For most of the 2007 season, it appeared if Jeff Gordon didn’t win the NASCAR Nextel Cup title it would be a crime.
He was the most complete driver throughout the season and had amassed a huge lead during the 26-race regular season. Even seven races into The Chase, Gordon appeared to be the man to beat.
But in the eighth race Nov. 4 at Texas Motor Speedway, Gordon’s lead turned into a 30-point deficit as The Chase moved to Phoenix Int’l Raceway.
Gordon remained optimistic that he could overcome that deficit and stand a legitimate chance of wrapping up a championship next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
But after Johnson won his fourth-straight race Sunday night at PIR — Gordon finished 10th — Gordon now trails by 86 points with one race to go and has conceded the title to his Hendrick Motorsports teammate.
“It’s over,” Gordon said. “Even if we win it, it’s because they (Johnson’s team) had problems. And while we’ll accept it, we don’t want to do it that way.
“Those guys have flat out killed everybody. You’ve got to give credit where credit’s due. We didn’t step up and win the races when we needed to.”
For a driver that was closing in on a fifth Cup title, it’s surprising to hear Gordon give what amounted to a concession speech. After all, if Johnson was involved in a crash early in Sunday’s season-finale at Homestead, Gordon could still win the championship.
But Gordon is a realist and knows that’s unlikely to happen.
And, he’s also classy enough to realize that he gave it his best shot this season and it won’t be enough to take the title away from Johnson, who has wracked up incredible numbers in The Chase, including 11 wins since the 10-race format was implemented in 2004.
Just as Tom Brady has proven as quarterback of the NFL’s New England Patriots, Johnson seems to get better when it matters the most.
“To me, it’s always a combination of a great driver and a great team,” Gordon said. “When you get those two ingredients, it seems like it’s easy to find, but trust me, it’s not.
“When you find that you just think that this stuff is easy. And they’re making it look real easy. It’s so difficult to find that combination. But they do have it and that’s why they are winning four and five races in a row.”
Johnson’s victory dealt a crushing blow to Gordon’s spectacular season.
“When your car is working right, you can do a lot of amazing things,” Gordon said. “His car looked like it was working pretty good. For whatever reason, our’s wasn’t. I was terrible in lapped traffic. That’s probably why he was going three wide.
“Lapped traffic was very difficult to deal with. And sometimes you have to take some big risks, and I played it a little bit too conservative at times and then once the newness of the tires went away, I just couldn’t pass anybody. We were probably about a sixth- or seventh-place car all day, and we took four tires thinking that would pay off, and we got so far back in traffic it just didn’t.”
Johnson is doing things that Gordon used to do.
He’s the first driver to win four-straight races since Gordon in 1998. He is also the first driver to win 10 or more races since Gordon won 13 that season.
Johnson is beating Gordon the way the young Gordon used to whip the field in the 1990s but don’t even think about calling him the next ...
“I don’t want to be called the next Jeff Gordon,” Johnson said. “I’m Jimmie Johnson. I do it my way.”