Can anyone stop HMS?

NASCAR has pretty much always had both haves and have-nots among its roster of competitors, but increasingly, Hendrick Motorsports seems to be becoming the one have heads and shoulders over the have-nots

Other traditional haves in the sport, like Roush Fenway Racing and especially Richard Childress Racing seem to have fallen off their thrones at least somewhat in 2009. Roush Fenway does have three wins across its five Sprint Cup Series entries, but two of those were Matt Kenseth's two victories in the first two races of the season. Roush hasn't really been heard of since, except for one win courtesy of Jamie McMurray a few weeks ago. And this is with last season's win leader on the Roush-Fenway roster -- Carl Edwards who visited victory lane nine times a year ago.

The five-car organization only has two cars in the Chase, and one of the three Roush drivers on the outside looking in is Matt Kenseth -- a driver who had been in the Chase every year since its inception until 2009.

Things over at RCR have been even more dismal. The four-car organization hasn't visited a Sprint Cup victory lane a single time this season, and the team was completely shut out of the Chase field in 2009 for the first time since the Chase was created.

Joe Gibbs Racing, on the other hand, does seem to be weathering the storm. All three of its drivers have visited Sprint Cup victory lane at least once this season, and a couple of its drivers have multiple wins -- Kyle Busch with five and Denny Hamlin with three. A third of the JGR organization is in the Chase (Hamlin), and one of its other two drivers (Busch) just barely missed out.

Even with Gibbs' success, the team doesn't seem to have anything to stop the Hendrick Motorsports juggernaut. Not only are three of the team's cars in the Chase, they hold the top-three positions in the points standings heading into the final race of the season -- Sunday's Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Only HMS drivers have a mathematical shot at the Sprint Cup trophy on Sunday -- leader Jimmie Johnson, second-place Mark Martin, and third-place Jeff Gordon. Gordon, however, will be eliminated from contention when Johnson starts the race on Sunday, leaving the other two HMS Chase drivers to battle it out for the champion's trophy.

"I think that having the two teams battling for the championship and then with the 24 car (Gordon) right there on our heels, I think it's raised the production of the whole company up a bunch," Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus said. "So we're real happy with that."

While it looks like Johnson pretty much has the 2009 title in the bag, whether or not Martin is able to overcome the odds to claim his first Cup, the 2009 title will go to Hendrick Motorsports for the fourth-consecutive year (Johnson has won the previous three, and his going for a record-breaking fourth-straight).

This year team owner Rick Hendrick will claim his fifth Sprint Cup this decade (Gordon won his fourth title in 2001).

Do the folks at Hendrick Motorsports know something nobody at any of the other teams does? Do they have that many more resources than everybody else? Is the tandem of driver Johnson and crew chief Knaus really that better than everyone else?

"We've had a really good season, obviously," Knaus said. "I think that with Alan and Mark running as competitive as they have this year, very similar to when the 24 car was running as well as what they were a couple years ago, having that internal competition I think has really helped our team and helped our company, actually, to rise to a better level."

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