Gordon and Johnson set for the face off
Homestead has aptly been billed as “Ford Championship Weekend,” but the real face-off in the Chase for the Nextel Cup (featuring superstars and favorites Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon) is on Sunday at the Phoenix International Raceway.
And the Hendrick Motorsports teammates seem to be ready to hit the dirt, after two days of grueling practice and qualifying. The session included four on-track sessions and 226 laps of the variably-banked one-mile track preparing for the Checker Auto Parts 500.
Gordon, the flamboyant four-time Cup champion who even won here in April in the Car of Tomorrow’s first visit to Phoenix, is hot on the tail of defending Nextel Cup champion Johnson. He lags in the tables by 30 points. But Johnson has worked towards this lead and top position by winning three consecutive races and both men now know the pressure is on.
“It’s definitely been a heck of a battle — Jimmie and those guys have done a fantastic job the last three weeks, there’s no doubt about that, the wins speak for themselves,” Gordon said. “We’ve got to step it up. There’s no hiding that and I hope we can pull that off right here in Phoenix.”
At least in the practice sessions, Gordon seemed to have the upper hand, out running his team mate in three of the four on track sessions and beating him in the qualifiers. Even then, the point to be noted is that the two Hendrick men were never separated by more than nine spots in any session, and only 0.15 seconds on the clock. After Happy Hour, both Gordon’s crew chief Steve Letarte and Johnson’s team leader Chad Knaus were pleased.
“I think we’re pretty decent,” Letarte said. “During Happy Hour, the track definitely had a little less grip than it did in the first [Saturday] practice. I think it took whatever problem you had and accentuated it a bit — where our loose-in got a little bit worse.”
