Winless Streak Snapped, Johnson Eyes Return To Championship Form
Well, now that
that’s out of the way, we can resume our regularly-scheduled
regimen of highlighting races on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule
without talking about Jimmie Johnson being winless in 2014. The six-time
series champion became a first time 2014 winner
this past Sunday night in the Coca-Cola 600.
Off the schneid and into the Chase.
Race
winners are virtually assured of qualifying for NASCAR’s “playoffs,”
the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, contested over the final
10 races of the season. And a Chase without Johnson? Unthinkable. And
now, as if on cue, speculation has begun about a record-tying seventh
championship for the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet.
On
a somewhat smaller scale, there also is speculation about the
previously winless Johnson winning for the second week in a row, this
weekend at Dover International Speedway. This makes sense, since
Johnson already is the all-time race winner at the track called the
“Monster Mile,” with eight victories over a relatively brief 11-year
span. The first two Dover victories came in Johnson’s
rookie season via a season sweep; the last came in 2013’s second Dover
event.
After
the 600, Johnson joked about his team letting people know “the 48 is
awake.” On second thought, he probably wasn’t joking. Win six
championships and a “game face” is pretty much a permanent fixture.
First
things first, though. Johnson has won more times at Dover than any
other track except Martinsville, where he also has eight victories.
And over the next two months, he’ll travel to other friendly confines:
Pocono Raceway (twice), Daytona International Speedway and New Hampshire
Motor Speedway, having won three times at each; and Indianapolis Motor
Speedway, where he has four victories, tied
for the all-time lead with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon.
“We're
off to a good start,” said Johnson, a nod to his sixth-place standing
in the series points. “If we can take advantage of the next
few tracks that are great tracks for us, it would be great momentum.
Ideally you'd love to [get hot] before the Chase gets started and carry
that right into the start of the Chase. But you never know when you're
going to peak and when everything's going to
be just right. We'll hopefully peak at the right time.”
Added
crew chief Chad Knaus: “[Something] we have on our side – we're going
to Dover, which is by far one of Jimmie's favorite race tracks.
Then we're going to Pocono, which is one of my favorite race tracks.
Doesn't hurt. So I think over the next couple of weeks we're going to be
in pretty good shape.”
Suddenly, “being winless” seems like so much ancient history.
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