Edwards, as did Johnson, will benefit from shortfalls

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- They met for the first time in 2002, when Carl Edwards was a rookie on the Craftsman Truck Series, Jimmie Johnson was a rookie on the circuit now known as Sprint Cup, and two drivers who would one day battle for championships found themselves in a house full of people they didn't know. Somehow they had both been invited to the traditional season-opening party at the Daytona Beach home of Lesa France Kennedy, granddaughter of the sport's late founder. They wound up sitting on the steps, feeling like awkward outsiders, with no one to talk to but one another.

From that initial meeting arose a mutual respect. Edwards admired Johnson's easy-going attitude, not to mention the fact that he had come out of nowhere to snag the Daytona 500 pole. Johnson liked that Edwards would race anything, anytime. Both were eager, earnest drivers loaded with potential, and backed by the sport's top organizations. Even then, it wouldn't have been impossible to envision them staring one another down across the garage area, with NASCAR's biggest prize to be decided between them.

They're more alike than you might think. Johnson, who needs a finish of 36th or better in Sunday's finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway to secure a record-tying third Cup Series championship, once pestered fellow American Speed Association driver Gary St. Amant over the definitions of tight, loose, stagger and wedge. Edwards, 141 points behind Johnson, once pestered Missouri truck owner Mike Mittler again and again to give him a chance behind the wheel. Both built their careers on perseverance -- Johnson by crafting business proposals and contact networks, Edwards by handing out business cards and buying newspaper ads. And should Edwards' long-shot bid at the title fall short, he needs only to look at the driver holding the sterling silver trophy to find solace.

Because Jimmie Johnson wasn't always this unstoppable force, this driver who leaves his challengers beaten and awestruck as he charges toward Cale Yarborough's 30-year-old record for consecutive championships. He was once the kid who couldn't win it all, who came close time after time only to watch someone else celebrate in the end. It's easy to forget that this run of greatness was preceded by a run of heartache, a runner-up finish by 90 points to Matt Kenseth in 2003 followed by a runner-up finish to Kurt Busch by eight points in 2004. The next year he finished fifth, butted heads with his crew chief, Chad Knaus, and what would become the best team of their generation was nearly split up.

Things were so testy that Rick Hendrick called Johnson and Knaus into his office and offered them cookies and milk -- if they were going to act like children, the car owner surmised, he was going to treat them as such.

"I can remember sitting down with Harry Hyde and Geoff Bodine and different situations over the years, and most of the time when it gets to a point of conflict, you patch it up but it always erupts again," Hendrick recalled this weekend. "But in this meeting, these guys really put their heart on the table and they talked specifically about what they didn't like. Instead of holding it in they were able to become closer friends and still respect each other's professional position in the team. I'm real proud of them, because I would have bet money that we couldn't fix it." (Continued)