Dominance: Hendrick at Martinsville

Predictable.

That's what attitude the 2009 version of the NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup Season has seemed to take on after Jimmie Johnson's win last Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Fans keep wondering: Will Johnson ever screw up? Was the 'winning robot' nickname given to Matt Kenseth a few years ago a little premature?

If the past is any indication -- as it has seemed to be for Johnson & Co. -- then Sunday's race at Martinsville Speedway won't be giving fans a dose of the change in championship outcome that many of them so crave.

Hendrick Motorsports may have a shop in Harrisburg, N.C., within earshot of Lowe's Motor Speedway, but they might as well have set up a satellite operation on the grounds of NASCAR's oldest track in south central Virginia. The half-mile paperclip? A whipping post for any competition that deems it worthy to show up.

The current string of success started in the spring of 2003 when Jeff Gordon took his fourth career win at the short track. Since that point, Rick Hendrick has failed to add a Martinsville trophy to his collection just three times in 12 races -- bringing his 2003-present Martinsville batting average to an oh-so-slim .769.

Gordon has gone to victory lane four times in that period, while Johnson has visited six times.

The numbers get even worse, too.

Gordon has tallied up 13 straight top-10s at the track (he's finished out of the top-10 in just six of his 27 visits to Martinsville) -- which puts him just slightly behind Johnson's streak of 15 straight top-10s. Johnson's lone finish that wasn't a top-10 came in his first career race at Martinsville.

That day, Johnson finished 35th -- recording the only Did Not Finish result ever between he and teammate Gordon at Martinsville.

That's not promising for a fan base that's cheering more actively each week against Johnson for no other reason than his endless domination of big time NASCAR racing.

Also not promising is the most recent history left by Hendrick Motorsports at Martinsville back in April. Those looking to a spot a trend of downward dominance in Hendrick's Martinsville reign will need to skew the facts in an impossibly accurate manner to find signs that Hendrick machines won't be pacing the field this weekend thanks to the gaudy numbers from this season's sixth race.

Simply, all four Hendrick cars -- including some guy named Earnhardt -- finished 8th or better. To make matters concerning the competition worse, the two primary satellite cars from Hendrick's operation -- the Stewart-Haas Racing teammates of Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman -- finished third and sixth, respectively.

And that Johnson guy? He snuck into the lead late and led 42 laps total to steal yet another win away from Denny Hamlin. The win was Johnson's sixth at Martinsville, just one shy of Gordon's career total of 7.

The Hendrick stats are ugly for the rest of the competition at Martinsville, and as of yet no team has been able to stifle the dominance. We'll see what happens Sunday -- but I wouldn't be holding your breath for something dramatic.