Reversal Of Fortune: Johnson Quickly Causing People To Rethink ‘14
Having gone from a winless driver to a winner of two races in a row, Jimmie Johnson no longer looks like a struggling
reigning series champion. Suddenly, he looks completely capable of winning a record-tying seventh title.
Don’t
be surprised if he reinforces that new-fangled notion on Sunday at
Pocono Raceway where he comes in as defending
champion of the Pocono 400 and winner of three races overall at the
often-precarious “Tricky Triangle” – the race track with only three
turns, virtually no banking and plenty of history.
Johnson’s
personal Pocono history is a very good read. In addition to winning
there in June 2013 he swept the track’s
two races in 2004, his third full-time season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup
Series. Overall at Pocono he has an average finish of 8.8 across his 24
starts with a 109.3 Driver Rating; both statistics are series-bests. In
addition, he holds the track qualifying record
of 180.545 mph.
Two
weeks ago after breaking through with his first 2014 win at the
Coca-Cola 600, Johnson talked optimistically about
both Dover International Speedway – where he won this past Sunday – and
Pocono, seeing the tracks as potential places to build momentum.
Johnson, appropriately, is the last driver to win three consecutive races – back in 2007 when he won four consecutive.
He also won three straight in 2004.
OK, so we know Jimmie Johnson likes Pocono. But just as important is the fact that his crew chief Chad Knaus shares that
affection.
“I
think we're seeing the fruit of a lot of people's labor right now at
the race track, and we’re definitely looking
forward to getting to Pocono,” Knaus said. “I've said it time and time
again, Pocono is one of my favorite race tracks. I think it's a lot of
fun. It's very difficult. So from a driver standpoint, this is
definitely a tough race track … it’s definitely difficult
[for a crew chief] so I'm looking forward to getting there.
“We've
worked really hard [to start winning again]. The one thing I'm really
impressed with at Hendrick Motorsports is
when we do get behind, which we feel like we've been just a pinch
behind this year, everybody digs down really, really deep and they work
hard, from the pit crew, from the guys that hang the bodies to the guys
that build the chassis to the guys that build
the engines … they try to find an advantage. When we do finally start
to hit our stride, all those things that everybody worked on start to
culminate, and we can get out there and really start to make things
happen.”
Added
Johnson: “We can get on a roll. We've got some good tracks ahead for
us. I think that tracks really build momentum
for teams and drivers … Pocono is Chad's favorite race track, and I
think you can look ahead at the summer months and see who historically
runs well at different tracks and kind of pick your favorites. It
certainly has been that way for us. The tracks we've
been bad at, we've gone there and been embarrassed by our performance,
and then the tracks that are good to us still have been good to us.”
Johnson
became season’s third two-time winner this past weekend, joining Kevin
Harvick and Joey Logano in what is obviously
preferred status; all three have clinched spots in the Chase for the
NASCAR Sprint Cup … sort of. They still must fulfill two more
requirements between now and the Sept. 14 Chase opener at Chicagoland
Speedway:
• They must finish the first 26 races of the season in the top 30 of the series points;
• They must attempt to qualify for each of the 26 races.
Sixteen
spots are available for the Chase, with race winners getting first
dibs, provided they fulfill all the qualification
requirements. If there are less than 16 different winners, remaining
berths will be based on the series standings after the first 26 races.
Two weeks ago, the six-time champion was on the outside looking in. Now
he’s where he’s spent much of the last 10 years:
at the summit, looking down – and looking ominous.
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