Everything in common
With two words, a handshake and a quick rub of Jimmie Johnson's baseball cap, Jeff Gordon put to bed any speculation that there are any cracks in the friendship of the two drivers.
"Mr. Martinsville," Jeff Gordon dubbed Johnson after Jimmie's third-straight victory at the paper clip-shaped short oval in Virginia. Later in a post-race interview he repeated, "he's Mr. Martinsville, if you ask me."
In contrast to the sharp, but short-lived, bitterness following the April race where Johnson's No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet held off Jeff Gordon's stronger No. 24 DuPont Chevy, the weekly meeting at Hendrick Motorsports should be harmonious even though Johnson shaved 15 points off of the lead his teammate, and co-owner, Jeff Gordon, had built and is now 53 behind with only four races to go.
What makes a driver a champion, beyond physical ability or better equipment, is a burning in the gut, a never-say-die attitude, until the checkered flag falls.
Jeff Gordon revealed some of those emotions publicly in expressing his frustration at not having beaten Johnson in the spring race at Martinsville, a display not seen since he cried at a Cup awards banquet many years before. Perhaps in reaction to the publicity then, or more likely, maturity and experience, Jeff Gordon keeps a very even temperament because he knows that he's "on camera" all the time when he's at the track.
The outward show of peace is just one of the many similar personality traits he shares with Johnson, a fact that places their rivalry on a completely different level than with the other 41 drivers.
When Chad Knaus, Johnson's fiercely innovative crew chief, recalled his early days with Johnson -- who is said to have been hand picked by Jeff Gordon -- said "our goal was to have two teams battling for the championship," it just underlined the point that this year, especially, is the culmination of those hopes.
Since the Jeff Gordon/Johnson rivalry is something like a family competition, when one sibling beats another in a close call, emotions will spike, initially. But a little bit of time and conversation puts things back the way they were before.
As Johnson said after his fourth victory at Martinsville, "there is nobody I want to beat more than Jeff Gordon, it's just the bottom line. That doesn't mean we have to dislike each other, crash each other, run into each other and act like fools. I can still race him as hard as anyone out there with respect. That's all Jeff and I are doing."
Though the statistics show that Jeff Gordon still leads Johnson in Martinsville wins, 7 to 4, in Jeff Gordon's mind, Johnson now reigns supreme at this half-mile track.
As Johnson explained, "today we raced hard. We leaned on each other from time to time, but in the end, he came over to Victory Lane. I can't say how much that impressed me."
Long live the new Mr. Martinsville.
Key Moment
Although Johnson was easily in the lead for the last 50 laps, the large number of cautions resulted in multiple restarts. Johnson, finally, was able to pull away from Jeff Gordon with less than 10 laps remaining, leaving Jeff Gordon to battle with Ryan Newman for second place.
By the numbers
The 21 caution periods are a new track record. Hendrick Motorsports has a virtual lifetime lock on Victory Lane at Martinsville with eight wins out of the last 10 races here. All of them belonging to Jeff Gordon or Johnson.
Surprise development
The continuing rebound of Ryan Newman. After a difficult start Newman's Alltel Dodge team is poised to return to Victory Lane after running at the top in the closing laps these last few weeks.
Spinning my wheels
• While current events focus on the dominance of Hendrick Motorsports' drivers at Martinsville, each return visit is colored by the memory of the airplane crash that claimed Rick Hendrick's son, Ricky, brother, John, two nieces, engine builder Randy Dorton, and six others who were headed to the track three years ago.
Chad Knaus said, "I can't imagine how tough it is for Mr. H."
• Some more sad news in the racing community: Shav Glick, the first daily newspaper writer to be elected to the Motorsports Hall of Fame, in Novi, Mich., died at the age of 87 after a bout with melanoma.
He covered motorsports for the Los Angeles Times for 37 years before retiring at the age of 85. Despite his advanced years, his sharp mind and quick wit was seen in garages in NASCAR, Formula One, Indy and the NHRA to name a few venues. He won journalism awards even after becoming an octogenarian. He was a longtime member of the panelists who chose the annual Driver of the Year award.
Glick's career spanned as far as covering baseball's Jackie Robinson early career before moving to the racing beat.
"He was a true friend of mine, a friend of the sporting world and someone with high integrity," car owner Roger Penske told the Times. "I have a lot to thank him for, and so does the entire motor racing industry."
On a personal I note I'm honored that Shav considered this writer a friend. On trips to the Irwindale Speedway in California he'd regale our small groups with many a story, shifting from current anecdotes to historical ones with the ease of a Formula One transmission.
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