THIS ISN'T COMPETITIVE; IT'S UTTERLY DOMINANT

            AVONDALE, Ariz. – At some point, the “anything can happen” tripe gets old. NASCAR’s best don’t actually have to deny it.

            Yes, automobile racing is, at times, unpredictable, but not every week. Humility is nice, but it mustn’t be disingenuous.

            Jimmie Johnson is astonishingly good, not astonishingly lucky. He’s winning all the championships, not all the state lotteries.

            After Johnson polished off the field, leaving nothing else to polish but another Sprint Cup trophy, he seemed as superstitious as a nine-year-old afraid of the dark. Most people who are superstitious have enjoyed no majestic success. Most feel somehow ill-fated. Johnson isn’t ill-fated. The cavalry wasn’t ill-fated; the Indians were ill-fated.

            Johnson whips everyone else fair and square. He’s clearly the best driver on the best team … who has the best crew chief, Chad Knaus … and the best owner, Rick Hendrick.

            But that trio doesn’t have to rub everyone else’s nose in their success with absurd, self-aggrandizing remarks issued in the guise of humility.

            As an owner, Hendrick has won 188 races, and he’s probably said roughly the same thing after every one of them.

“I don't know how good these two guys can get,” he said, referring in this case to Johnson and Knaus, just as once it referred to Jeff Gordon and Ray Evernham.

“They're two of the best I've ever worked with and the best I've ever seen, at a time when this sport is probably more competitive than it has been at any time that I've been racing.”

Hendrick apparently doesn’t understand the definition of competition. It cannot be that competitive, by definition, when one entity is dominating so thoroughly. Football in the Atlantic Coast Conference is more competitive now than it was when Florida State was winning it every year. In baseball, the Yankees recently won their first World Series since 2000, which speaks well for the level of competitition.

When one car, one driver, one crew chief, one owner wins everything, year after year after year, it’s inaccurate for the rulers of this universe to call it competitive. If it was competitive, they wouldn’t be winning everything.

You may contact Monte Dutton at mdutton@gastongazette.com.