How Much Is Hendrick Motorsports Worth
Comments (0) Jimmie Johnson to Conquer the Sprint Cup
One more time Jimmie Johnson demonstrated his capacity as pilot by leading amazingly 217 of the 313 laps of the Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR). After obtaining the pole on Saturday’s practice session, Johnson kept himself on first position during most of the competition, taking a vast advantage on distance and time from the rest of the competitors.
With this new victory and just a race away from the finale of the season, Jimmie lifted his punctuation being 141 points above Carl Edwards, which puts him closer and closer from the precious title of the Sprint Series Championship. If he wins the title it would be his third time consecutive as champion of the NASCAR Sprint Cup, historic fact only achieved until today by Cale Yarborough. For Johnson this has been the seventh triumph of 2008, the fortieth of his career and of those the third occasion to win in PIR.
On this exciting competition Edwards, winner of the previous date, couldn’t stand out on his performance, because on the last classification he could only caught the 15th position for the start of the Auto Parts 500. However, due to a series of passes through the pits stop, he finished the race on the fourth spot, something that in points distances him more from the indisputable leader Johnson. In spite it, Edwards is the only pilot that still has a chance to reach Johnson on the final board.
For this event Johnson and his team of mechanics, lead by Chad Knaus, made a great effort to leave the #48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the best conditions to compete. They did an excellent job revising every fundamental aspect of the automobile from the basics to the smallest details that could be enhanced, which allowed Jim to perfectly control the car and take it to its maximum. This triumph was worth it as well for Chevrolet, who’s now about to gain its 32nd Constructors Championship.
The race was a total emotions rollercoaster that lasted more than the established as a result of several yellow and red flags waved during big part of the challenge. The first delay came on the 43rd lap as precaution for the weather conditions that were making impossible the development of the contest and it was kept for 26 minutes. The red flag was also shown at the middle of the 273 lap, but this time the reason was an accident that started with Casey Mears and Juan Pablo Montoya, but it ended up affecting six more pilots, some even had to be transfer to be checked.
When the competition was continued after the interruption, thanks to the amount of races leaded by then, Johnson was carrying 5 points in advance from the other contenders, lead that kept until the end of the battle (95 laps) without much threat.
Homestead-Miami Speedway will be the point for the last competition to close the season 2008 and it looks like obtaining this priceless up won’t be a difficult job for Jimmie Johnson, who comes leading the general position table with a total of 65161 points. Following is Carl Edwards with 6420 points and with a last and low opportunity of passing over Johnson, who by simply arriving to the winning post in the 36th position as minimum would crown himself automatically as the new three-times Champion of the Sprint Cup.
About the Author
About the Author
Stephen Lars has been a prominent writer on daily NASCAR races, sports news and the sportsbook industry for many exceptional sport web sites. You may reprint this article in its full content, please note no modifications to it are accepted.
NASCAR – Dickies 500 – 2009
Themocracy