“I think we’ve got a really good shot,” said Johnson when asked about pulling even with Yarborough’s record. “I feel we’re getting stronger as a team. We won ten races in 2007 and let a few get away. It could have been 13 victories. I still feel we can do a better job.”

Theoretically, the new Chase format opened the door to enough talented drivers and teams during the final 10 races of the season that the odds looked pretty long when it came to one driver repeating as champion, much less winning three straight titles. There’s not even any guarantee a driver will make the Chase — as discovered by Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

It bears mentioning that nine drivers, including Yarborough, have been in position to win three straight, but only Cale has pulled it off. Most recently, the list includes David Pearson, Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt and Gordon. “The King” had two shots at winning three straight and “The Intimidator” had three opportunities, yet neither one ever cashed in.

For his part, Yarborough had some distinct advantages in his three-year run in the late 1970’s. Team owner Junior Johnson was the first to perfect mid-race engine changes in the early years of the Latford system, where falling out of races with engine failures resulted in a severe points deficit.

Yarborough was the master of “go-or-blow,” an approach he said he learned in his early years as a Ford factory driver from his boss in Detroit, Jacques Passino. “He told me one day, ‘I don’t care how many fenders are on that car, I don’t care whether it’s upside down, I don’t care what kind of condition it’s in — as long as you were in front when it happened.’ I never forgot that and I made it a point to always run up front if there was any possible way.”

Not only did Yarborough’s style suit team owner Johnson. It perfectly matched up with what proved to be an unbeatable strategy under the Latford system. During 1977, the second year of his streak, Yarborough did not have a single DNF in 30 races thanks to Johnson’s quick engine changes, which eventually were done in 12 minutes. Runner-up Petty had six DNF’s that season.

In the mid-1970’s, Junior Johnson and Associates, Petty Enterprises and the Wood Brothers were the only teams with major sponsorships. Given that the Wood Brothers ran a limited schedule, only Petty remained as an antagonist to Yarborough, which was another advantage. Darrell Waltrip eventually got into the mix with DiGard Racing and Gatorade sponsorship, but did not come into his own as a championship contender until after Yarborough and Johnson had completed their hat trick.

Jimmie Johnson had at least one advantage in 2007. The Hendrick Motorsports team got the jump on the Car of Tomorrow, which was used in five of the ten Chase events. The advantage, said Johnson, owed a lot to the team’s over-all development program and less to individual squads. “We were just as scared as anybody else,” he said. “We didn’t realize we would be off to a quick start. The No. 48 team didn’t test at all until we got to the first COT test at Bristol. We hit on the right stuff early right away and got it working early.”

Eventually, that left Johnson with only one chief antagonist in the form of teammate Gordon. In retrospect, Gordon acknowledged that his No. 24 squad was not aggressive enough when it came to either car set-up or strategy during the ten-race Chase. (A stunning late charge by Gordon at Talladega to beat Johnson in the first COT race in Alabama was a notable exception.)

After a mid-season lull and a slow start to the Chase, Johnson hit his stride in a manner reminiscent of Yarborough’s aggressiveness. The key event was at Texas, where Johnson declined to settle for second place even though it would have secured first place in the Chase points. Instead, he chased down Matt Kenseth in the closing laps to score his third straight victory.

Johnson attributes being at the top of his game to winning his first title.

“I think winning the 2006 championship made me recognize that the team’s got it, I’ve got it, we can do it. We just have to do our jobs and do it in a harmonious way without trying to kill each other.”

But will the odds against repeat winners introduced by the Chase format catch up with Johnson in 2008 without some sort of clear cut edge other than the confidence now established with Crew Chief Chad Knaus?

What about the adjustments inherent with the arrival of Earnhardt Jr., as a teammate at Hendrick Motorsports?

It seems to me a guy not bothered by having NASCAR’s most accomplished driver as a teammate — Gordon — won’t be rattled much by having the sport’s most popular driver as a teammate.

As for the odds against repeat winners under the Chase format, I still wouldn’t bet in favor of any driver making it to three straight. Cale and Junior probably couldn’t do it these days, either.

Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jonathan@jingrambooks.com.

Yea, buddy. They go racing — or testing in this case — in the northern portion of the Flower-da coast because the winter weather is so iffy and how else to attract tourists? Been that way since even before Frank Lockhart lost a tire on his Stutz and sailed from the beach into the horizon on a gritty, pulsating day.

At least the current fuel crisis is not enough to close the gates on Daytona’s 24-hour as with the original OPEC strike, but for sure the weather and cost of gas make it easy to get a cheap motel room of any choice at 10 p.m.

The beauty of the 24-hour is everything is relatively easy and the atmosphere among participants is always sunny, even moreso at the annual test days. It’s the new year and living is easy when it comes to banking on last season and changing gears into this one. If you’re at the track in any capacity, that means opportunity is in the air as well as the whine, snap, blip and gutteral thunder of engines on the banking.

If you’re lucky — and we are — these sounds wail beneath a ceiling vaulted by cumulus gold at winter’s early sunset. These days, once more there’s an array of stars from sun up on. Because the France family’s Speedway by the Sea has returned to the road racing glory days with the growth of its in-house sports car series.

This is no time to get series-ous about the inevitable racing politics, of course. Even the personal politics can be set aside from the ever-evolving kaleidescope of who likes whom in this business — unless you’re one of those types that holds over scowls from last year in order to play a marker for this year. It’s just a testing weekend for chrissakes, Juan.

Ricardo Zonta tests the tire wall at Turn 1 with a new Lola, perhaps with the assistance of tricky Pirellis new to the Grand-Am (which will make the Rolex Series racier and perhaps even return a nice calendar to my doorstep). He suffers memory loss — really. But it’s not like driving the man-o-wars such as the old 917-30’s back when there were some who still believed it was better to be thrown clear in case of fire. So the atmosphere has the hue of who can do it better, not who can turn the screws up on tempting fate.

Fate continues to lurk. The life cycle includes sons of old friends as well as old friends, some more excited about the coming season than others. The hard rain inevitably falls somewhere in the paddock. The Dallara replaces the Doran, the Coyote replaces the Fabcar, the Crawford is back home in the shops for a re-build. A testing ban makes it tough for all the newcomers to beat the reigning Riley, which has so scattered the opposition previously.

Mostly it’s more fun than usual. Jimmie Johnson talks about having a tough time against Michael Schumacher in the four-wheel drive segment of the Race of Champions at Wembley, the sport’s international Christmas card. Helio Castroneves talks about being in better shape after winning at Dancing With The Stars, as well as a heretofor unknown appreciation for clothes with sequins.

Patrick Dempsey thanks the Hollywood writer’s strike for assisting his racing career, i.e. more seat time. Jimmy Vasser wisecracks that he once won this race in the Camel Light class and all he got was a cap with series sponsor’s name on it. He wants to win it again and get the Rolex as hope springs eternal for that over-all victory and another piece of immortality — if not one day’s worth of real satisfaction.

A lot of people dis-miss the Pirellis, but that’s normal for a changeover in spec tires. Going from Hoosiers to the P-Zeros, after all, is quite like moving from Indiana to Italy. As good as that might be, an adjustment is necessary.

I’m having to adjust to recognizing that I’m the only guy in the windowless infield cell block, otherwise known as the media center, who can recall from memory what year the Great Baldwini, otherwise known as Atlanta’s Jack Baldwin, won the GTU class at Daytona. (’Twas seemingly less than 24 years back.)

The new year comes without the prospect of seeing Bill France Jr. in a little Kia runabout, the stealth power behind the throne of America’s first family of racing. Nor will you see a full-blown factory car challenging the ides of Hades on the banking like a muscular Porsche 917 because the France family likes it that way. At least a Ford-powered car could win it all come the last week of January.

There’s a handshake with Jim France and an honest appreciation for re-building one of the world’s great endurance races. It now includes yet another skirmish between a couple of other powerful racing names along the lines of Chip Ganassi and Roger Penske. The latter is preparing for Le Mans by running at Daytona, just like the good ol’ days when Mark Donohue drove for him in a blue Ferrari.

Like any motor sport, endurance racing is an acquired taste as well as a lifestyle. (The icebreaker for the hoseheads and Stewarts of midget racing, in other words, is in Tulsa at the Chilli Bowl.)

I make no claims for product liability. There are some people who think endurance racing is like watching paint dry. Which reminds me that I’d better get home to finish that remodeling before the 24-hour, the time capsule of fun racing before the 50th annual Daytona 500 sends motel rates into the sphere of an Italian villa on the Mediterranean and talking with Jimmie Johnson is as easy as getting an audience with the Pope, if not Michael Schumacher.

Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jonathan@jingrambooks.com.