Jimmie Johnson Wins at Phoenix - Gains Points

Jimmie Johnson did what he had to do after a disasterous race at Texas by winning the Sprint Cup race at Phoenix. His win puts him 108 points ahead of Mark Martin with one race in the Chase to go. Mark Martin finished fourth in the race. As Jimmie said in Victory Lane, 108 is better than 73 or 74 points. Jeff Gordon is 169 points behind the leader. He finished ninth in the race at Phoenix.

The Cup Series race had some interesting problems for one driver. Denny Hamlin complained on his radio that Jeff Gordon was short into his pitbox and therefore stacked up everyonelse. He certainly loves to complain about anything and everything. I certainly hope his teammate Joey Logano doesn't end up this way.

A great finish for Jeff Burton who finished second in his #31 Cat Chevy. Martin Truex Jr finished fifth in his #1 Rainex Chevy. First top 5 finish this year. And Marcos Ambrose finished 11th.

So the Top 3 in points in the Chase for the Cup is;

Jimmie Johnson Leader
Mark Martin -108
Jeff Gordon -169

In other racing, Ron Hornaday has clinched the Camping World Truck Series title for 2009. This is his fourth title in the Truck Series, his second title with Kevin Harvick Inc. Ron also has two titles with Dale Earnhardt Inc, driving the #16 NAPA Chevy in 1996 and 1998.

The race was actually quite boring, unless you followed Ron Hornaday or Kevin Harvick. Ron stayed upfront until he had an unexpected pitstop, because of a refueling error. His crew plugged in the gas can before the catch can. It's suppose to be the other way around. So the 33 team ended up taking four tires and starting shotgun on the field, while second place points contender Matt Crafton was 10th. Now the 33 had to pick its way through the field, to its ultimate finish of fourth. Ron's boss, Kevin Harvick, ran a brand new #4 truck, brought out the first caution with what looked like oil in turn three and four. He rallyed back to win the race, over Kyle Busch and Aric Almirola.

Kyle Busch didn't try to replay last weeks bump into Hornaday, almost effecting the outcome of the Championship. Busch is trying to clinch the owners Championship for Ballau Racing, down just 16 points to KHI and the #33 team. The Nationwide Series would prove different.

Carl Edwards won the Nationwide Race at Phoenix yesterday with a dominating run, leading the most laps in the race to gain maximum points. Kyle Busch will have to just start the race at Homestead to clinch that Championship. But you wouldn't think it was that easy for Busch. He complained on the radio to his spotter when the #16 of Matt Kenseth passed him, taking him out of the running for clinching now. He stormed off after the race and refused a tv interview. He doesn't know what graceful is. Neither does his teammate Denny Hamlin.

Denny Hamlin had an incident with his Nationwide Series rival Brad Keselowski. Hamlin bumped the 88 car to move him up the track. Keselowski saved it, but when Keselowski returned the favor, he spun out Hamlin. Remarks after the race by Hamlin told everyone that Hamlin would get him back at Homestead. Keselowski downplayed the incident and called it a racing incident.

In a footnote, NASCAR had a closed door meeting with Brad Keselowski to calm things down. Whats small now, may be a major incident on track later.