Best outcomes, story-wise

By DAVID GREEN

Just another day-and-a-half, and another season will be over. We all know how it's very likely going to come out.

I'm OK with that. I like watching history in the making. I enjoyed the five-year domination of F1 by Michael Schumacher and Ferrari, just because Schumi in the red car was so amazingly fast and bulletproof. Jimmie Johnson and the 48 team haven't dominated to the extent Schumacher did, but in the Chase events, they've been close to that level.

So, the first four-times-straight championship will make a good story. But -- in my opinion, anyway -- another one would be better.

It's probably easy to guess that my choice for best story would be if Mark Martin were to steal this one. No offense to Jimmie, but Mark has been so close, so many times. I would love to see him get the big prize.

That's the great thing about dynasties. There's no better example than the New York Yankees. Picking a side is easy for everybody. You either root for the dynasty or against it. When David upsets Goliath, it makes a great story, either way. One side is disappointed and the other ecstatic, but it's a compelling story either way.

Next best option would be for Jimmie to win the championship, but with a bang instead of a whimper. He has teased us with this potential scenario by winning the pole. Now, if he goes out tomorrow and lays a thrashing on the field, or -- even better -- if he wins a stirring race to the checkered flag -- or even if he comes out second-best in a race to the checkered flag -- that would be great stuff.

That, to me, would be as dramatic as an orchestrated close decision, which is what the Chase was designed to produce -- and, in its first season, did produce.

But to see Johnson grabbing the fourth Cup, not meekly and carefully cruising to it, would be great. Fans would be torn between cheering him on and fearing that the "go for it" strategy might backfire and cost him the championship -- as, indeed, it did for the late Fireball Roberts in the 1950 season finale.

That one was a kind of reverse of this year's characters. Points leader Bill Rexford had already dropped out and Fireball needed only to finish fifth or better to win the title. Instead, he raced for the win and blew his engine.