Jimmie Johnson’s on the ropes
He needs to win to keep alive Cup title hopes
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs move from the heart of Texas to the desert this weekend for the final elimination race of the season.
Sunday’s Can-Am 500 at Phoenix Raceway will determine the last remaining spot in the final four who will race for the championship Nov. 19 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Kevin Harvick, who took the trophy at Texas Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch, who prevailed at Martinsville Speedway, and Martin Truex Jr. have clinched spots.
Here are five takeaways from the AAA Texas 500, the second race in the round of eight.
Harvick did it his way: Harvick has been something of an afterthought through much of the playoff season and, having never won in Texas and only once this season, certainly wasn’t looked upon as a driver to watch for the AAA Texas 500. Yet the 41-year-old Californian found a way to drive his No. 4 Ford past the more dominant Toyotas, especially Truex’s, and get his first win in Fort Worth, clinching a spot in the final four. Harvick did it on his own, having no radio contact with his Stewart-Haas Racing crew chief Rodney Childers during the last crucial laps, as he passed Truex with nine laps remaining and never looked back.
“I don’t talk to him when he’s (locked in) like that,” Childers said. “Honestly, nobody needs to. It’s up to him. Kevin changed some things around there at the end and figured some stuff out. ... He’s the one that made the difference today.”
Harvick now moves on to Phoenix, his best racetrack, where he has won six of the last 10 races and eight overall, most by any NASCAR driver at that track. Is it bye-bye Jimmie? Jimmie Johnson’s shot at defending his Cup title and winning the championship for a record eighth time, surpassing Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty, comes down to this: Win or go home. It is virtually impossible for him to earn enough points to get into the final four given his disastrous result Sunday at Texas, where has won seven times — more than anyone else — and was expected to do well. That didn’t happen. He had car trouble early, pitting off-cycle in Stage 1 because of a vibration in his No. 48 Chevrolet. That put him two laps down, and he finished 27th, three laps back. He has won four times at Phoenix, but the pressure to win Sunday will be like never before. Chevy left out in the cold, so far: Two Toyota drivers and one Ford driver are locked into the final four. Of the remaining five playoff drivers, Chevrolets (Chase Elliott and Johnson) sit seventh and eighth in the standings, respectively. So there is a very real chance Chevy could be locked out of the championship hunt. Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney drive for Ford and Truex, Busch and Denny Hamlin for Toyota.
Taking the high road: The talk among NASCAR scribes and fans coming into the Texas race was whether Elliott, who was deprived of possibly his first career Cup victory after the thenrace leader was nudged into the wall by Denny Hamlin during the last crazy laps at Martinsville, would retaliate against Hamlin, with whom he engaged in a heated-face-to-face postrace confrontation, when they got to Texas. But the 21-year-old son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott took the high road and advised reporters not to even ask about it during his news conference Friday. By all accounts, Elliott ran a clean race after starting from the 34th spot because he failed to qualify. Elliott ended up finishing a respectable eighth but lost a chance to collect crucial stage points, which puts him in a precarious position in the standings. Like his Chevy teammate Johnson, that makes Phoenix a must-win situation to advance to the final four.
The right call: A postrace tradition was broken at Texas Motor Speedway, and it might have been the best call of the day. The firing of two pistols to celebrate Harvick’s victory lane celebration was canceled after the worst mass shooting in Texas history that morning that killed 26 people in a church near San Antonio. Track President Eddie Gossage told USA TODAY the decision was “the respectful thing to do.” Actually, it was the only thing to do.