Jimmie Johnson Takes His Fourth Win of '07 at Richmond!

Do I love writing a title like that!  Overall, the race at Richmond, which was a day late but short of nothing, was great.  There was a few laps towards the end where drivers couldn't seem to stay away from each other and a handful of cautions was getting me frustrated!  But, what Jimmie Johnson fan wasn't cheering their heart out as Johnson won his fourth race of 2007?

For non-fans, winning races became more important this year.  New rules state that when the top twelve drivers have their points reset for the last ten races of the year (this is the Chase for the Nextel Cup, similar to playoffs in other sports), they get an additional FIVE points for every race they won during the year.  It's very exciting when your driver wins a race, but now it also has a huge signifigance.  Johnson has an extra 20 points when it comes time to reset the points after the 29th race.  Jeff Gordon has won two races this year, giving him an extra ten. 

We've still got another 18 races so anything can happen, but as a Jimmie Johnson fan, it's exciting to not only be winning races, but to have moved up to second in the points standings is fantastic.  It's true, Johnson is behind Jeff Gordon by 211 points, with only 49 points between Johnson and the third place Matt Kenseth, but we have 18 races left!  The Hendricks drivers are dominating the season between Johnson, Gordon and Kyle Busch with a total of seven wins out of the eleven races.  They also are dominating the Car of Tomorow (COT) races, winning all four of the COT races this year.

Richmond was supposed to be run as a night race on Saturday, the fourth COT race.  However, rain killed that plan and the race was rescheduled for 1pm EST on Sunday.  The first half of the race only had a few cautions.  Casey Mears went for a spin early on and the next caution (after the competition yellow at lap 41) was for Jamie McMurray's tire was shredding all over the track.  I have to say I find it interesting that Nascar took several laps before putting the yellow flag out.  Why is it that it took so long in this case, but in other cases, where someone just barely bumps the wall, they pull the flag immediately?  Something smells fishy to me and it clearly should have been a caution well before they finally flew the yellow flag in this case. 

Sadler had a tire problem a little later, and at lap 119 Johnny Sauter and Juan Pablo Montoya went spinning into the wall.  There was a lot of good racing with several lead changes taking place between Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick taking turns.  Kurt Busch had a turn up in front a couple of times, too, and was really looking strong, but Jimmie Johnson took the lead after a pit stop.  There was more spinning taking place:  JJ Yeley, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and Greg Biffle.  Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman got into some serious love tapping as they took turns banging into each other's bumpers, but they managed not to wreck.  There was a short period when Kyle Busch took the lead from Johnson, but in the end Johnson prevailed, taking the checkered flag for the win.  He put on quite a smoke show with his burnout and in Victory Lane dedicated his win to those lost in the Virginia Tech tragedy.

It was a great day at the races.

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