Despite points battle, Johnson plans to race clean

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- If it comes down to it toward the end of Sunday's race at Martinsville Speedway, with the top two contenders in the Chase dueling it out for the lead, don't expect four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson to get down and dirty.

It's just not his style.

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Final Practice

Pos.	Driver	Speed
1.	Greg Biffle	95.641
2.	Jeff Burton	95.319
3.	Clint Bowyer	95.314
4.	Jamie McMurray	95.127
5.	Kevin Harvick	95.113
6.	Jimmie Johnson	95.103

• Final practice speeds

"My experience has been that it takes more time to try and move someone out of the way than to get position on them to pass them," Johnson said. "Usually when I move somebody out of the way ... I wreck them. I just don't have that soft touch and all the time it takes to set it up for the soft touch. I'd rather just be on the inside of the car and have position on them and go about my business."

Johnson went about his business as usual during Saturday's final practice. He was sixth on the speed chart during Happy Hour, turning a fast lap of 95.103 mph that ranked faster than all but four other Chase competitors and even in the ballpark with those four.

The top five fastest laps in final practice were turned by Greg Biffle (95.641 mph), Jeff Burton (95.319 mph), Clint Bowyer (95.314 mph), Jamie McMurray (95.127 mph) and Kevin Harvick (95.113 mph).

Denny Hamlin, who sits second in the Chase standings and trails Johnson by just 41 points, ranked eighth with a top lap speed of 95.027 mph. Hamlin also captured the pole during qualifying Friday.

Much has been documented about the dominance of Johnson and Hamlin at Martinsville, where they have combined to win the past eight races (Johnson has five victories and Hamlin three, including the past two). But Johnson made it clear that if the pair are battling for the lead late Sunday, he has no intentions of clearing Hamlin out of the way.

That doesn't mean, however, that he isn't intent on winning.

"I guess what I'm getting at is that some guys are good with the bump-and-run and the casual contact," Johnson said. "But for myself, I like to climb out of the car -- especially at Martinsville, and I have done it in the past -- without a tire mark on the race car and we are sitting in Victory Lane.

"I take a lot of pride in that and I think that the way I race people pays off in the long run."

Johnson added that changing his style of racing at this point would be, well, pointless. Not only that, but it likely would cost him in the points race that determines the champion.

"There is no sense, five races into this thing [the 2010 Chase], to start getting around the guys I'm racing and laying tire marks on them and roughing them up. What is it going to do? Once again, it's just not time to do that stuff," he said.

"There is a time and a place for it -- and certainly if it comes my way, I can't just let it happen. I have to interact the same way that guys are treating me. But there is nothing better than pulling into Victory Lane with a clean car and holding the trophy."

Johnson was careful to make it clear that he will be doing all he can within his own makeup to get there. He has no intention of playing it conservative just because he holds a 41-point advantage on Hamlin and a 77-point lead on Harvick heading into Sunday's event on the tricky .536-mile track.

And that is the trick, really. Knowing where the fine line is, when to push up against it, and how to pull up just short of going over it.

"Man, we fight with that battle every day, every lap," Johnson said. "Every race-car driver does. And the thing I've found is that there is a sweet spot that I operate well in. There is no doubt that earlier in the year, I was stepping over that line. I say all that and I did spin out at Charlotte [just last week] in stepping over the line.

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"But that's the internal struggle that every single driver has. It doesn't matter if it's on the local short track or it's all the way up here at the Cup level. Like in baseball and football and any other pro sport, when you start defending and you lose your rhythm, you make mistakes. So there's an argument where you ask yourself, is it worth the risk? At the same time, if you back off and don't do things that you typically would, you create other problems then."

Two drivers, Joe Nemechek and Tony Raines, left Martinsville Saturday to travel to Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill., to qualify their cars for the Nationwide Series race. Dennis Setzer drove Raines' No. 34 Ford during both of Saturday's practice sessions, while Nemechek's car did not run in the first practice and was driven for a few laps in the second by Casey Mears.

Three other Cup drivers who were to drive in Saturday's Nationwide race concentrated on the practices in Martinsville and elected not to qualify their cars at Gateway. Therefore, the three -- Nationwide points leader Keselowski, Carl Edwards and Paul Menard -- were to start at the back of the field at Gateway.

The extra practice at Martinsville appeared to pay off for Keselowski, whose fast lap of 95.864 mph topped the speed chart for the first practice Saturday.