Which Jimmie Johnson Will Show Up At Charlotte?

FenderBumper

FenderBumper

The "good old days" ??
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Which Jimmie Johnson will show up at Charlotte Motor Speedway?

It could be Johnson the Charlotte dominator, who won five times in six starts between 2003 and 2005 and led at least one lap in 18 consecutive Charlotte starts. That Johnson prompted many to call Bruton Smith’s showplace 1.5-mile track “Jimmie’s House.”

Or it could be the Johnson who finished 25th in the Coca-Cola 600 in May and has a 22.6 average finish at the track since his last Charlotte victory in the fall of 2009. The same Johnson who now counts two DNFs and just one lap led in his last three starts there.

Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 could be pivotal in Johnson’s quest for a sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup championship. After a 17th-place finish at Talladega, he remains second in the Sprint Cup championship standings, 14 points behind leader Brad Keselowski.

Johnson has claimed three Charlotte victories during the Chase era. Only once, however -- in 2009 – did he proceed from Victory Lane at Charlotte to win the Sprint Cup Series championship. His Hendrick Motorsports organization has won 17 times at Charlotte; more than twice as many as their closest pursuers; Roush Fenway Racing and Petty Enterprises, with eight wins each.

While Johnson’s most immediate threat comes from Keselowski, there are other challengers within the Hendrick Motorsports camp. Jeff Gordon has five Charlotte wins and Kasey Kahne has four, including the Coke 600 in May.

Even with his recent struggles, Johnson’s statistics still dwarf the competition. He leads the series in Driver Rating (111.0), Average Running Position (8.2), Fastest Laps Run (488), Green Flag Speed (176.468), Laps in the Top 15 (4,599/85.6%) and Quality Passes (772).

Kahne isn’t far behind. His Driver Rating of 97.5 trails only Johnson and Kyle Busch. He’s posted the second most Fastest Laps Run (453) with an average finish of 12.7 – close behind Johnson’s 11.8. Johnson has 14 Top-10 races in 22 Charlotte races. Kahne has nine in 17 CMS starts.

No matter what the numbers might say, the 2012 championship may well be decided by which Jimmie Johnson shows up for Sunday’s race.
 
Jimmy could well prove again this year that it takes consistancy to win championships not wins.
 
ted@economy said:
Jimmy could well prove again this year that it takes consistancy to win championships not wins.
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better to have both, like Brad does. Brad has been outpointing JJ for 3 months.

#17D500winner said:
Sounds like Johnson's in your head, Fender. ;)
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He's still the favorite in my book. What will be interesting to see is if the #2 teams speed at Chicago holds true at the other 1.5's in the chase. Brad is in a position to finish 3rd behind JJ while Denny wins races, and Brad could still win the championship.
 
ted@economy said:
Jimmy could well prove again this year that it takes consistancy to win championships not wins.
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Jimmie's chase wins are the reason he has more chase titles than anyone else.

Compared to chase inferiors like Gordon he is almost ten times more likely to win a chase race. People like to snark about Mr Vanillas manipulation as if he has merely gamed the system, when in fact he was the dominant force.

As for this year it is like last year, competition catches up with all of us and he isn't immortal, but still the same he won the *five by dominating. Consistency just describes the thoroughness, but he did it more as a winner than a stroker just collecting points,

Note * I will concede that Hamlin was faster in 2010 and had it hand, prior to freaking out. But for the majority of the time JJ was clearly faster, and winning more on his way to 5 times.
 
I would expect to see Jimmie/Chad as a real player in this race.

I've picked him as a starter on my YF team - but then I am middle-of-the-pack in YF standings so what do I know...

:)
 
robbybee said:
I would expect to see Jimmie/Chad as a real player in this race.

I've picked him as a starter on my YF team - but then I am middle-of-the-pack in YF standings so what do I know...

:)
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I expect those 2, and Gordon, Kasey to compete for the win. If Penske does have the rear end shift worked out as well as they did at the end of the Chicago race, Brad will be right there too.
 
kkfan91 said:
Kasey is the clear favorite for this week.
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I think he and Gordon may be battling for the win at the end of the race. Those 2 and Denny may be JJ's biggest challenge while racing from behind in the points. JJ has sometimes over driven the car and wrecked when he's playing catch up. If others continue to keep JJ from winning races in the chase, it helps Brad keep a lead.

I have just one caveat. IF Penske has their 1.5 program working as well as they did at the end of the Chicago race, where Brad rolled out to a 3 second lead while seemingly not showing all the speed he had, this championship battle could be over before Homestead. It was very impressive to see that 2 car come out on cold tires and walk away from JJ, who had his pressures up and should have been faster. The rear wiggle is most advantageous at 1.5's, and it's looking like that 1/2 inch limit may be hindering Chad's plans.
 
I'm sure we've talked about this before but I don't wanna look up all the old posts to see for sure. If JJ wins 8 championships will he be declared the best driver ever?
 
Stewart Fan said:
I'm sure we've talked about this before but I don't wanna look up all the old posts to see for sure. If JJ wins 8 championships will he be declared the best driver ever?
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No, I think that was Kyle that we were talking about . :D
 
Stewart Fan said:
I'm sure we've talked about this before but I don't wanna look up all the old posts to see for sure. If JJ wins 8 championships will he be declared the best driver ever?
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Nope
 
Stewart Fan said:
I'm sure we've talked about this before but I don't wanna look up all the old posts to see for sure. If JJ wins 8 championships will he be declared the best driver ever?
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Until everyone agrees on the criteria for selecting the best driver ever, no one will ever be able to provide concrete proof of any fact so it'll remain opinion only, IMO ;)
 
Comparing sports figures from different eras has always be very difficult.Standards change.
 
ted@economy said:
Comparing sports figures from different eras has always be very difficult.Standards change.
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Definitely. I don't see any objective way of making the distinctions so the whole debate is rather pointless but still part of the culture of sports, music, art, etc. which many of us enjoy just the same. A part of life, I guess.
 
MOEJOE said:
Fender started this post just to piss me off.

LOL
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Noooo, I'm curious. I always try to pick something extra to watch for in each weeks race. This week I have 2. 1) Is JJ feeling some pressure to catch up, and will it show in his driving. 2) Does Penske have an advantage on 1.5's.
 
FenderBumper said:
Noooo, I'm curious. I always try to pick something extra to watch for in each weeks race. This week I have 2. 1) Is JJ feeling some pressure to catch up, and will it show in his driving. 2) Does Penske have an advantage on 1.5's.
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If Penske gets any better and Jack R gets any worse, I would be interested to see where Ford goes with their money.

Especially since Brad is From D town,.
 
MOEJOE said:
If Penske gets any better and Jack R gets any worse, I would be interested to see where Ford goes with their money.

Especially since Brad is From D town,.
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If Brad does pull off a miracle and win the championship, he'll be Fords only champion, and he'll certainly want to be compensated more than Carl is.
 
FenderBumper said:
If Brad does pull off a miracle and win the championship, he'll be Fords only champion, and he'll certainly want to be compensated more than Carl is.
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Ford never saw this coming I bet. Wouldn't that be sweet. Brad strolling right past the golden child to Ford and demanding, then getting.

Rick is regretting not signing him. The 24 waits is what my best guess is.
 
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