Back in the race

A three-race winning streak puts Johnson in the thick of the Nextel Cup title chase.

By Paul Newberry ~ The Associated Press

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Jimmie Johnson is a realist.

When he finished 37th at Talladega, then 32nd at Kansas City, he figured that was it. No chance of winning his first Nextel Cup championship this year. Might as well start looking ahead to 2005.

Of course, Johnson didn't count on winning three races in a row.

His latest victory came Sunday, overcoming Mark Martin's dominant car at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Johnson is the first Cup racer since 1998 to win three straight in a season.

"It is just amazing," Johnson said. "I thought three weeks ago, with the way that some of the teams have been working ... there was no way that circumstances would work out to allow us to have a shot at it."

They have.

Points leader Kurt Busch had a terrible day in Atlanta, going out with a blown engine and a 42nd-place finish. Six others in the championship playoff also had major problems, winding up far behind Johnson.

Suddenly, it's a race again for the title -- with Johnson right in the middle of it.

Busch leads with only three events to go, but second-place Johnson has closed within 59 points. He knocked 148 points off his deficit in a single day, also jumping two spots in the standings.

Third-place Jeff Gordon, No. 4 Martin and No. 5 Dale Earnhardt are all within 98 points of the lead.

Johnson doesn't want to stop now. His eyes are firmly on Victory Lane. He sees no reason why he can't close the year with a six-race winning streak -- even though that's never happened in NASCAR's modern era.

"It is a whole new world for us," Johnson said. "Nobody can play defense. Everyone is going to have to be on offense."

He was top of the standings most of the summer, building a lead of 232 points with his August victory at Pocono. Then, engine failures in three straight races wiped out his comfortable margin.

Looking back, Johnson feels the team got too defensive, intent on protecting its spot in the standings instead of trying to win races.

"When we had a 230-something-point lead and we were in a position to defend, it just feel through our fingers," he said. "When we play offense, we're as good as any anybody."

Despite his engine woes, Johnson began the 10-race championship playoff in second place. He really began to plummet in the new format, which bunched up the top 10 drivers for a sprint to the finish.

Johnson had decent finishes at New Hampshire (11th) and Dover (10th) but still fell to fourth. He went out at Talladega when his car overheated, dumping him to ninth in the points. When he slammed the wall as Kansas City, his title hopes seemed doomed.

At that point, Johnson figured there was nothing to lose. He was a staggering 247 points off the lead and, even more significant, there were seven drivers between him and Busch.

But that drop in the standings seemed to take the pressure off Johnson.

He won at Charlotte. He won at Martinsville. He won at Atlanta, even though Martin clearly had the best car on the track.

Martin led 227 of the 325 laps. Johnson led only 17 -- but was in front for the one that counted. He now has seven victories for the year, two more than any other driver.

"If we just keep going out and doing what we've done these last three races, and just act like we have been to win the next three races, then everything will take care of itself," Johnson said. "We're going to try to win six in a row. I don't want to sound cocky or anything, but the mind-set that we've had of going out and taking care of business has worked."

Johnson could wind up dueling his boss for the championship. Gordon -- who won four straight races in 1998 -- owns the No. 48 Chevrolet through his lucrative deal with Hendrick Motorsports.

Both sides say that won't cause any problems. The teams work out of the same shop. They share information. They pull for each other.

"It's never been the 24 (Gordon's car) vs. the 48," said Chad Knaus, Johnson's crew chief. "There's no rivalry or animosity. There's nothing there but brotherly competition."

Both teams have plenty of motivation. A Hendrick Motorsports plane crashed on its way to the race in Martinsville, killing all 10 people on board. The victims included the brother, son and twin nieces of team owner Rick Hendrick, along with two other key members of the organization.

Johnson won Sunday's race with pictures of the 10 victims painted on the hood of his car, accompanied by the message: "Always In Our Hearts."

"If we're racing the 24 for the championship at Homestead," Knaus said, referring to the season-ending race, "that would mean we're doing what we're supposed to do. That's what Rick Hendrick hired us for. He wanted the two best teams in the shop competing for the championship."