Sports' real Mr. Clutch drives a race car
DOVER, Del. – The most clutch athlete in all of professional sports isn't Derek Jeter or Tom Brady. It's not even Kobe Bryant.
No, the most money athlete when championships are on the line is Jimmie Johnson, and he's got the numbers to prove it.
Jimmie Johnson dominated the second race of the Chase for the Cup at Dover International Speedway.
(Chris Trotman/Getty Images)
Of the 52 playoff races run since NASCAR instituted its Chase for the championship, Johnson has won 15, including Sunday's AAA 400 at Dover. To put that in perspective, Herb Thomas holds NASCAR's best career winning percentage of 21 percent. Johnson has won 28 percent of all playoff races.
How good is that?
Johnson already holds the best winning percentage among active drivers. It's 15 percent, which means he ups his game by a ridiculous 12 percentage points come playoff time.
Derek Jeter's lifetime batting average is .317. His playoff average is .309. Tom Brady's career completion percentage is 63 percent. His percentage in the postseason is 62.5. Kobe Bryant averages 25.1 points in the regular season, 25.03 in the playoffs.
If Reggie Jackson was Mr. October, then Jimmie Johnson is the Legend of the Fall.
"I'm pretty sure that dude's Superman," Mark Martin said of his first-year teammate Johnson. "You know, I have had the opportunity to see up close. I'm telling you, I see why he is so successful. I see why. He works harder at it than anybody else, I think, on the circuit."
Johnson brushes off his playoff success, explaining that the 10 tracks that make up the Chase are in his wheel house. There is certainly some merit to that. Of the 10 tracks, Johnson has won at nine of them. But then again, Johnson has won races at 16 of the 21 tracks on the Sprint Cup schedule.
With eight races to go in the Chase, the only person standing between Johnson and an unprecedented fourth straight title is Martin, who despite finishing second saw his lead over Johnson shrink to just 10 points. And though eight of the top 10 at Dover were Chase drivers, the distance between Martin in first and Juan Pablo Montoya in third actually grew to 65 points.
"That's how competitive the Chase is – I got a top 10 and I'm not happy with it," said Tony Stewart, who rallied to finish ninth after an early race incident that saw Joey Logano flip seven times. "I'm proud of the effort from the team, really proud of that. We dodged another bullet."
Stewart should be happy; it was his first top-10 finish in over a month. Still, it left him sitting fifth in the standings, 109 points back of Martin.
Though Martin maintained the points lead, Johnson served notice Sunday, as he tends to do this time of year, that he is still the driver to beat. Next up is Kansas Speedway, where he is the defending race winner. From there it's on to California (where Johnson has three wins), Charlotte (five wins) and Martinsville (six wins).
It's the meat of the schedule for Johnson, who still remains hungry despite sitting at the top of the mountain.
"There's a lot of people out there that get to the top – football players, baseball players, racers for that matter – they get to the top and then they're like, 'Oh, well, I've made it. I got the big house, got the cool plane. Let's go party on Monday,' " said crew chief Chad Knaus. "Jimmie does the opposite. He wakes up Monday morning at 8 o'clock, goes and gets on the treadmill, he goes to work, watches what he eats and pays attention to details.
"If you want to win races in this industry in this day and age, you have to give that type of commitment. And if you don't, you're not going to win."
Johnson does, and because of it he's in position to do something Derek Jeter and Tom Brady and Kobe Bryant haven't been able to – four-peat.
