MARTINSVILLE, Virginia — Greg Biffle marvels, and laughs, at Jimmie Johnson.
And a 12-car accident with 16 laps to go at Talladega that took out several Chase competitors while Johnson skirted through without a problem only fueled Biffle’s envy for the driver who has won two straight NASCAR titles and leads again with five races to go.
“He’s living right,” Biffle said at Martinsville on Friday. “Jimmie didn’t make it through that wreck because of his skill. He made it through that wreck because he was at the right place at the right time and made the right decisions — turned the wheel the right way.”
The accident was the kind that can kill a driver’s chances, but not Johnson’s.
“I’m not saying he just went through there blindfolded,” Biffle said. “Certainly he had to maneuver around the cars, but it would have been easy for someone to come off the wall and clip him, but he made it through and that’s just the luck of the draw.”
Biffle, meanwhile, was in the middle of it. Teammate Carl Edwards tried to give him a shove to the front, but the bump caused Biffle to spin into Matt Kenseth, another teammate.
All three Roush Fenway Racing drivers were among the dozen damaged.
JUNIOR’S ECONOMIC FORECAST: Dale Earnhardt Jr., economic analyst.
NASCAR’s most popular driver gave his own insight into the economic trouble that America was facing, which has had a negative impact on fans that travel with the series, as well as on teams struggling to secure big-money sponsors for next season in every series.
“The economy is in a dire situation,” Earnhardt said as a steady rain kept fans away from Martinsville Speedway. “It is pretty severe and there is a good chance it is going to continue to get worse. I don’t see how it cannot affect every corner and every piece of the puzzle.”
MR. OCTOBER? Jimmie Johnson has become Mr. October, often saving some of his best driving — and winning — for the championship Chase.
Last year, he won the last two races leading into the 10-race playoff, then won four in a row near the end to clinch his second consecutive championship. This year, he repeated in those last two races to set the Chase field, and he’s won once in the Chase already.
It was at Martinsville a year ago that he began his four-race winning streak.
Just don’t ask him to explain it.
“I don’t understand why, at the end of the year, we win a fair amount of races,” he said. “I’ve always thought that these have been good tracks for us and in the spring we’ll run well at them and in the autumn we’ll do a little better job and have a winning car at the point.”
The team tries as hard to win in the spring as in the fall, he said. Maybe it’s just the 10 tracks involved in the Chase.
“Ideally, any driver would love to sit down and mark out their best 10 races and I’m very fortunate in the Chase with the ones that are in the final 10,” Johnson said. “I’d probably choose seven or eight of them if I had my wish list of tracks to pick.”
PIT STOPS: The points leader with five races to go has failed to win the championship in each of the past two seasons. Two years ago, Jeff Burton led. Last year, it was Jeff Gordon. Both times, Jimmie Johnson won the race, and went on to win the title. … Johnson finished 35th in his first start here in 2002, and hasn’t finished outside the top 10 in the 12 races he’s run here since.
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