Saturday Kansas Notebook

Saturday Kansas Notebook

Notebook Items:

·         When will Jimmie Johnson find his customary speed in the Chase?

·         Gordon credits chemistry for 2014 success

·         NSCS Etc.

Oct. 4, 2014

By Reid Spencer

NASCAR Wire Service

When will Jimmie Johnson find his customary speed in the Chase?

KANSAS CITY, Kan.—Jimmie Johnson doesn’t seem worried, but maybe he should be.

True, the six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion had no trouble advancing from the Challenger Round to the Contender Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

True, Johnson posted finishes of 12th, fifth and third in the first three Chase races, at Chicagoland, New Hampshire and Dover.

But it’s also true that Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet hasn’t been able to keep up with the speed horses in the Chase, namely the No. 24 Chevrolet of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, the Team Penske Fords of Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano and the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet of Kevin Harvick.

And it’s true that neither Johnson nor 48/88 shop mate Dale Earnhardt Jr. has led a lap in the Sprint Cup Series since the August race at Michigan nearly seven weeks ago.

Accordingly, it’s fair to say there’s an apparent disconnect between what Johnson is saying in his question-and-answer sessions with reporters and what’s happening on the race track.

When Johnson met with the media on Friday at Kansas Speedway, he spoke with optimism about the tracks in the Contender Round—Kansas, Charlotte and Talladega.

“I’m ready to get going,” Johnson asserted, prior to the Contender Round's first race on Sunday at Kansas (2 p.m. ET on ESPN). “These three tracks should be a lot of fun. The first two, I feel that we really have a good chance. We have a good chance at all three of winning, but the first two would make the experience of the third race of the Contender Round much more enjoyable.”

In other words, Johnson doesn’t want to go to the crapshoot at Talladega having to post a high finish in order to advance to the Eliminator Round.

But is winning this week a realistic possibility for the No. 48 team, especially in light of what happened on Friday afternoon? And on Saturday?

Johnson spun his car during his second attempt in the first round of Friday’s knockout qualifying and flat-spotted his tires, ending his prospects of making the top 24 and advancing to the second round.

He’ll start Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 from 32nd on the grid, with a lot of ground to make up. But if Johnson was looking for encouragement from Saturday’s first practice, he didn’t get it. Fighting the handling of his car in cooler temperatures, Johnson posted the 17th fastest lap late in the session, on the 24th of his 25 practice laps.

In afternoon practice, in warmer conditions that more closely resembled what drivers will face on Sunday, Johnson continued to flounder and finished 21st on the speed chart.

With one more title, Johnson will tie legends Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty, who share the series record with seven championships each.

But if Johnson hopes to be a serious threat, he’ll have to find the speed that in past years has propelled him to the top of the standings during NASCAR’s 10-race playoff.

In years past, the No. 48 team would have shown its strength by now. But in 2014, with eliminations looming in every third race, we’re still waiting for Johnson to show up.

And the clock is ticking.

THE FLIP SIDE

So if Jimmie Johnson hasn’t had blazing speed, what’s to account for Jeff Gordon’s recent clear superiority within an organization that professes to have an open-book policy among all its teams?

Gordon says it’s chemistry.

“I can’t put my finger on it exactly, other than I’ve been on the flip side of that, so I kind of know how it goes,” Gordon said Friday in a one-on-one interview with PRN’s Steve Richards. “I’ve always given the 48 team, especially, a lot of credit for just how good they are as a team--the chemistry, the details that they pay attention to, the confidence they have, and belief in one another.

“They go out there believing that they can win every race, and their cars are good, but their team makes a lot of that happen, and that’s what we have this year. We have a team that’s very, very solid, that’s really just clicking together. And at the same time, we’re showing up at the race track with our cars tuned in, so we can just fine-tune it from there—so the speed’s been there.”

The performance boost of the No. 24 team, however, hasn’t been an overnight occurrence. Gordon acknowledges there were growing pains after team owner Rick Hendrick realigned his teams and paired Gordon with crew chief Alan Gustafson after the 2010 season.

“This has been about three years in the making,” Gordon said. “Ever since I moved over to this team, when we did the swap and Alan became my crew chief, we were a little bit down the first year or two when things didn’t go as well as we wanted them to.

“But I feel like, I guess, the potential I always saw, always got along well with Alan, always believed in him, and I think it works both ways there. It’s all about finding all the little weaknesses that you have and trying to make them better, and he’s been amazing at that.

“And here we are with it all coming together and having a great year.”

SHORT STROKES

Kurt Busch made a lot of extra work for the track crews during final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice, when he spun off Turn 4 and slid straight through two large logos painted on the grass in the tri-oval. Busch, who was eliminated from the Chase last week at Dover, was 30th fastest in Happy Hour. The spin will force Busch to a backup car for tomorrow's race; he'll drop to the rear under penatly to start the event. ... Rookie Kyle Larson, seeking his first Sprint Cup victory, was fastest in final practice, turning a lap at 190.295 mph. On a cooler track, Larson was third fastest behind Marcos Ambrose and Jamie McMurray in Saturday morning’s session.