Respect very important among Chase drivers

Associated Press

Needing to almost win out for a chance at his sixth consecutive Sprint Cup championship, Jimmie Johnson had every opportunity to make that happen after Tony Stewart passed him less than three laps from the finish of Sunday’s crash-filled race at Martinsville Speedway.

He opted not to use a bump-and-run to win — and Stewart knew he wouldn’t.

In the final three races of the Chase for the championship, many drivers in contention profess a respect for fellow drivers, and a sense that what you give, you also deserve to get.

Stewart launched into a monologue after the race about how drivers who insist on wrecking other cars should instead be placed in a boxing ring after races and allowed to settle their differences there. He added that knowing he had Johnson’s respect was critical at the finish.

“Could Jimmie have hauled it off in the corner, blown the corner to try to take us down? Absolutely,” he said. “He could have done that to anybody. He didn’t do that to us.

“I think he knows we respect him and have that level of respect.”

Johnson acknowledged thinking about it, though, but said he realized that with Stewart in better position to win the championship at this point, he was instead “minding my Ps and Qs.”

“I just wanted to do the right thing and unfortunately got beat in the process,” he said.

There is definitely a gray area, said points leader Carl Edwards, but the questions that bounce around in your head have more to do with who you are racing than anything else.

Even then, he said, he doesn’t want to wreck someone to win.

“Right now, I can’t say if we’re at Homestead [the final race of the season] and it’s the last lap and the guy in front of me, all I have to do is get in front of him to win the championship. I don’t know that there’s anybody right now that I would spin out,” he said.

He was quick to add, however, that he’s not on the final lap at Homestead just yet — with the championship there for the taking and months to celebrate before a driver can retaliate on the track. Edwards will take an eight-point lead over Stewart and a 21-point edge over Kevin Harvick into Texas.

“I think you can only race people based on your opinion of them and make the best decision you can,” he said. “But personally, for me, I try really hard. I feel guilty if I do something that I feel is kind of wrong or outside the rules, so I try not to do that stuff. I’d rather win fair. That’s just the way I am and I think that’s the way most of these guys out here are.”

Johnson had a dominant car at Martinsville, and Edwards raced in the mid-20s most of the day, giving Johnson a shot at a huge gain. Instead, with Edwards rallying last to finish ninth and Johnson hanging on for second, he gained just seven points to get within 43.

Harvick would need to gain that much in every race to catch Edwards.

“What’s fair in my mind is probably not what’s fair in the guys’ [minds] in the first two spots,” he said.