Johnson’s rivalry with Gordon heats up

Associated Press

TALLADEGA, Ala.

Jeff Gordon’s friendly rivalry with teammate Jimmie Johnson has just about reached its end.

“He’s been testing my patience,” Gordon said after Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway, “and it’s about reached its boiling point.”

Rarely since Johnson’s 2002 arrival has Gordon been publicly negative toward his one-time protege. They had nothing but praise for each other during their epic 2007 championship battle, and have been careful not to create the appearance of anything but a friendly rivalry.

That’s changed over the last two weeks as Gordon has gone through a clear public shift after incidents in consecutive races.

He was caught griping over his team radio during last week’s race at Texas, where he was annoyed with how hard Johnson was racing him. “He just wants to be treated different than anybody else,” Gordon told his crew.

Then came another incident late in Sunday’s race, when Johnson saw Gordon flying through Talladega traffic and ducked low to get in front of him. Johnson insisted he was trying to get in position to work with his teammate, but misjudged Gordon’s closing rate.

“My intentions were on the up-and-up, I thought we’d hook up and move to the front,” Johnson said. “Certainly, that was my fault. I made the mistake there.”

Instead, Johnson’s move forced Gordon to duck off the apron of the track to avoid crashing into his teammate. His momentum lost, he slipped back in traffic and was caught moments later in a multicar wreck.

“He decided to change three lanes and keep me from going by him,” Gordon said. “That’s just not cool when you’ve got cars going that much faster than you.”

Johnson remains convinced Gordon’s remarks stemmed only from frustration in wrecking. He may be right in that it’s nothing personal, but something obviously has changed in Gordon of late.

Team owner Rick Hendrick thinks those near-misses are what’s driving Gordon to the brink right now.

“He’s not sick of Jimmie, he’s just on the chip,” Hendrick said before Sunday’s race. “He’s fired up. He should have won three races already — three or four maybe. He’s kind of getting in his groove. I see so much of the old Jeff.”