Hendrick hustle at Martinsville

Johnson edges Gordon for third victory

DAVID POOLE, dpoole@charlotteobserver.com

Sunday, Apr. 01, 2007

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MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Jimmie Johnson won Sunday's Goody's 500 at Martinsville Speedway because teammate Jeff Gordon didn't wreck him.

Or, perhaps, because Gordon couldn't wreck him, no matter how hard he tried.

The distinction was difficult for either to draw after the second straight side-by-side drag race to the checkered flag in NASCAR's Nextel Cup Series.

Last week at Bristol (Tenn.), Jeff Burton pushed Kyle Busch to the limit off the final turn but stopped short of punting Busch's Chevrolet out of the lead in the Food City 500. This time, it was Johnson holding off Gordon by less than the length of their "cars of tomorrow."

Gordon chased Johnson for the final 50 laps, and you could see the finish building the way clouds that hung over the .526-mile had for much of the day.

Those clouds let loose to halt the race for nearly 32 minutes, but there was no thunder or lightning. Nor was there sufficient rain to send much of the crowd home happy since Dale Earnhardt Jr. was leading at the time.

In a similar manner, there was none of the heavy stuff that might have set in had Gordon taken out Johnson to win -- or had Johnson done barely a whit more than he did to protect his lead. The bonds of Hendrick Motorsports' team spirit were strained to the breaking point, but managed somehow to hold.

"I don't know how he could have hit me any harder," Johnson said of several raps Gordon gave him, capped by a thump through Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap that allowed Gordon to pull alongside. "I literally would put my head back against my seat and wait for it."

Gordon knocked, but Johnson refused to open the door.

Johnson came off Turn 4 the last time on the outside and drifted left to crowd Gordon on their drag race to the finish. Johnson got there 65 one-thousandths of a second before Gordon to win for the third time this year and 26th time in his career.

"I didn't want to wreck him," Gordon said. "That's why we finished second and not first. ... If there had been anybody else in second, he probably wouldn't have won."

Gordon said Johnson drove "hard and aggressive, as he should have."

He also said it will be interesting to see how he and Johnson might race each other going forward. "He did what he needed to do," Gordon said. "If the roles are reversed, though, I am going to do what I need to do to protect that spot as well."

Johnson wasn't sure Gordon cut him all that much slack.

"I don't think I would have hit him as hard as many times trying to get by him," Johnson said.

Johnson's car was nowhere near where it needed to be until crew chief Chad Knaus threw up his hands midway through Saturday's first practice. Johnson was last on the speed chart, and Knaus went looking for help. He found Steve Letarte, Gordon's crew chief, and got the setup from the No. 24 Chevrolet. Knaus put that on Johnson's car in time for the final practice, and that finally gave him and Johnson something they could work with.

Johnson started 20th Sunday. As he was working toward the front, Denny Hamlin, Earnhardt Jr. and Gordon were leading all but 23 of the first 377 laps. Busch, in another Hendrick-owned Chevrolet, parlayed pit strategy to lead from Lap 378 to Lap 387. But after Johnson passed him to take over first, nobody else led.

Not that Gordon didn't try.

"Without wrecking him, there was no way I was going to get it done," Gordon said. "And I didn't get it done."

Gordon's second-place finish was his third this year. Hendrick Motorsports has won the past four races -- Johnson at Las Vegas and Atlanta, Busch at Bristol and Johnson at Martinsville -- but Gordon hasn't won any of them. He is the points leader, though, by 28 over Burton and 60 over Johnson.

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