NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon rely on each other at Martinsville

Published Nov. 15, 2016 3:18 p.m. ET

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Tom Jensen

You wouldn’t think that two drivers who between them have 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships and 17 victories at Martinsville Speedway would need to help each other out, but that’s exactly what Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon are doing this weekend.

Johnson comes into Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville as one of eight drivers still alive in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. A win at the 0.526-mile paperclip of a track would lock him into the championship round of the Chase.

As for Gordon, Sunday is likely going to be his last race of any kind in the Cup Series, so he’d love to go out with a victory at the track where he is the defending race winner.

Both drivers are off to good starts: Johnson qualified third, while Gordon will start 10th.

Hendrick Motorsports fields four cars out of two shops on the same campus near Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Johnson is teamed with the No. 88 normally driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr., while Kasey Kahne’s No. 5 is paired with the No. 24 that Gordon used to drive but now belongs to Chase Elliott. Each of the shops prepares their cars just a little bit differently.

With Gordon pinch-hitting for the injured Earnhardt behind the wheel of the No. 88, he and Johnson are even more closely aligned than they have been in the past since they're driving cars built in the same shop.

“Now we are virtually in identical cars,” said Johnson of Gordon. “That is going to be a first time in a long time that we have had that situation. I look at really pulling off of Jeff this weekend and using him to make my car better to work on my techniques in the racecar and hopefully get the best performance out of myself this weekend.”

Gordon concurred.

“We will do everything we can to work with him (Johnson) and also with our other teammates to try to come out of here with really good finishes and then I’m super focused on myself on what I can do,” he said.

And, Gordon said, he plans to lean on Johnson, too.

"I’m going to be tapping into those guys as well," Gordon said. "I would love to get these guys a great finish if this is my last race."

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