Chase Media Day Notebook

Chase Media Day Notebook

Notebook Items:

-       Confidence high for Johnson as Chase approaches

-       Career rebirth gives Logano championship feeling

-       Harvick discusses pit crew swap

Sept. 11, 2014

By Reid Spencer

NASCAR Wire Service

Confidence is high for 6-time champ Johnson as Chase approaches

CHICAGO—For those who question the strength of the No. 48 team, driver Jimmie Johnson says he’s more confident entering the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup this year than he was last year when he won his sixth championship.

For those who say the No. 48 Chevy lacks speed, Johnson says he has plenty.

In fact, Johnson expects to be one of four drivers racing for the championship under NASCAR’s new playoff format, which will see four drivers eliminated at the end of each three-race round. The four remaining drivers then race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, with the highest finisher winning the championship.

Never mind that Johnson hasn’t won a race since mid-June, when he won at Michigan to score his third victory in a stretch of four events.

“We’ve come through some tracks that historically aren’t very good for us with top-10, top-five runs,” Johnson said Thursday during Chase Media Day at The Murphy. “I feel like we’ve gotten rid of the bad luck, we’re running where we should, we’re getting to the finish line.

“Now we’re coming into probably seven or eight of my best tracks. I feel like we’re definitely going in the right direction.”

And does he think the No. 48 Chevrolets have enough speed to keep up with Chase favorites Brad Keselowski, Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick?

“I do,” Johnson said emphatically. “Honestly, I feel better about our chances this year, today, than I did last year on this same day. We came off of an embarrassing run at Richmond, we crashed out at Atlanta. We had a lot of things going in the other direction for us last year.

“We’re sitting here with three or four top 10s starting into the Chase, and that’s much better than where we were last year.”

Johnson says his team doesn’t consciously change its approach when the Chase arrives, but he understands why it seems that way.

“It’s not something conscious that we do, but, truthfully, I think we respond well to pressure,” he explained. “And we make good decisions when pressure is put on us. ... I understand where the question comes from. I see it. I get it. I can look at the stats and completely understand.

“I just feel like the only logical way to look at it is, when pressure is on us, historically we make good decisions.”

YOU GOTTA BELIEVE

At the end of the 2012 season, Joey Logano was 17th in the final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings and out of a full-time job he had held since 2009, when he was 19.

Logano lost his ride at Joe Gibbs Racing to Matt Kenseth, a veteran with a championship on his resume. But Logano found a comfortable home at Team Penske, where, two years after his ouster at JGR, he is considered one of a handful of favorites to win the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, which starts on Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway.

“(It’s) pretty sweet,” Logano said of the rapid resurrection of his career. “I tell you, my career has been a roller coaster for sure, but I’ve loved every second of it. I’ve been through some harder times and trying to figure out where I was going to race, if I was going to race. ... Now to be in a position to feel like I have a legit shot at winning a championship, that is cool.

“That’s awesome for me. I’m excited about that, and my whole team is very excited about that, and we want to do that. Man, it has been fun. I’m glad I went through all that, because I wouldn’t be who I am today without it.

Whether he wins the title or not, Logano feels that being included in the same conversation with former champions Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski (his Penske teammate) is a source of pride.

“It’s definitely a little sense of accomplishment already, feeling that I have a shot at this,” Logano said. “People were talking (that) we’re one of the top contenders at this thing—and I believe that. My whole team believes that. We are going to fight to the end here to make this a dream season the best we can.”

PRACTICE? WHO NEEDS PRACTICE?

Kevin Harvick will start the Chase with five new members on his over-the-wall gang, inherited in a pit crew swap between his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Chevrolet with the No. 14 of owner/driver Tony Stewart.

Though Harvick will have two new tire changers (Ira Jo Hussey and Daniel Smith), two new tire carriers (Todd Drakulich and Mike Morneau) and a new jack man (Mike Casto)—all of whom worked with Stewart during his 2011 championship season—Harvick didn’t feel the need to practice with the new crew.

“I don’t really believe that’s really necessary,” Harvick said. “I never practiced with the current one. ... I think none of that really changes.

“You get in the pit box as hard as you can, you stop on the sign and pop the thing into neutral on the way in pop it into gear when you let it down and hit the gas when it drops on the left. It doesn’t change anything that I do.”

Harvick believes, though, that the change improves his chances to win his first championship.

“When you’re racing for a championship, you want to, as an organization, put your best foot forward,” Harvick said. “Obviously, there are some tough decisions that have to be made, and you obviously hope that you don’t have to make those decisions, but this is a business, and you do have to make some hard decisions sometimes.

“But that’s a good group of pit crew guys (the old crew) that just needs time to mature together and get that consistency as they move forward as a group.”

Harvick isn’t the only driver who will work with new crewmen when the Chase starts this weekend. The teams of Kurt Busch and Aric Almirola have both have made changes, though not of the magnitude of the swap between the crews of Harvick and Stewart.