and has managed to hold that lead through the past two races at Lowe’s and Martinsville. Johnson trails him now by 53 points.
But, there’s been more to this friendly rivalry than just the Chase points standings. Ever since Kansas – the third race in the Chase – these two have battled each other on the track in every race. In that race, both driver finished in the Top 5, which is fairly normal – no big deal. BUT, things have gotten very interesting since then. We all remember the shootout between the two Hendrick cars at Talladega, with Gordon holding off Jimmie on the final lap to win the race. The next week at Lowe’s, Gordon won the race again despite the fact that Johnson led the most laps. They battled back and forth for a good portion of the race, but a spin from Johnson in the last quarter of the race hindered him from being able to compete with Jeff for the win. Then, this weekend at Martinsville, Jimmie finally returned the favor as he brought home the checkered flag. In that race, Gordon was the one who led the most laps and found himself poised for a run at Jimmie in the closing laps until Newman passed him just before the caution came out to setup the green-white-checkered finish. It looked as though we were going to be treated of a repeat performance from the Spring race at Martinsville when Johnson upset Gordon by blocking him in the final laps to win that race as well.
Fast forwarding to the next three races on schedule, this new-found on-track rivalry isn’t showing any signs of slowing down, either. The next race up is Atlanta, where the two drivers have a combined one win, three top five’s, and five top ten’s in the last three races. Then we head to Texas where they have combined for three two top five’s and three top ten’s in the past three trips. Then, things will get very interesting when we head to
Related Stories
POSTED IN: NASCAR
0 opinions for Battling ‘Mates: Part I - the Championship Edition
No one has left a comment yet. You know what this means, right? You could be first!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: