Best friends Johnson, Gordon eye Cup
HAMPTON, Ga. — They're teammates. They're boss and employee. They're the best of friends.
Only one can be the champion.
Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, who look as though they were peeled off the pages of a fashion magazine and drive even better, have turned the Chase for the Nextel Cup championship into their own personal showdown.
Mano-a-mano, with everyone else just along for the ride.
"It's going to be a fight to end," Johnson promised.
Gordon is still leading the Nextel Cup standings, but had his advantage shaved to a mere nine points when Johnson won Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. With only three races to go, no one else in the Chase is within 100 points.
Despite their close relationship away from the track, there's little doubt that Johnson and Gordon are fierce rivals once they get behind the wheel. This isn't Formula One, where teams often have a strict pecking order for their drivers.
May the best man win this one.
"There's more drama when you have two teammates racing for a championship," Johnson said. "It's not like we are out there just giving each other position and pulling by saying, 'Hi, buddy, go on,' and 'No, sorry, you go through.' It's far from that, and I think that's putting a lot of drama in our sport."
Not for anyone else, though.
This is a two-man party, or some might call it the perfect storm for all those fans who view Gordon and Johnson as a little too polished for a sport with hard-scrabble roots, who see them as two pampered racers who just happen to have the best equipment year in and year out.
"It's easy to criticize from the outside," said Gordon, who finished seventh in Atlanta. "You can't buy a championship in this thing. There are so many guys out there spending a lot of money, hiring the best people and trying to beat us."
All those drivers might as well get started on 2008. Barring a stunning collapse by the Hendrick Motorsports teammates over the next three weeks — and what are the chances of that? — this season has come down to two possible scenarios: Either Johnson will be hoisting the Cup for the second year in a row, or Gordon will take home his sixth series championship.
On Sunday, Johnson spent most of the day lurking behind the leaders, finally moving to the front just three laps from the end of the scheduled 325-lap event. For that, he could thank crew chief Chad Knaus, who made a brilliant audible in the pits.
