Johnson ready to move on; Martin approach the same

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- To call it a duel in the desert may seem trite, but it has the gritty feel of one.

A week ago, this not only did not seem probable but was dismissed in most quarters as downright impossible. Yet heading into this Sunday's Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, a mere 73 points separate Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

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The margin was 184 only a week earlier, before disaster struck three-time defending champion Johnson in the form of Sam Hornish Jr.'s car on Lap 3 at Texas last Sunday. That led to Johnson's 38th-place finish, his worst of the season.

Coupled with Martin's solid fourth-place finish, 111 points quickly disappeared from Johnson's comfortable and seemingly insurmountable lead -- suddenly making the Phoenix race a whole lot more interesting.

"I can't wait to get on track so I can start thinking about something else," Johnson said Friday at PIR before qualifying third for Sunday's race. "All I can think about is three laps of Texas right now. That's all I've thought about for the whole week. I'm ready to get that out of the brain."

Martin, on the other hand, said the entire key to his surprising season at age 50 has been to keep his brain on an even keel no matter what the situation. If he's coming off a bad finish, no matter; the approach the following race is the same. If he's coming off a good finish, same deal.

"Every time I strap in that race car, I'm going after it," Martin said. "Every time I strap in that race car, I'm going to the extreme limits. I've raced that way all season. Every time I strap in the 5 car, it's the same. It's everything I got, points or no points."

Martin said that applies even to qualifying and practice runs.

"If it's just practice, I like being on top of the scoreboard even in practice," said Martin, who was eighth-fastest in Friday's only practice while Johnson was one spot higher on the speed charts (speeds). "You know, we're digging as hard as we can go."

Johnson figures to do the same this Sunday at a track where he was won three of the past four races, including the past two fall events. The driver who broke his streak of three consecutive wins at PIR this past spring? Why, none other than Mark Martin.

All of which has placed Johnson in an unusual position heading into this Phoenix race, the next-to-last in the 10-race Chase and the 36-race season.

Last year, when Johnson won his third consecutive championship, he held a 106-point advantage heading into Phoenix and a 141-point lead leaving after winning the race. Carl Edwards, his closest pursuer in that Chase, finished fourth and went into the season finale at Homestead a week later hoping for a miracle that did not come.

"Up until last week, things seemed to be going really, really well. There were a lot of positive emotions and thoughts that went with all that," Johnson said. "And then to get through Talladega [the week before Texas], I felt like we missed the Big One, everything was in great shape. Then we roll into Texas, and on Lap 3 we take our lumps there."

"I'm used to leaving Texas with a strong performance, a lot of momentum."

Two years ago he won at Texas, giving him three consecutive wins in the 2007 Chase, but only a 30-point lead heading into Phoenix. Three years ago when he won the first of his three consecutive championships, Johnson captured only one Chase race and headed into Phoenix with just a 17-point lead in the standings.

So Johnson said he considers 73 points a "healthy" lead heading into Sunday.

"I feel that a 73-point lead is a very, very healthy lead," Johnson said. "With today's racing, the competition, the year that Mark Martin and Jeff [Gordon] have had in the Chase, I feel very good about our points lead.

"But it's hard to look back at the week before at 184 [points], and the comfort that brought. It's like, 'Wow, we could have left [Texas] with a 184-point lead.' Instead, it's a different story.

"Homestead would have been a very enjoyable experience. That possibility still exists. I mean, the 5 could have trouble this week. You never know. This is racing. Anything and everything will happen."

Texas offered proof of that. Johnson had warned everyone for weeks that something bad easily could happen to him -- and it finally did.

"I don't really have an emotion for how last week went. I mean, obviously it's a negative one," Johnson said. "I'm disappointed to lose the points, but we didn't perform poorly. We didn't have a chance to perform good or bad. So I just kind of have this blank spot about how last week went. Unfortunately, we lost 111 points."

Even though the tricky 1-mile PIR track can be difficult to negotiate, neither Johnson nor Martin expects the No. 48 Chevrolet driven by Johnson to encounter disaster for a second week in a row -- especially after qualifying well Friday. He started 14th at Texas and got caught up in the wreck with Hornish as he tried to move toward the front.

"I don't think anybody's really safe, especially with how you can run side-by-side here in [Turns] 1 and 2, where one line is preferred, and then in [Turns] 3 and 4 where another is preferred. It's going to be tough to get single file," Johnson said.

"So I do have concern and worry about contact or something out of my control taking place again. I mean, I think we all fear that. But I find some confidence knowing that everybody's going to have to deal with that. I don't think lightning can strike two weeks in a row. I'm certainly hoping it doesn't."

Martin added that while he doesn't expect Johnson to stumble again, he will be focusing on what he can accomplish in his No. 5 Chevrolet.

"Sometimes the unexpected happens. But I don't expect it, either," admitted Martin, who qualified 10th on Friday. "The thing you have to remember is that my focus is on the race at Phoenix; it's not on the point accumulation. The point accumulation will take care of itself if I focus on the race and we do our very best."