Jimmie Johnson Back In Control; Takes Points Lead With Seventh Martinsville Win

Photo Credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images By: Toby Christie – Follow on Twitter @Tobalical It seems like all is right in Jimmie Johnson’s world right now. He finds himself in a familiar situation — the points lead with just three races remaining in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. He’s been here and done it before, but what hasn’t been attributed to his amazing success on the track is a valid reason for wanting to leave his house — it’s got to be an annoying place to be. No, not because of his model wife, or his adorable daughter, but because after his victory Sunday at Martinsville he now has seven fully-functioning tick-tock ding-dong grandfather clocks in his house. Martinsville Speedway of course hands out a grandfather clock to every winner at the half-mile paperclip. Johnson who started on the pole, led a race-high 193 laps en route to his victory, and he held off all challengers down the stretch to take the checkered flag. I think we’d all want to escape to the race track too with results like that. Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus seem to be clicking on all cylinders now in the home stretch of NASCAR’s playoffs, and it appears to be a two man race between he and Brad Keselowski. Keselowski has led from Chase race No. 1 until this past weekend, when Johnson’s victory shot him up the standings. “Yeah, I feel kind of mid to late summer we started hitting on all eight cylinders. I guess the Indy weekend would be a good landmark weekend for us,” an elated Johnson stated. “We were around it, hitting on things. But starting at Indy, everything started clicking really, really well for us. I feel as focused and prepared as I’ve ever been in my career. So I feel the same for Chad, Greg, Ron. We have some very smart guys with experience. Everybody is managing their emotions well, working very hard on their individual positions, and executing.” With his victory Johnson also sealed Chevrolet’s 10th straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Manufacturer’s championship. “I’ve raced my whole career driving a Chevy,” said Johnson. “Anything I can do to help them with stats, I’m happy and proud to be a part of it.  We work so close with them.  We know how much racing means to them as a brand, how important it is to the overall vision of Chevrolet.  We’re happy to carry the torch today and help them secure that championship. It’s a great thing.” Johnson’s defining moment to this point in the Chase came at Kansas when he spun out and backed into the wall. His team feverishly worked to get him back on track, on the lead lap and they did. They utilized enough duct tape to make a redneck tear up, and somehow Johnson fought his way back to a ninth place finish. That effort, that determination seems to have lit a fire in the belly of the entire team. One week later the No. 48 team is back in victory lane. Now it’s time for Keselowski to try to do something that five other times people have failed to do — knock Johnson off his pedestal. “I mean, anything can happen.  We’ve done a very nice job over these seven races to put ourselves in the points lead.  We’ve had a variety of different races finish with fuel mileage and things like that that have kept us out of Victory Lane and certainly played into their hands.  You think of Dover, I think there’s another one in there,” said Johnson. “We’re ready to race under any conditions.  He’s a great driver.  It’s a great team.  Next two races will tell the tale.  Anything can happen.  We could both wad it up next week and Clint Bowyer is your champion.  You never know.  You got to go race the race.” – Toby Christie is the lead Motorsports writer for Sicknissified.com, and he is also the co-host of The Final Lap Weekly. Toby can be reached via twitter or email. Tweet him @Tobalical or email him at tobalical@sicknissified.com. You can also follow Sicknissified.com on facebook and twitter.