Motorsports

Top pair aims to box out field

By BRANT JAMES, Times Staff Writers
Published October 29, 2007

HAMPTON, Ga. - The task of defending his Nextel Cup title has become simple for Jimmie Johnson. The job of holding off his Hendrick Motorsports teammate for his fifth crown has become plain for Jeff Gordon. That's not say either will be easy.

"Oh, yeah, that sounds simple," Gordon laughed when asked of his chore. "All I can say is when we had a (53-point) lead coming in, we didn't feel like we had a lead, and the pressure was on. ... All we can do is go out and put up the best numbers we possibly can."

Johnson, though he has a scheme for running down his friend/car owner/teammate, is also cognizant of keeping this an in-house championship battle.

"We both need to finish in the top 10. That would be the first goal," Johnson said after winning the Pep Boys Auto 500 on Sunday. "(Third-place driver Clint Bowyer) had a good run today (finishing sixth) and has three good tracks coming up for him, so we can't get so caught up in racing each other, where we're making mistakes and having issues and running 15th, because he can close on us if we do that."

None of the 12 Chase drivers has been mathematically eliminated, but the consistency displayed all season by the Hendrick Motorsports teammates suggests no driver is going to make a long-range leap into their personal points Chase.

GOOD DEED: Johnson pledged, with team owner Rick Hendrick's approval, the team's $349,561 winnings to the American Red Cross Wildfire Disaster Relief Fund. The figure will be matched by his sponsor, Speedway Motorsports CEO Bruton Smith and the France family.

WELCOME HOME: Zephyrhills' David Reutimann was honored enough to be welcomed at the municipal airport adjacent Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday night by one of his sponsor executives after winning his first Busch Series race in Memphis. Then his Michael Waltrip Racing Nextel Cup team crashed the party. "It sounded like a herd of cattle coming my way," said Reutimann, who is second in the Busch Series standings. "I turned to see my entire Cup team running at me, and they had somehow secured bottles of champagne. ...They pretty much doused me on the runway."

SPARK PLUGS: NASCAR is investigating claims that Denny Hamlin's fuel contained water, which would have caused his engine to stutter on the restart with three laps left. ... Johnson swept racing at his third track this year: Atlanta; Martinsville, Va.; and Richmond, Va. ... Richard Petty, the all-time wins leader and Sunday's official starter, lost his cowboy hat when the field passed under his perch on the flag tower.

[Last modified October 28, 2007, 23:08:27]