Friday, Nov. 5, 2004 | 10:47 a.m.
AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Kurt Busch may have the NASCAR Nextel Cup points lead, but Jimmie Johnson has momentum on his side going into Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.
Johnson, who trails Busch by 59 points with three races remaining in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, has won three consecutive races and vaulted from eighth to second in points. But Johnson insisted there isn't an air of invincibility surrounding his Hendrick Motorsports team because of his recent success.
"Oh no, this sport is way too humbling to feel invincible," Johnson said this week. "Anything can happen in our sport. When we think back to Pocono and what took place between then and Charlotte, we had -- I don't know how many races are in there -- but there weren't many good ones. I remember a third (place finish) in Bristol and some other good performances, but there was a lot of trouble with crashes and a lot of stuff going on.
"You can't get to the invincible stage in our sport; as soon as you get cocky, the racing gods will level the playing field for you."
Busch, a Las Vegas native in his fourth full season in NASCAR's premier series, knows a little about that. After posting six consecutive top-six finishes -- including one victory -- in the first six Chase for the Nextel Cup races, Busch suffered a blown engine and a 37th-place finish last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Busch's day could have been disastrous had fellow contenders Jeff Gordon (34th) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (33rd) not suffered similar problems at Atlanta.
Busch, however, remained confident about his championship chances because of his success on the tracks that will host the final three races: Phoenix International Raceway, Darlington Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway.
"We've done an awesome job for six weeks," Busch said. "We stumbled this past week, but we've got three more to go and they're great racetracks for us.
"(Crew chief Jimmy Fennig) and the rest of the team have built a fantastic car that we are taking out to Phoenix. I really enjoy that track and it's one I have a lot of experience with in the Southwest Tour Series and Craftsman Truck Series."
Busch is coming off back-to-back top-10 finishes at PIR, having finished fourth last year and sixth in 2002, but his closest pursuers in the title hunt also have performed well at the 1-mile oval. Johnson ran second to Earnhardt here last year and Gordon has posted six consecutive top-10 finishes at PIR.
Gordon is third in points, 72 behind Busch, while Mark Martin (81 points back) and Earnhardt (98 back) also are legitimate title contenders with three races remaining.
But none is riding the kind of hot streak that has seen Johnson score victories at Charlotte, Martinsville and Atlanta. Johnson, who has a series-leading seven victories this season and 13 in his three-year career, said none was more special than his win Sunday at Atlanta -- which came as the NASCAR community was mourning the deaths of 10 members of the Hendrick Motorsports family in a small-plane crash Oct. 24.
Team owner Rick Hendrick's son, Ricky, brother, John and twin nieces, Kimberly and Jennifer Hendrick, were among those killed when the plane they were taking to Martinsville Speedway crashed. Also killed on the plane were Joe Jackson, an executive with DuPont; Jeff Turner, general manager of Hendrick Motorsports; Randy Dorton, the team's chief engine builder; Scott Lathram, a pilot for driver Tony Stewart; and pilots Richard Tracy and Elizabeth Morrison.
"It was the proudest moment of my driving career," Johnson said of his victory at Atlanta. "There is so much pride to be able to do what we did and put a smile on faces that have been mourning for a week.
"To be able to put a smile on Rick's face and Joe Jackson's wife's face and John Hendrick's wife's face ... you just go down the list ... and just to put a smile on their faces for five seconds was all that was needed to start a little bit more of the healing process. There's a lot of pride in that."
Johnson said he was unsure if his chase for the championship had taken on new meaning to him in light of the tragedy.
"I don't know, to be honest with you," he said. "If we could do it, a lot of emotions would surface at that point and the meaning would define itself. But at this point, I'm just not letting it in, I guess -- and that's a good thing.
"There were points in the season when I had that feeling and there's a burden that comes with being a championship leader and having that pressure and answering all the questions and everything that comes with that. We're just going to keep going and if we're fortunate enough to do it, the meaning will take shape then. Until then, there are three more trophies to get and that's what we're going to try to do."
Johnson this weekend will attempt to become only the eighth driver in NASCAR's modern era (1972 to present) to win four consecutive Cup races. Richard Petty holds NASCAR's all-time record (1949 to present) with 10 consecutive victories in 1967.
"It's really special, but I don't think it's my style to sit and think about what we've accomplished," Johnson said of his streak. "There has been so much going on in the last couple of weeks that that's kind of helped us as a team not to look at what we've done and to continue to look forward.
"It's been a great run of races. We'll just keep plugging away and I think these last three races have shown us it takes a full day's work. If we're not the best car in the beginning, it doesn't matter; you just keep working on it. It's a long day and the lap that really pays is the one at the end and we've been able to be the best car at the end for the last three weeks in a row."
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