WRAL Sports Fan

NASCAR

Gordon says this is best season yet for Johnson

By SceneDaily.com

Nov 17, 2008

Four-time NASCAR Cup champion Jeff Gordon says Jimmie Johnson’s 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship was more impressive than last year’s because Johnson and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team faced serious adversity this season.

Johnson stumbled out of the gate this year with only one top-12 finish in the season’s first five races. He, crew chief Chad Knaus and the rest of the team rallied, however, to win their third consecutive Cup championship in Sunday’s season finale.

“I saw them struggle for the first time,” Gordon said of his good friend and teammate. “Last year, we just were the two dominant cars all season long, and it really just came down to outperforming one another, and they outperformed us, and that was impressive to me. But I was more disappointed in ourselves that we couldn’t outperform them. ...

“This season, they really had to get it turned around. The just weren’t off a little; they were off a lot at times like we were and – boom – they got it turned around, and while the 99 [of Carl Edwards] and 18 [of Kyle Busch] were just dominating, it was like it didn’t even phase them. They got it where they could beat them.”

How’d they do it? Hard work, Gordon said.

“Great teamwork,” Gordon said. “Just not giving up, just trying things. When things weren’t going their way, they didn’t just sit there and do nothing. They went to work. We all go to work, but they’re such a good team.

“I don’t think people give enough credit in this series about an overall great team. To me, when I see dominance like they’ve had, like we had, it’s just the overall team that’s just amazing. They feel like they’re unbeatable every time they go on the track, and that’s tough to beat. In some ways, they are.”