Jimmie Johnson Meets the Media 11/19/2009

We rejoin our blogging after a hiatus. This weekend, like on October 8-10, we will be at the Homestead-Miami Speedway for the Sprint Cup season finale, where Jimmie Johnson, pictured, above, needs to finish 25th or better to lock out Mark Martin to win his fourth consecutive Sprint Cup title--which has never been done by any driver in the 60 years of NASCAR.

Johnson, contrary to what some might believe, did not just fall from the sky into the seat of the #48 Lowe's Chevrolet Impala owned by Rick Hendrick. He came from a modest Southern California background, ran off road and ASA, and was discovered by Hendrick while running in the then Busch Series. He takes the racing seriously. As you saw from my Tweets from the news conference, Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus are going for a decisive performance.

You also saw the kind of respect that Mark Martin commands from his teammates in those Tweets as well.

We'll blog from the track, and Tweet as needed on Friday and Sunday.

"Sprint Cup Point Leader Starts Shotgun at the Tricky Trioval"

Crew Chief Darian Grubb is supervising final tweaks on Tony Stewart's #14 Chevy as the hours tick down to the green flag for the Pocono 500. Stewart's original #14 Chevy suffered some damage in a Saturday practice, so Grubb and the Stewart-Haas racing team rolled out the backup. What this means is that Stewart will lead a ceremonial lap, and then drop to the back of the 43 car field to take the green.

Another thing makes this interesting: The implementation of the NASCAR double file restart rule, which puts cars trying to get laps back at a disadvantage. One suspects Mr. Stewart will wish to set sail toward the front to maintain his position atop the points.

I also promise not to use the "on like Donkey Kong" line to describe the racing here at the tricky tri-oval today.