Jimmie Johnson makes last-ditch attempt to get into Brad Keselowski's head
Nov. 15, 2012
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
HOMESTEAD,
Fla. -- Brad Keselowski is doing his level best to focus on the
business at hand -- winning a NASCAR Sprint Cup championship
-- despite Jimmie Johnson's best efforts to make Keselowski concentrate
on other things.
With
one race left on the schedule, Sunday's Ford EcoBoost 400 at
Homestead-Miami Speedway, Keselowski and Johnson are the only two
drivers mathematically alive in the battle for the Cup championship.
Keselowski has the upper hand, leading Johnson by 20 points; if the
driver of the No. 2 Dodge finishes 15th or better, he'll be the champion, no matter what else happens during
the race.
Johnson, however, is trying to make sure Keselowski is aware of everything that could possibly go wrong.
As
the drivers share the dais during Thursday's press conference at the
1.5-mile track where they'll settle the title on Sunday, Johnson
pointed out that finishing 15th in the Cup series isn't a
layup. Then he reminded Keselowski of the IndyCar season finale at
Fontana, Calif., where Ryan Hunter-Reay overcame a 17-point deficit to
wrest the title from Will Power.
"You
know, of course, I'm going to find points that give myself motivation
and my team," Johnson said. "And, Brad,
if you'd like me to call later and remind you of any other examples, I
certainly can, of guys that didn't pull off the season finale as they
would hope.
"But
one thing I've learned is that, regardless of how experienced anyone is
in this championship battle, at some point
the magnitude of it hits you. At some point -- he may be very
comfortable and calm now; it may not happen until he's in the car -- but
at some point that magnitude hits, and I've lived through it five
times.
"That's
a turning moment, and we'll see how he responds. It also carries over
to guys changing tires. There's some
point where every member on that race team goes, ‘This is it -- this is
what I've worked so hard far.' I'll be glad to point out those moments
as needed."
Keselowski doesn't plan to sit in his car, wondering when that moment will come.
"You know that he has a motivation behind his comments that discredits them of credibility," Keselowski said. "It's
pretty easy to brush off when you think about it that way."
CLEAN SLATE FOR STENHOUSE
Ricky
Stenhouse Jr. will win his second straight Nationwide Series
championship on Sunday if his 20-point lead over
Elliott Sadler stands up, but Stenhouse's future lies in the Cup
series, where he'll race full-time for the first time next year.
On
Wednesday, Roush Fenway Racing announced its driver/crew chief lineup
for 2013. For those who expected either Jimmy
Fennig (current Cup crew chief of departing Matt Kenseth) or Mike
Kelley (Stenhouse's Nationwide crew chief) to lead the 25-year-old
driver's foray into NASCAR's top division, the appointment of engineer
Scott Graves came as a surprise.
"It's
cool to have a crew chief that doesn't have any habits," Stenhouse told
the NASCAR Wire Service after the formal
press conferences at Homestead. "It's not like I'm coming in and I'm
having to adjust to him. He's going to come in and kind of learn what I
like, and that's what he's going to roll with.
"I think that's a cool situation to be in."
Stenhouse
participated in the decision to install Graves as his crew chief, in a
series of moves that sent Fennig to
the No. 99 Ford of Carl Edwards, who has been mired in a year-long
slump after losing the 2011 championship to Tony Stewart on a
tiebreaker.
"Before
the announcement came out, before any decisions were made, (general
manager) Robbie Reiser and (team owner)
Jack (Roush) came to me, and we sat down and talked about all the
different scenarios and all the different situations, what we thought
was best -- not only for me, but for our company in general," Stenhouse
said.
"I
think we did the best with what we had within our company to make our
company strong all the way across the board.
We need Carl back in championship form. We need Greg (Biffle) to be in
championship form. We need guys that want to work hard and build a
relationship and work up with me. I think all the pieces are in the
right place."
POSSIBLE MILESTONES
If
he should win the Sprint Cup title, Brad Keselowski would be the first
Michigan native to do so. Keselowski, 28,
also would be the first Cup champion born after Richard Petty won his
seventh and final championship (1979) and after Dale Earnhardt Sr. won
his first (1980).
If Ty Dillon, 20, were to overcome a 12-point deficit to James Buescher and win the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
championship, he would supplant his brother, Austin Dillon, as the youngest champion in series history.
Should
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. win the Nationwide Series title, he would become
the sixth driver to claim back-to-back
championships. Sam Ard (1983-1984), Larry Pearson (1986-1987), Randy
LaJoie (1996-1997), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (1998-1999) and Martin Truex Jr.
(2004-2005) are the five drivers who already have achieved that
distinction.
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