Johnson's unstoppable run, Junior's year of discontent & more notes

Only six Chase drivers are within 200 points of Jimmie Johnson, who's on his way to a fourth consecutive points title. John Harrelson/Getty Images

CONCORD, N.C. -- Jimmie Johnson has turned "The Chase" into NASCAR's version of Groundhog Day.

And there appears little the other 11 drivers in The Chase can do to keep Johnson from winning a record fourth-straight Sprint Cup title, especially after Johnson's dominating performance in Saturday night's race at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

The rest of the Chasers have to feel as helpless and frustrated as Pittsburgh meteorologist Phil Connors, the character played by Bill Murray in the 1993 film when during a trip to Punxsutawney, Pa. for the annual "Groundhog Day," he finds himself repeating the same day, over and over.

Well, that's what The Chase has turned into the last four years, as 12 drivers start the 10-race portion of the schedule -- only for 11 to watch Johnson and the No. 48 team at Hendrick Motorsports drive away with the Cup.

As cloudy and overcast as it was Saturday in the Piedmont of North Carolina, nobody saw their shadow, meaning six more weekends of Jimmie Johnson.

He won his sixth career Cup race at the 1-1/2-mile oval Saturday night and heads to a track next weekend that suits his style even better -- the short track known as Martinsville Speedway, where Johnson is a six-time winner.

"We've won more races in the last couple years there than probably anywhere, and hoping for another one," Johnson said.

Where's "Punxsutawney Phil" when you need him? Or, better yet, Andie McDowell, the Gaffney, S.C.-born actress who played Rita in the film version of Groundgog Day, who finally broke the time loop bringing Connors into Feb. 3.

But with the victory increasing Johnson's lead over Mark Martin to 90 points and third-place Jeff Gordon now trailing by 135 points, when NASCAR's fellow drivers wake up on Nov. 23 -- the day after the season's finale race at Homestead-Miami Speedway -- they are going to be reading about Johnson's record fourth-straight Cup title.

Consider that in the first five races of The Chase Johnson has won three of the five -- actually three of the last four races.

So, what can be done to prevent Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and team owner Rick Hendrick from celebrating a fourth straight title?

"That's a good question," said Carl Edwards, who is 10th in the standings and, at 341 points behind Johnson, realizes he is all but mathematically out of serious contention. "The simple answer is we need to beat them. A year ago at this time, I felt like head-to-head slight edge on the race track. We have to figure out what about our operation, our problem-solving, our testing, what allows them to be ahead more in the curve than the rest of us. I think that's what everyone has to look at is we have to figure out what their process is and how they do so well because it's spectacular.

"Not to take anything away from Jimmie as a driver, but they are always on top of it with strategy, equipment, failure rates, qualifying, all the things that make an entire package they're very good."

There are only six drivers within 200 points of Johnson and Martin is the only driver less than 100 points back. Johnson is going to have to incur some bad luck while another driver will have to get hot in order to derail his championship Chase.

"It's all about us to knock Jimmie Johnson off the top," said fellow Chaser Kurt Busch of Penske Racing, who is fifth in the standings 177 behind Johnson. "Those guys have the perfect combination; it seems like, for all the race tracks. They've done it the last three years. It's amazing.

"Just the combination of Hendrick Motorsports, Chad Knaus, Jimmie Johnson, and Chevrolet ... you name it. The depth that they have is deep. It's like having a basketball team with four or five guys on the bench that could be starters for other teams. It seems like they just have all the weapons.

"For the rest of us, it's going to take some luck. It's going to take some hard work. There might be something that we can do to out-smart a Chad Knaus or to out-drive a Jimmie Johnson. But there's no way that we can rally 11 versus one. That would be the ideal situation. We'd want 11 versus one."

Yes, only a "gang fight" might keep Johnson from driving to another championship, but there is one problem to that concept -- somebody has to catch Johnson's Chevrolet before the rest of the posse can jump in.

"All we can do is be optimistic about our programs and try to figure out a way to beat him each week," said Greg Biffle, who is seventh in the standings, 268 behind Johnson. "Whether we can beat the 48 (Johnson) or the 5 (Martin) or the 24 (Gordon), whoever it is, we'll just wait and see what happens, but that's all we can do every week is do our best."

Five of Johnson's six Martinsville Speedway wins have come in the last six races at the flat, half-mile track. And while the other drivers seem to concede that Johnson's dominance at Martinsville will continue, they are targeting the Talladega race in two weeks as their last best chance to make up some ground on Johnson.

But the points leader admits there are more land mines in his path to another championship.

"Sure, that's the track that you don't have any control at," Johnson said of Talladega. "But we're only halfway through this thing. So much can happen. Somebody at Martinsville can lose their brakes and clean you out. With the double file restart there's going to be a lot of bumping and banging. Someone can get into you and knock a valve stem out or cut a tire.

"It's a nice points lead, but there's no need for anybody to get too excited yet.

"We've got good tracks ahead for us, so from a team standpoint we're excited and optimistic, but there is a lot of danger out there and we've just got to be smart."

Being smart is what has gotten Johnson, Knaus and Hendrick in this position.

In fact, winning a championship isn't just a goal with these guys; it's an expectation.

"Yeah, it is," Hendrick admitted. "I don't like to say it that way, but you want to win it, you think you can win it, but you know it's going to be a fight. You folks and the fans expect it.

"And I'll tell you we're going to enjoy it while we can."

Even Hendrick knows that Groundhog Day will eventually end, that some year another driver will win the Sprint Cup title.

But in the meantime, the alarm clock for NASCAR continues to go off at 6 a.m. with Sonny and Cher singing "I Got You, Babe," just as it did for Bill Murray in the movie.