Familiar Favorite: Johnson, Knaus surging into Chase

It was still summer vacation. The days were longer, the nights balmier and the afternoons lazy. There were two drivers looking to run away with the Sprint Cup title. Nobody else was even close.

Now school is in session. The days are shorter, the nights cooler and the two drivers who were threatening to walk away from the competition had better check their rearview mirrors, because the competition has finally arrived.

Don’t get me wrong; both Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards are still among the favorites for the 2008 championship, but they are no longer alone. Jimmie Johnson has decided to crash the party, and if the No. 48’s recent resurgence continues — the team won at California and Richmond — Johnson has to be the favorite to win it all going into the Chase.

Yes, Busch has eight wins this year and sure, Edwards has six of his own and is as formidable on the intermediate tracks as anyone on the circuit. But Johnson is the master of the Chase format as back-to-back titles can attest. Of course, the 48 team will have to keep the heat turned up to beat the red-hot Busch and the steadily fierce Edwards, but Jimmie, crew chief Chad Knaus and their Hendrick Motorsports team are every bit as dangerous when things are going their way.

Johnson and Knaus have a tendency to lay low in the summer months only to pounce when the pressure of the Chase is on. Past is an uncharacteristically slow Spring, with its lone victory at Phoenix and a summer that afforded Johnson another sole win (although it was a big one at the Brickyard). Momentum is big in this sport and having it at the right time is crucial. And it’s never been more critical than right now.

On track, Johnson is a bulldog. He’ll race as clean as can be, but once he has a lead, he’s not going to give it back. He won’t throw a dirty block and he won’t wreck you, but if you want his spot, you’re going to have to take it. And since its inception in 2004, Johnson has made the 10-week Chase his personal playground.

How good is Jimmie Johnson in the Chase? In 40 races to date, Johnson has won 11 times — more than a quarter of the races run. Greg Biffle is a distant second, winning four of those races, but he wasn’t running for the title when he earned those.  Incidentally, Edwards has three Chase wins and Busch one. Only Johnson and Matt Kenseth have made every Chase, a stat that is impressive in itself, given the drivers who have not been there every year, namely Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon.

In the 2007 edition, Johnson won four of the last five races to cap off a 10-win season and the most dominant Chase performance to date. In ’06, the 48 team overcame what could have been a disastrous Talladega after being wrecked on the final lap and losing more then 20 spots on track, only to rebound and win the title at Homestead. Whether cruising along or coming from behind, it seems this team has the format figured.

Perhaps Johnson’s most formidable weapon is crew chief Chad Knaus, a head wrench so innovative that NASCAR frequently doesn’t share his enthusiasm over the methods employed to make Johnson’s cars go. Knaus is not only the best crew chief in the garage, he’s the perfect personality complement to Johnson. When Jimmie frets, Chad babysits him into submission. When Johnson says something Kaus interprets as less than brilliant, the crew chief gently reminds the driver that he’s being a dumbass. Or not so gently — the look on Knaus’ face in the Lowe’s commercials isn’t exactly acting. The two communicate like no other duo, and from communication comes victory.

Finally, Jimmie Johnson has fear to drive him. You heard me right. There is a deep-seated fear of losing it all that Johnson has never quite managed to lose. It was always there in the beginning.  Johnson never had a silver spoon. He grew up in a trailer park in gritty El Cajon, Calif., part of a tight, blue-collar family. There was no extra money to take Johnson where he needed to go, and so at 14, the ritual of working a sponsor began. Johnson has honed those skills well — some might argue too well — but the fear of waking up tomorrow and having the dream evaporate is still there. He’s said that until the day he won his first Cup championship there was always fear that he’d lose the ride to the next hot commodity if he didn’t perform. Even now, he races like each week could be his last. That deep, hungry fear gives Johnson an edge, driving him scrap and claw to hang on. To beat the competition means to beat the fear.

All things considered, the Chase could be quite the battle, with three aggressive young blue-collar drivers with nothing to lose going head-to-head-to-head for all the marbles. Shooters too. But given Johnson’s track record, his associates and the emotion that drives him, do not overlook the two-time defending champ as the odds-on favorite. If you do, he just may be laughing all the way to the bank.

The view from Busch’s and Edwards’ rear views has been full of the 48 the last four weeks. And if they make a mistake, they’ll be the ones in Johnson’s mirror as he heads for the championship. The early fall winds of change have blown through the Sprint Cup garage, and Johnson has ridden the breeze all the way to the top of the championship heap.

You can bet he won’t let go now.