Burton staying on Johnson's radar as the Chase heads to Martinsville

Jeff Burton will be on Jimmie Johnson's mind at Martinsville this weekend. Getty Images

Can he do it?

This is the question that will be floating around the garage this weekend at tiny Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, where race number six in the Chase for the Championship will take place Sunday afternoon. Can Jeff Burton slice into Jimmie Johnson's point lead?

Burton trails Johnson by 69 points. If history is any gauge -- and it often is in NASCAR -- it won't be easy for Burton to make up any ground at the .526-mile paperclip-shaped track. Johnson, after all, has won three of the last four Cup races at Martinsville; Burton last won there 11 years ago. But if any driver is going to give Johnson a fight for the title over these next five weeks, it's probably going to be Burton.

The two most dominant drivers of the regular season -- Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards -- have flamed out and are no longer in title contention. Greg Biffle is within striking distance of Johnson (86 points behind) should he falter. But Johnson has been so consistent in the Chase that a driver will have to out-race Johnson rather than hope he gives the title away by crashing or suffering mechanical problems. How good has Johnson been in the Chase since the 2006 season, when he won his first title? In the last 21 Chase races, Johnson has 19 top-10 finishes and six wins.

So the challenge of preventing Johnson from capturing his third straight title likely falls to the 41-year-old Burton and Burton alone, which is a rather stunning development considering his career was in serious jeopardy four years ago. In 2004, Burton was let go by Jack Roush a little more than halfway through the season. Burton hadn't won a race in more than three years and Roush wanted to make room in his stable for an up-and-coming driver named Carl Edwards. Owner Richard Childress quickly signed Burton, who many in the garage wrote off as being washed up. Richard Childress Racing had been struggling since its marquee driver Dale Earnhardt Sr. died at Daytona in 2001, and Childress hoped that a veteran like Burton could revitalize his team.

It was a daunting task; RCR had only won seven races in the previous four years and none of the team's drivers seriously contended for championships. But Burton helped Childress rebuild the team brick by brick. RCR beefed up its engine department, built new cars, hired new personnel, improved its pit crews, and brought on a young talent in Clint Bowyer.

The organization was reborn. In the last two years all three RCR drivers -- Burton, Bowyer, and Kevin Harvick -- have qualified for the Chase. This says as much about Burton as it does the team because he's the driving force behind RCR. As the unofficial spokesperson for all the Cup drivers, Burton is easily the most respected driver in the garage, and when he talks, people listen -- especially members of his own team. This is why he's been so instrumental in reshaping RCR; his owner and his team act on his suggestions.

This season Burton has two victories, but he hasn't flashed the consistency of speed that Johnson has. Burton admits that his car is a tick slower than Johnson's, yet he believes he can counteract that by being more cunning than Johnson, whether this comes in the form of making gutsy calls on pit road or simply knowing when and when not to take chances on the track.

"Jeff has been doing this a long time," says Johnson. "He knows the tracks. On the track, he's smart. He knows how to race hard. He knows how to race and get points. He's always been on my radar."

He should be, Jimmie, because it's likely that he's all that stands between you and a third title.