Of course, Jimmie Johnson has dominated the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
the last several years. After all, he’s claimed the series championship
each of the last five seasons. The first four were in somewhat
dominating fashion, but the most recent one was not. In 2010, the Cup
came down to the wire with three drivers—Johnson, Denny Hamlin and Kevin
Harvick—each with a shot to claim the champion’s trophy heading into
the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Johnson wasn’t even the
points leader heading into Homestead.
While some of Johnson’s competition seems to be getting closer to
overtaking him, or at least being able to compete with him on a
consistent basis, the gap looks to have widened within the Hendrick
Motorsports camp. Within an organization that had dominated the sport
the last several years, Johnson was the only HMS driver to make his way
to victory lane in Cup competition in 2010. And this is an organization
not only made up of Johnson, but also four-time series champion Jeff
Gordon, the driver who is looked up to by most as the best driver never
to win a championship in Mark Martin, and NASCAR’s most popular driver
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Sure, Earnhardt Jr. has had his share of critics the
last couple of years, and many those critics have prided themselves on
saying he can’t drive a race car. But the guy does have 18 Sprint Cup
Series wins to his credit, so the ability to win must be in him
somewhere. Granted, Gordon did make the Chase, but in the end, the
four-time champion wasn’t a serious contender, and it’s been awhile
since he last won a race.
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