4th Championship In A Row - The Best Ever?

So in breaking with tradition and I suppose superstition I bit the bullet and decided to watch the NASCAR race from Homestead Miami Speedway yesterday. Ordinarily when there is as much at stake and I was as emotionally invested as I was in something happening that I would tend not to watch. Sometimes it comes down to a case of what I don’t know won’t hurt me, especially in an event where something so small as a loose wire could de-rail a performance of historic proportions. I was rewarded with my decision when Jimmie Johnson made his successful run for a unprecedented and record 4th consecutive NASCAR CUP Championship. Other drivers may have more (Earnhardt and Petty with 7), but one has to argue that the quality of the fields are not comparable. The drivers that have come before and paved the pay are legends but even at his young age Jimmie has to be put into the same level as those other drivers if not even above.

Jimmie Johnson made history on Sunday with a 5th place finish at Miami which clinched the title and solidified him and his team as one of the best ever. No one in the sport has won 4 in a row, only 1 other had won 3 and a half dozen at best has ever won back to back. Even with that Jimmie’s should be viewed even more impressive as he is doing it in a time where the quality of the other drivers week in and week out are far better and much more even. In addition to that, the equipment that is being used is all so regulated by NASCAR to be similar and universal to ensure parody in the sport. That is what separates the 48 Lowes Impala SS from others over the course of history. There is such little wiggle room to make adjustments under the rules that gaining any advantage is more difficult then any other time in the sport. Granted the 48 team in the past has been known to bend the rules a bit or toe the line as close as possible but that is what any championship team has to do...sprint to the wall but manage to stop right before you crash into it.

What made this last win even better is that he WON this championship, he didn’t just coast and play it conservative and raced the race not raced to protect a lead in a prevent defence (Similar to how Matt Kenseth did the year he won the championship). With 3 races left in the season an early crash saw him land a mid 30th place finish, cutting greatly into his lead. After that terrible run he managed to re-focus and come back in the last 2 races and win one and got a top 5 in the next. There was no let up just business as usual...get in the car and race to win, just like a true champion. Not only was it the 4th for Johnson but Hendrick Motorsports went 1-2-3 atop of the Cup standings (Johnson - Mark Martin- Jeff Gordon...the first time that has ever happened).

This victory is one of the greatest feats in sports in some time and sadly is not getting the recognition that it deserves. For how monumental a 4-peat is the appreciation in the media just doesn’t seem to be what it should be. This is as great or greater then winning all 4 Golf or Tennis Majors in one year yet the hype just isn’t there. It is too bad that If it was Tiger or Federer that did the equivalent in their respective sports it would be everywhere on TV, in the papers, on the Internet, Twitter’d, Facebooked the whole 9 yards. On TSN.ca it was 3rd behind 2 featured results from the CFL..that is just mind boggling and on Sportsnet it wasn’t even a foot note. Foxsports, ESPN mentioned it and SI at least had it one of the leads. The only redeeming factor is that there is the likelihood that SI will name him Sportsman of the Year. They almost have no choice, If Favre could take it last year there is little or no excuse not to have Jimmie take it this year. That is the one problem with the way NASCAR does it and there is really no way to avoid it. You can’t have a big must see one day production like a Super Bowl or a best of 7 Playoff Series when points are the measuring stick (Denny Hamlin actually won the race yesterday but that is overshadowed by the coronation of a champion...the Must See TV Pizzazz just can’t be done with this format).

Regardless of any of the outside factors Jimmie has done something that has not and may not ever be done again and it was and is a pleasure to be witnessing it while it is going on.
Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus and the entire Hendrick 48 Lowes Team

Just Another Classic

Football and Hockey and NASCAR, Oh My!

This weekend marked a great weekend in sports. There was a good lineup on Saturday with a good spread out schedule of hockey beginning with the Sens game at 2pm and ending with the Canucks game at 10pm with the meat in that sandwich being a Calgary victory over the Leafs. Throw into the mix some very good NCAA college football games where USC was made to look like UC Chattanooga versus Stanford where Stanford was accused of running up the score...since when does USC not do the same thing in that situation??? There was alos a Florida game versus The South Carolina Game Cocks where the Chosen One Tim Tebow was playing.

Where things got the most interesting was that Sunday schedule. Granted the quality is going to ramped up when you have the NFL involved but there were some very compelling storylines throughout the day. There were a lot of games that must be classified as surprises. Either teams that should have won but didn’t, teams that had no right being in the game but making things very interesting and a ton of injuries to some very big name key players. Dallas should not have played so poor versus Green Bay, New Orleans should not have had the difficulty with St.Louis.

The two best events of the weekend without a doubt were of the Championship level. If we can get this much excitement come Super Bowl time we as sports fans will be laughing. Jimmie Johnson took his Lowes 48 Chevy Impala to Phoenix International Raceway and took the race, led the most laps and got max points to extend his lead in the race for the Sprint Cup and his 4th Consecutive Championship. With the win Johnson added to his lead over teammate Mark Martin and the 5 Car. What Johnson needs to do now is finish the race in one piece in 25 place or better at Homestead Miami Speedway in the last race of the season. If he is able to do this he will have to be considered one of the greatest of all time.

Now onto the NFL Game of the year. Not since the Patriots were on their run to go undefeated has there been so much hype for any regular season game. Even the Brett Favre-Green Bay game and storyline wasn’t at this level. This was one of the better games you are going to see, either regular or post season. The game from start to finish was entertaining but it had one of the wildest finishes you are going to see.

The Patriots, who were up 6 in the 4th late in the game when Bill Belichick made the decision to go for a 4th and 2 on the thier own 28 or whatever...deep in thier own end anyway. Instead of punting and putting the Colts probably back on thier on 40 yard line or so, they decided to go for it and came up a few inched short when Kevin Faulk bobbled the ball and was knocked back. The Pats have been slammed since then for that decision. "How can you give the ball to Peyton Manning on the 30 and expect to win?? I have to say I can’t say it was the worst thin in the world. If you actually look at the situation it isn’t as bad a call as it would appear at first glance. The Colts were basicly unstoppable in the 4th quarter, the Patriots defence (who played well all game up to that point) were gassed with hands on thier hips and knees and showing signs of being worn out. The Colts had just scored in under a minute and a half and were rolling. Manning was in a rhythem and carving up a tired defence. Many commentators are saying that Belichick’ showed no confidence in his defence and that would be a bad thing in the lockeroom going forward. I don’t see it like that. I think that he showed the ultimate vote of confidence in his franchise and one day Hall of Fame quarterback (with Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Kevin Faulk) to pick up 2 yards. What I saw was if you give the NFL MVP the ball anywhere on the field you are going to lose. Like Herm Edwards said " YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME!" Tom Brady’s arm gives you the best chance to do that, couple that with a tired defence...why not? Maybe they were saying If we can’t get 2 yards then maybe they don’t deserve to win. They can aford the loss in that divison so the risk reward made it woth it.

It is just like in racing do you race for points and go concervative or do you roll the dice and try to win, even if you run the risk of running out of gas on the back stretch. Sometimes you just have to go for the win.

The Return Of A Champion

Not sure how many people saw the crash last week involving Felipe Massa, the F1 driver for Ferrari but it was not pretty. A piece of debris hit him in the head while driving on the track. Thankfully there have been great strides made to safety involving the cars and innovations in regards to the helmets. After being hit he lost control and the car ran into a tire barrier that was 5 or 6 tires deep, crumpling the car. It appears that Massa will be ok but does have an eye injury that may prevent him from driving again.

In the short term it looks like former world champion and Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher will temporarily end his retirement and fill in in that seat.
"The Formula One chapter has been completely closed for me for a long time," Schumacher said in a statement Wednesday. "But for reasons of loyalty to the team, I cannot ignore this unfortunate situation. As the competitor, I am very much looking forward to facing this."
The only reason that I ever watched F1 was to see Schumacher dominate the F1 ranks and cruise to championships (Schumacher is a seven-time F1 champion, winning five consecutive titles for Ferrari from 2000 through 2004 - 91 victories and 154 podium finishes) . As I have mentioned before I admire greatness in sports and when someone is that good and that dominant it is great to see. A lot of people don’t like that and would prefer parody but I choose greatness over mediocrity. Now I will be the first to admit that maybe the reported $80 million a year in the last five seasons at Ferrari was pretty excessive and made him probably the highest paid athlete in the world but no one can argue with results. There is a lot of money in F1 and I suppose by comparison his salary makes some sense. Sure there are people out there that say that it is more the car then Shumi but they have not dominated the sport since he gave up his seat. Just like Jimmie Johnson, people say that it is the car that is the athlete not the driver, in some cases that may be true but putting Casey Mears into the 48 Lowes probably doesn’t win 3 consecutive Championships.
It will be interesting to see how Schumacher responds after such a long layoff. Is this going to be like Michael Jordan coming back to the Bulls the first time to still be the greatest or will he be Michael Jordan coming back as a Washington Bullet errr, Wizard. We will see during a Grand Prix coming to a major European City near you.

Superman Does It Again

Superman? that may still be debatable but they may be in the same class. Mark Martin seems to think so. Martin’s Hendrick Racing teammate, Jimmie Johnson, once again proved why he is the 3 time defending NASCAR Sprint/Nextel/Winston Cup Series (or whatever the official sponsor is right now) Champion. At the storied Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis it was a familiar name at the end of the day atop of the leader board. Jimmie became the first driver to go back to back at the Brickyard 400. Yet another chapter in the novel that Johnson is writing on the track in attempt to become one of the best of all time - The Legacy and the Legend.


Johnson, even without the beard that he has been sporting for the better part of the year, grabbed an improbable victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when a speeding penalty to Juan Pablo Montoya ruined the day for the most dominant car in the field. Juan Pablo was so upset during the next caution that he told his crew chief...and anyone else who was monitoring his radio "I swear on my children and my wife that I was not speeding!" he shouted over his radio. "There is no way! Thank you NASCAR for screwing my day." Sounds to me like someone who was pretty sure that he thought he was in the right but I guess he misread his tachometer . Not only did that miscue cost him near certain victory but it also dinged him in the pocket book which probably hurts nearly as much. At $223,953. It was the most expensive speeding ticket in NASCAR history: Jimmie earned $448,001 for the victory, while Montoya, who fell to 11th-place had to settle for a mere $224,048. Yeah I know it is all relative, 200k is nothing to shake a stick, but even in NASCAR world that is still a big loss.

You almost get the sense that Jimmie won’t get the true recognition that he deserves until after he is done driving. It seems like he doesn’t get the respect that he deserves as a driver nor does Chad Knaus get as his crew chief. With the records and resume that both these guys are putting together you would think that they would get more national publicity. Maybe it is because it is a NASCAR thing. Tennis has Federer, Golf has Tiger still just isn’t the same recognition for Jimmie.

History matched and made, 3 TIME CHAMP!!

I hate that it has taken until now but I must take the time to touch on the historical events of the past weekend, and no it isn’t that of learning that there is in fact ties in the NFL (sorry Donovan but come on, you are an NFL QB how do you not know that, ever wonder why the Jets that you played in 2002 were like 8-2-1 or something like that, weren’t sure what the 1 was for??)
Of course I am speaking of NASCAR’s Jimmie Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus in driving into the record books as only the second driver to ever win 3 Championships in a row and being the only crew chief to go for 3 in a row.

Now I am a huge Jimmie Johnson fan and have been from day 1. I do have some 48 Lowes swag, dicast and the like as well. From his rookie season on I have been with him and I am pretty proud of that, there was no wagon jumping, I hitched onto that star early, saw the superstar potential early in the game and have taken that ride. After being a brides maid for the first few years it was frustrating but I guess you have to loose before you can win. I have been lucky that 2 of my favorite teams have enjoyed a long run of success during my time as a fan and that makes for some good watching. Between Jimmie and the Atlanta Braves I have had Championships and playoff runs to enjoy. Too bad the Senators have missed that memo so far, maybe someday.

I have heard that there is some debate on his place in history but based on what he did before winning the championships and then now it is hard to ignore just how good he is and has been. He is like Tom Brady (has he done enough to be great yet? Is it partly his location? Is his significant other just hot or super hot ...great player or greatest player you be the judge).

Congratulation to Jimmie, Chad, the 48 Lowes Team and all the rest of the people associated at Hendrick Motorsports, even Jeff Gordon who may not have won a race this year but at least by being part owner of the 48 will get a piece of that pie.