Can Jimmie Johnson be stopped?

Jimmie Johnson wins again, Dale Earnhardt Jr. books his seventh blown engine, Carl Edwards threatens to beat up his teammate, and the point lead is down to 53 points. But let’s not get a head of ourselves here.

Over the course of the Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway, 21 caution flags were dropped, including one on the last lap that determined the winner of the race. Jimmie Johnson, the eventual winner, first took the lead on lap 109, but quickly lost it 10 laps later due to a yellow flag and varying pit strategies. The Hendrick cars (sans Casey Mears. Remember him? He’s the fourth wheel) remained dominate throughout the race, leading all but 40 laps of Sunday’s race and finishing within the top five (except for Mears, who finished 20).

With these finishing results, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson still remain the cars to beat, while Kyle Busch gains ground in breaking into the top five in points. Between these three drivers, they have a cumulative 10 poles, 14 wins, 47 top five finishes, 64 top tens.  And the stat most relevant to this weekend: Gordon and Johnson have 11 wins between them at Martinsville.

However, even while these two are racking in the points, Clint Bowyer cannot be forgotten about. While most drivers would be pleased with a ninth-placed finish, Bowyer may be a bit disappointed. He remains teetering on the edge of being in contention for the Championship sitting in third place. After Sunday’s finish, he is now at a 115-point defect. While he is not mathematically out yet, Bowyer realizes he has not won since September. And while constancy is nice, it is now rewarded in the new points system. 

"Even if we do that and win two or three more races this year it's still going to take some bad luck on their side,” Bowyer reasoned, “If you win they're going to finish second or third. They're just that good right now but we have to be that good too.”

So while Bowyer dukes it out and inwardly hopes for a slip-up from the Hendrick boys, Dale Earnhardt Jr. can only hope that his luck turns around. For most of the race, it seemed as though things were finally turning around for Dale: he qualified seventh, lead a few laps, and was in contention for the win. However, while racing along in fourth, after endless restarts, Dale’s engine finally gave way on the last lap and could only salvage a 23rd place finish. For Earnhardt, the trouble was no big surprise: a broken value spring was detected around lap 100. From then on out, it was only a matter of time.

“As the engine went away completely at the end, they just drove right by me. There was nothing I could do. It's a bad, helpless feeling when that happens because we had been so good all day. Just another one of those engine deals. I'm pretty sick of that happening, ya know, because we had a car that could have won, and the guys that worked so hard to give me a great car and gave me great pit stops and adjustments deserve better,” he commented after the race.

Cheer up Dale! There’s always a light at the end. As for yours: Hendrick engines next year!
But DEI isn’t the only team facing trouble this year. Just take the post-race “altercation” between Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards. While Kenseth was being interviewed, Edwards approached him and lead him away. A few pushes were shared among the pair before Edwards was seen “throwing a punch” at Kenseth. Was it all just a ploy for the cameras? Or are there actual problems brewing between Roush-Fenway teammates? Either way, I for one am glad I don’t have to attend Monday’s post-race interview.

After a jaunt to Martinsville Speedway, the top three points positions remain intact. With four races left, will Jeff Gordon remain supreme? Will Bowyer be able to advance into the top two? Or will this week’s bridesmaid, Ryan Newman, finally become the bride next weekend at Atlanta? Can Edwards and Kenseth resolve their issues before it boils over onto the track? However the race shakes out, you can find it all out next week here, at the Checkered Flag!

Questions and comments may be sent to larissasmith@sportsgrumblings.com