‘Five Time’ Joins Battle For Top Chase Seeding

‘Five Time’ Joins Battle For Top Chase Seeding

It’s getting crowded at the top.
Jimmie Johnson’s third victory of the season – and record-matching fourth win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway – creates a trio of drivers fighting for top seeding in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™.
He joins reigning champion Tony Stewart and Brad Keselowski. Each would begin the post season with nine bonus points, three points for each victory on top of a base of 2,000. Johnson, whose perfect 150.0 Driver Rating was the first in the series since the final race of 2010 (Carl Edwards), looks more and more like the competitor who won five consecutive championships.
Over the past seven races beginning with a fourth-place performance at Pocono Raceway, Johnson has a victory and four top-five and six top-10 finishes. Stewart and Keselowski also have won during that span.
Johnson, 36, makes no secret of his ultimate goal: eight NASCAR Sprint Cup championships, one more than the seven of NASCAR Hall of Famers Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. Petty was 42 when he won his last title; Earnhardt was 43.
"I feel that from a performance standpoint, we're as strong as we've ever been. We've had issues late in a race that's cost us track position for a variety of reasons and that's the part that we need to make sure is buttoned up before the Chase starts and carry that through the Chase," said Johnson, who won for the 58th time, second among active drivers.