Jimmie Johnson was chasing his car owner, teammate and mentor in the final laps at Martinsville on Sunday. That all three were embodied by one person would seemingly make them easier to catch. Except that all three roles were filled by Jeff Gordon, who swept both poles and both races at the track with his victory in the Subway 500, winning for the fifth time at Martinsville.
"He's the master," said Johnson, who finished second for his fifth top 10 in his last six races. "Everybody knows how many victories he has here and how successful he's been here. To run second to him ... I hate running second, but I'm going to run second to him here."
In the odd synergy of NASCAR, where drivers sometimes own competitors' cars, Johnson admitted he benefited from Gordon's expertise. But maybe not all of it. Though his Hendrick Motorsports teammate shared a great deal of information about negotiating the track and how to set up his No. 48 Chevrolet, Johnson wondered coyly if the master had withheld a few nuggets from the pupil.
"I don't know where he came up with that," Gordon chuckled. "We were parked right next to one another, and we couldn't have given him any more than what we had. I could see the frustration on his face Friday and Saturday. I did everything I could to talk him through it and try to figure out if there was maybe something I was doing different. One time during practice yesterday, he followed me to see what his car was doing versus my car or what I was doing versus what he was doing."
Johnson remained fifth in the driver standings, 40 points ahead of sixth-place Gordon, though Gordon trimmed 15 off the lead by accruing the maximum 185 for winning and leading the most laps.
MAGIC NUMBER: Points leader Matt Kenseth can win the Winston Cup driver title by averaging 125.25 points (roughly 12th place) in the final four races, no matter what second-place Kevin Harvick does.
CART LAYOFFS: CART eliminated about 20 employees - nearly 40 percent of those in its Indianapolis headquarters - Thursday in a cost-cutting move as it prepares for a potential sale to a group led by Gerald Forsythe.
According to the Indianapolis Star, the positions were primarily in sales and marketing and included vice president of communications Adam Saal.
TAKE OFF: NASCAR will sanction events in Canada for the first time since 1989 when the Dodge Weekly Series is staged at Delaware Speedway in Ontario and St. Eustache Speedway in Quebec in 2004.
One of the grass-roots minor leagues of NASCAR, the weekly series allows drivers to compete at local tracks for the chance to gain experience, exposure and prize money from a national pool.
The 21-year-old weekly series currently is run at 75 tracks in the United States and has more than 8,000 drivers.
RECOVERY: Kenny Brack remained in satisfactory condition at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas on Monday, eight days after sustaining fractures to his right femur, sternum, lumbar vertebrae and both ankles in an accident on Lap 188 of the Chevy 500 on Oct. 12 at Texas Motor Speedway, the final race of the IndyCar Series season.
Brack, the 1998 IRL champion, had successful surgery on his right femur and both ankles on Oct. 12 and successful surgery on his back Oct. 13.
UNSER HURT: Al Unser Jr., 41, a two-time Indy 500 winner, was in serious condition after breaking his pelvis in an all-terrain vehicle accident Sunday.
Unser made a comeback from alcohol abuse to finish sixth on the Indy Racing League points list this season, winning his first race in almost two years, the Bombardier 500 June 12 at Texas Motor Speedway.
