DESPAIN: Chasing Jimmie

NASCAR needs a driver and team to rise up and consistently challenge Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team for supremacy...

Dave Despain | Posted November 22, 2010 Charlotte, NC

Dave Despain, the popular host of Wind Tunnel on SPEED. (Image: SPEED)

When NASCAR icons Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick first became co-owners of rookie Jimmie Johnson's car, I theorized that Jeff, following his fourth championship, took a portion of his earnings and had himself cloned.

Suddenly there were TWO dark-haired Californians loose on the NASCAR land, each with the Hollywood good looks and polished demeanor so adored by corporate America; each having taken a non-traditional path to NASCAR, Gordon via USAC midgets and sprints, Johnson from motocross and off-road trucks.

For old-school fans, this Gordon clone was a new version of an old nightmare.

Ten years earlier, Jeff burst upon the scene and re-wrote the definition of a NASCAR star. He was the anti-Earnhardt, and a new generation of fans tuned in to watch “Wonderboy” face down “The Intimidator.” Meantime, the old guard in black T-shirts bought their tickets and licked their chops, eager for Dale to kick little Jeffie’s pretty boy butt. It was great theater - the fresh-faced personification of American youth versus the rough-hewn good ol’ boy who had for years bullied his way around the NASCAR stage.

Never mind that Earnhardt and Gordon were in fact good friends and occasional business partners, bound by infinite mutual respect. As the weekly drama unfolded in the hearts and minds of the fans, each willingly played his part, and until Earnhardt died, that rivalry defined the sport. The turnstiles spun. Ratings soared.

A decade later, Johnson is celebrating a jaw-dropping fifth-straight title in company with Chad Knaus, protégé of Gordon’s prolific Earnhardt-era crew chief Ray Evernham. (Perhaps there was a second cloning somewhere along the way?) Pundits, meantime, continue to ponder the parallel story, notable box office slippage during Jimmie’s unprecedented reign.

Is there a cause-and-effect relationship? Ask yourself this: What kind of resurgence in fan interest would we see if Earnhardt’s kid were to magically rise up and challenge the Gordon clone? If Dale Jr. could manage that, old guard fans might even forgive his crossing to the Dark Side, abandoning his father’s team to join ranks with the hated Hendrick pretty boys. But Junior is no threat, and in that he is not alone. Witness the top three finishers in points over the past five years:

2006
1. Johnson
2. Matt Kenseth
3. Denny Hamlin

2007
1. Johnson
2. Gordon
3. Clint Bowyer

2008
1. Johnson
2. Carl Edwards
3. Greg Biffle

2009
1. Johnson
2. Mark Martin
3. Gordon

2010
1. Johnson
2. Hamlin
3. Kevin Harvick

Jimmie Johnson does a burnout at Homestead-Miami Speedway after winning his fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Apart from the No. 48 team’s relentless display of greatness, are you not struck by the absolute lack of a consistent challenge from anybody else? Only Gordon and Hamlin have managed to put their names on that list twice. Where are the rest of the would-be champions? Where is Johnson’s rival?

What NASCAR racing really needs right now is for one of those 42 other teams to get its act together. Until that happens, until somebody consistently rises to the challenge that Johnson and Knaus represent, the Sprint Cup story will remain the same – everybody chasing Jimmie.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dave Despain

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