Weekend Preview
Johnson hopes to enter ‘seventh’ heaven
Staff Report
NASCAR Wire Service
Rain poured down while Michael Waltrip sat under a really big umbrella.
Then, he got the word.
He
hopped up, and the newly crowned two-time Daytona 500 champion threw
his hands in the air – surprised and relieved. The next race, Dale
Jarrett
won at Rockingham. It was his only top-five finish that season. A race
after that, eventual champion Matt Kenseth nabbed his only victory of
the year.
Then Bobby Labonte, who’d win only one more race the rest of his career. Then Ricky Craven, who wouldn’t win another.
On and on it went, a new face in Victory Lane every week – for nine consecutive weeks.
That was 2003.
This
season has a familiar feel, with six different winners in the first six
races – the most since that 2003 parity-filled campaign.
This
2014 season is where winless droughts go to die. Kurt Busch just ended
an 83-start drought. Dale Earnhardt Jr. ended a 55-start Victory Lane
absence with his stirring Daytona 500 win.
Brad Keselowski needed 31 races to win his first race last season. This year, he needed three.
All this, while the likes of Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson – who ranked 1-2 in victories a season ago – go winless.
The
statistics suggest that won’t last. Count on either of those champions
ending the mini-drought, probably as soon as this Sunday’s Duck
Commander
500 at Texas Motor Speedway (3 p.m. on FOX) – and with that, the streak
of unique winners extending to seven.
In
three of the last four races, Johnson has tallied triple-digit laps led
figures – and has finished sixth or better in each of the last four
Texas
races (two of those were wins). Johnson has an average finish of 8.7 at
Texas, second only to Matt Kenseth’s 8.3.
“Texas
is one of the more interesting racetracks we race on,” said Johnson, a
three-time winner at Texas. “The characteristics of the track – the
bumps and the surface will make for an exciting race. So far with six
winners in six races, the racing in 2014 has been really exciting for
the fans. We’ve run up front and led a lot, but haven’t been able to
finish the job. … It’s been a good track for us
in the past, and it would be great to get our first win of the season
this weekend.”
Thus far in 2014, Johnson leads the series in everything – especially bad luck.
He
ranks first in in driver rating (115.6), average running position
(8.7), laps led (493), fastest laps run (200) and is tied for the lead
in top-five
finishes with four. He has led more than 100 laps in each of the last
two races (including 296 laps at Martinsville).
Still, he remains winless and only fifth in points. Watch that change soon. Maybe Sunday.
BAYNE IS ABLE AT TEXAS
Here’s a rejected script. Reason: It’s been done before.
Athlete
wins big race/game. Athlete soon falls on hard times, leaves sport.
Athlete fights to get back into the sport he loves. Athlete wins upon
returning. Credits roll.
Except it’s real life … Trevor Bayne’s life.
Three
years ago, in November 2011, Trevor Bayne capped off a roller-coaster
of a year with his first career NASCAR Nationwide Series win in the
fall Texas race. His season began with a storybook opening that saw him
celebrating in Victory Lane at the Daytona 500. In between, he was
sidelined by illness.
So
whenever Bayne hits the track at Texas Motor Speedway, it brings back
memories of that 2011 season. And this time around, he’s gunning for a
championship.
Bayne
heads to Texas Motor Speedway with the rest of the NNS contingent for
Friday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 on a mission – to unseat Regan
Smith from atop the points standings. Although the two drivers are tied
in points, Smith holds the tiebreaker by virtue of his win in the
Daytona season opener. It is the first time in Bayne’s six-year career
that he has held or shared the points lead.
“I’m
excited about getting back to Texas,” Bayne said. “Not only am I
running both series (he’s also diving the No. 21 Ford in Sunday’s NASCAR
Sprint
Cup Series race), it’s also where AdvoCare’s headquarters are located
and where I earned my first Nationwide Series win. We have been steadily
climbing up the points ladder and I’m hoping to take the top spot this
weekend. The guys have been working really
hard to get me fast cars and I think it’s paying off.”
Bayne’s
quest to usurp Smith from his top spot, which he has held after each of
the first five races, is definitely possible. Six of his seven Texas
starts have resulted in top-15 finishes. In the spring race last year,
he posted a 26th-place finish, but followed that up with an 11th in his
most recent trip to Texas last November.
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