Sprint Cup competitors take aim at Johnson
When Atlanta Motor Speedway president Ed Clark made his preseason predictions in January, he said that Jimmie Johnson would not repeat as NASCAR Sprint Cup champion.
One of the reasons Clark gave was that the other drivers on the circuit would try harder in 2010 to stop the Jimmie Johnson Express and his run of four consecutive championships.
“The competition is tired of getting drummed every time,” Clark said.
Three races into the season, it appears that one of the drivers who’s especially tired of getting drummed by Johnson, winner of the past two Cup races, is Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon.
Gordon led 219 laps Sunday at Las Vegas only to have Johnson beat him at the end -- in large part because Johnson took four tires on the final pit stop to Gordon’s two. The fresh rubber proved to be the difference.
A few days later during an appearance in Phoenix, Gordon indicated to reporters that losing races and championships to his teammate is getting old.
“I really want to win a fifth championship, and I’d like to do it before Jimmie Johnson,” Gordon said.
Johnson, speaking on a teleconference a day later, acknowledged that he knows Gordon badly wants to beat him on the race track.
“The success on track, as a competitor, I know he doesn't like," Johnson said. "And it's not like it has put some burden on our friendship. But competition is a tough thing to deal with emotionally, and people typically find ways to motivate themselves by being angry in competition. If they find a way to get mad at someone, then it inspires them and pushes them hard to do their jobs. I do the same thing for other guys, whoever is on top and focusing on them. I understand the dynamic.”
It seems that in today’s NASCAR, competition among teammates is stronger than among outsiders. Sunday at Las Vegas, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing teammates Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray crashed, and Montoya had harsh words for McMurray to reporters after the crash.
“Jamie plain and simple just wrecked us,” Montoya said. “Every time I am around him, he wants to run the [expletive] out of me.”
McMurray shrugged off the criticism, saying he believed his teammate was venting frustration over being wrecked.
Ryan Newman, who had his share of troubles with Rusty Wallace when the two were teammates at Penske Racing, said the very nature of multi-car operations lends itself to trouble between team drivers.
“I think it has the biggest potential for conflict of all things we do in NASCAR,” Newman said. “Any teammate is a competitor. That sense of pressure, especially with the extra hype now with the Chase and everything else, makes it a higher level of potential for that conflict on the race track. ... You got the same equipment. You got the same a lot of things. The biggest difference is your results. That creates a little internal rivalry at times.”
