AVONDALE, Ariz. — Jimmie Johnson has such a stranglehold on the championship that it’s out of reach for every driver besides Mark Martin. And his only chance would likely require a major stumble by the points leader.
So what incentive does that leave for the rest of the drivers over the final two races of the season?
Quite a lot.
Everyone in the field has their own motivation to finish the season strong. Some drivers want a win, while others are trying to improve their spot in the final standings. There’s opportunities to test new ideas for next year, as well as a chance to make personnel changes before the offseason.
Then there is Martin, who needs no impetus to race hard each week.
“I’m going after it every week,” he said Friday at Phoenix International Raceway. “Every time I strap in that race car, I’m going after it … I’m going to the extreme limits. It’s everything I got, points or no points. If it’s just practice, I like being on the top of the scoreboard even in practice. We’re digging as hard as we can go.”
That’s got to be his mentality as he heads into Sunday’s race trailing his Hendrick Motorsports teammate by 73 points in the standings. He needs a flawless race, and some Johnson misfortune, to finally win his first Cup title.
But he’s the only one with a realistic chance at catching Johnson, raising questions as to what’s still out there for everyone else in the field.
For starters, only 14 drivers have been to Victory Lane this season, leaving the bulk of the field hungry for their first win of the year. Among them is Carl Edwards, a nine-time winner last season, and Juan Pablo Montoya, who has six top-four finishes in the last 10 races but hasn’t won since 2007.
“We are trying to run as good as we can every week,” Montoya said. “It doesn’t matter whether we’re in contention or not. We’ve got to try to finish as high as we can, high in points. It would be nice to try to get a win this year. It’s been a great year otherwise. I couldn’t really ask for more.”
Greg Biffle is angling for a higher finish in the final standings, which can boost his payday considerably. Biffle is currently seventh in the standings, but only 76 points separate him from fourth-place driver Kurt Busch and Biffle thinks he’s got an opportunity to make up ground.
“It pays a lot of money for the final point standings for our sport, and your name is etched in that book for a long time, so getting the highest finish we can in the points is important,” Biffle said. “We really have an opportunity to be fifth, I think, or at least sixth. To finish fifth in points would be really big for me, I think.
“So, you’re always trying to get the most points you can and try and get your car going for next year, and you’re sort of all doing it together.”
The potential to make advances for 2010 has turned this final stretch of season into a glorified test session for many teams. Biffle said his Roush Fenway Racing team tried new ideas on the car he drove to a third-place finish.
“It was something new we were trying, something in our development plan, so we were super-excited,” Biffle said. “We were celebrating like we just won the Daytona 500, won 10 races in a row, even though we finished third. We felt like at that point, man, we’ve really made a year-and-a-half’s worth of gain here in one race.”
As the season winds down and job changes begin, there’s a handful of drivers still jockeying for a 2010 ride.
Jamie McMurray, winner two weeks ago at Talladega, has nothing firm locked up for next season but could be headed back to Earnhardt Ganassi Racing if a sponsorship deal can be worked out on the No. 1 Chevrolet. But Reed Sorenson, Casey Mears, David Stremme and Bobby Labonte have nothing firm in place, and that might not change regardless of how they run the next two weeks.
“We all know what’s out there,” McMurray said. “It’s not like anything is going to change anytime soon.”
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