FORT WORTH, Texas — Mathematically, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon still have a chance to win the Sprint Cup title.
The reality with three races left?
“We’ve still got a great battle going for second in points,” Gordon said Friday. “If for some crazy reason those guys had trouble, we’ve got to make sure we capitalize on them. Our focus right now is winning races, and trying to get to second in points.”
In his run for an unprecedented fourth consecutive title, Jimmie Johnson’s closest chasers are his Hendrick teammates. But Johnson takes a comfortable 184-point lead over Martin into Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway, with Gordon eight points further back.
Martin, already a season runner-up four times, is facing the realistic possibility of being in that spot again. His deficit increased by 66 points after an airborne crash with two laps to go at Talladega.
“Definitely no heartbreak whatsoever. But Talladega did rub ... I would rather go down fighting than flipping,” Martin said. “I didn’t take this job to go try and get a championship trophy. I took this job, you know why, and doggone, it has worked out pretty good. We have been in a position; it still could happen. The race is still on for the top six positions.”
Except Johnson needs only to average a 10th-place finish over the last three races, or 11th if he leads at least one lap in every race, to clinch the championship. Johnson has an average finish of 3.4 in the seven Chase races so far, finishing top 10 in all of them.
Both his close-chasing teammates will start ahead of Johnson, who qualified 12th. Gordon is the polesitter for the first time this season and 68th time in his career. Martin will roll off seventh Sunday.
FORT HOOD — Dale Earnhardt Jr. loves to talk about his sponsorship ties to the military. He had a hard time finding the words to discuss the massacre that left 13 people dead at Fort Hood.
Texas Motor Speedway is just 170 miles north of the site of a shooting spree that also injured 30, including the suspected gunman. A U.S. Army logo with the message “God Bless Our Fort Hood Troops” was painted on the infield grass. Moments of silence were planned before each event, including Sunday’s Sprint Cup race.
“It’s pretty scary, and obviously there’s a lot of people that are dealing with a lot of loss today,” Earnhardt told The Associated Press after a long pause. “They have a lot of people in the hospital, so there’s a lot of families upset and dealing with a lot of trouble so it’s pretty difficult for everybody.”
EARNHARDT-PATRICK — Earnhardt Jr. says Danica Patrick would be good for NASCAR, but there’s nothing new to report on the IndyCar star joining his team.
Earnhardt told The Associated Press that other teams were still in the mix for Patrick’s services. He said the talks were still in their early stages.
His comments came after ESPN reported a deal could be in place soon between Patrick and Earnhardt’s Nationwide Series team, JR Motorsports. Patrick would run a partial Nationwide schedule while running full-time in the IRL.
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