Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: With big lead, Johnson’s team finds time to experiment

Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2004 | 10:06 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Jimmie Johnson left Pocono Raceway Sunday with a 232-point lead in the NASCAR Nextel Cup standings following his fourth victory of the season.

If he is fortunate enough to remain atop the standings after the Sept. 11 race at Richmond International Raceway, Johnson's lead over the second-place driver will shrink to 5 points under NASCAR's new system for determining its champion with a 10-race "Chase for the Championship."

Chad Knaus, Johnson's crew chief, doesn't necessarily see that as a disadvantage.

"We've got to look at the rules and use them to our advantage," Knaus said. "Everybody thinks losing all of our points at the end of the 26 races and going back to nearly zero is a disadvantage. We're taking this time to experiment and to find new racecars we think we like and new chassis set-ups and new aerodynamics packages."

As a result, Johnson won't be driving the same No. 48 Chevrolet in this weekend's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that he used to dominate Sunday's race at Pocono. In fact, Knaus said the team is using the remaining six races in the "regular season" as a prolonged test session.

"We're going to Indianapolis with a new aerodynamics package that we want to try at a high-speed racetrack," Knaus said. "If it works, great; if it doesn't, who really cares? It doesn't really matter. We want to win the race, don't get me wrong."

BUSCH TEAM FOLDS: First-year team owner Michael Holigan announced Monday that he is closing his NASCAR Busch Series team.

David Starr and Regan Smith each made three starts in Holigan's No. 50 Enzyte Chevrolet. Starr's best effort was a 24th-place finish in May at Gateway International Raceway while Smith's best showing was 26th last month at Chicagoland Speedway.

Holigan's Busch Series and AMA Motocross teams have been the focus of the weekly Spike TV show, "The Reality of Speed." Holigan will continue to operate the motocross team he co-owns with Dave Walters.

WATKINS GLEN TESTING: Road-course specialist Boris Said led an abbreviated Nextel Cup test session Monday at Watkins Glen International with a fast lap of 1:12.37 in the MB2 Motorsports Chevrolet.

The top three times of the half-day session were posted by road racers Said, Ron Fellows and Scott Pruett. Dale Jarrett was the fastest among the Nextel Cup regulars at 1:12.99.

The Nextel Cup Series races at Watkins Glen on Aug. 15.

LYNCH LOSES GROUND: Las Vegas resident Scott Lynch twice led Saturday night's NASCAR West Series race at Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway before suffering an engine problem and finishing 23rd.

Lynch, the defending series champion, slipped one spot in the standings, to sixth, and trails series leader Mike Duncan by 180 points after six of 13 races.

Austin Cameron won his third consecutive West Series race and moved to within 15 points of Duncan, who finished fourth. Kerry Earnhardt finished seventh in his second West Series start for Bill McAnally Racing.

AT THE BULLRING: Chuck Trickle earned his second Super Late Model victory of the season during NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series action Saturday night at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Eric Bauer (Late Models), Fred Kiser Jr. (Chargers), Josh Gross (Semi-Pro Legends Cars), Taylor Barton (Pro/Master Legends Cars), Richard Rusin (Thunder Roadsters), Jeremiah Wagner (Bandolero Cars) and Artie White (Bullring Bombers) also posted victories Saturday night.