Johnson delivers message to Chase field at Dover

DOVER, Del. -- The man Mark Martin calls "Superman" was the master of the Monster Mile once again on Sunday, and unless somebody other than Martin is carrying a pocketful of Kryptonite, the 2009 Sprint Cup championship trophy may very well find a place on Jimmie Johnson's mantle beside the past three.

Johnson sent a clear message to the rest of the Chase field with a dominating victory in the AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway. He led 271 of the 400 laps, including the last 225, to close to within 10 points of Martin after two races in the 10-race postseason.

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Actions speak louder than words, and Johnson's win reverberated through the garage area like a car stereo with the bass cranked up.

"As far as sending a message, I hope it does," Johnson said. "I hope people talk about it. I hope people are worried. I hope people are talking about the fact that we tire tested and it was wrong. All these people can get wound up about stuff that really doesn't matter. And we'll keep our heads down, we'll keep our blinders on and we'll go to work.

"At the end of the day, all the talk means nothing. We've still got to show up at Kansas and run that race. That's what we do a really good job at, staying focused."

As Johnson's teammate, Martin has had the chance on a day-to-day basis to analyze what makes the driver of the No. 48 so good. And he's come to one conclusion.

"I had the opportunity to see up close, and I'm telling you, I see why he's so successful," Martin said. "He works harder at it than anybody else, I think, on the circuit."

According to crew chief Chad Knaus, Johnson has a commitment that few can emulate, especially the ability to stay hungry and focused despite so much success.

"There's a lot of people, when they get to the top, they're like, 'I made it. I got this big house and all this money. Let's go party on Monday,'" Knaus said. "And Jimmie does the opposite. He gets up at 8 o'clock on Monday morning and gets on the treadmill, watches what he eats and pays attention to detail. If you want to talk to him on the telephone, he answers the phone and doesn't call me back two days later. He's committed to his lifestyle.

"If you want to win races in this industry, in this day and age, you have to give that commitment, and if you don't, you're not going to win."

Not surprisingly, Knaus admits the points leader has the same mentality, one of the reasons why Martin may have the best chance at dethroning the three-time champ. And there's a mutual admiration society at the Hendrick shop, if Johnson's opinion is taken into consideration.

"There's no free lunch in this sport, especially racing Mark Martin," Johnson said. "You're going to have to earn every point. We closed up a little bit on him [Sunday] and there's eight more [races] to go."

Juan Montoya, who finished fourth, and Kurt Busch, who led twice for 99 laps before settling for fifth, are the only other drivers within double digits of the Hendrick duo, which is more than fine for Johnson.

"I'm excited to see we've gapped some of the other Chase competitors," he said. "That may not be exciting for the fans and everybody else, but the bigger gap we can put between us and those guys, and single out just a car or two to really have to worry about, the easier my job is. That's what I hope we can keep doing."

But with eight races remaining, nobody's poised to wave the white flag, particularly Martin, who has a win and a second-place finish in the first two Chase races.

"I think first and second's a great way to come out of the gate, but we've got a long way to go," Martin said. "Anything can happen. I still say there's 12 in it and 12 that can win it. It might be a challenge for a couple of the ones in the back right now, but you just don't have any concept at how much racing eight races is. It's a lot of racing. A lot of things can happen."

Still, Johnson's ninth win in the past 27 Chase races has to send cold shivers down the necks of the competition, especially since he's won at least one race at every track on the remainder of the schedule, save Homestead. Even Martin, who doesn't seem the slightest bit intimidated, realizes when Johnson's at the top of his game, he's faster than a speeding bullet ... and all that other stuff.

"I don't think we were in his league [Sunday]," Martin said. "We missed it just a little bit.

"We were racing our guts out, no matter where we wind up and no matter how. That dude's still Superman in my book. He looked like it [Sunday]."

The opinions expressed are those solely of the writer.