Advertisement

Jimmie Johnson will try to end 27-race winless streak in Auto Club 400 Sunday at Fontana

Share

Many NASCAR fans spent years decrying how often Jimmie Johnson drove his No. 48 Chevrolet into Victory Lane.

As Johnson marched toward a record-tying seven season titles and 83 wins in stock-car racing’s premier series, his prowess was actually blamed for a falloff in NASCAR’s popularity.

After Kevin Harvick won his third consecutive Monster Energy Cup Series race last weekend in Phoenix, no one was surprised when they looked up the last driver to win four races in a row: It was Johnson, in 2007.

Advertisement

To paraphrase legendary Times columnist Jim Murray, rooting for Johnson was like rooting for U.S. Steel.

But now? Not so much.

The 42-year-old Johnson arrived in Southern California this weekend with a 27-race winless streak, the longest drought of his illustrious career — and one he’ll try to end by winning the Auto Club 400 on Sunday.

Johnson hardly could pick a better track to get, well, back on track. He has a record six victories at the two-mile Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, twice the number of wins as his closest rivals.

The El Cajon native’s most recent win at Fontana came in 2016. Johnson also has the most top-five finishes (13) and top-10 finishes (16) at the speedway.

He’ll have his work cut out to win Sunday. Johnson starts 33rd in the 37-car field because his Chevy was one of 13 cars that failed to clear NASCAR’s inspection before qualifying started, so he’ll have to climb his way through most of the pack.

Despite his critics over the years, Johnson is popular among fans in Southern California and there’s always a sizable contingent of spectators wearing Johnson T-shirts, hats and jackets at Fontana.

Advertisement

“I’d love for us to win at home again,” Johnson said in an interview. “So many fond memories of the race track.”

Johnson won his seventh championship — tying him with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr. — in 2016, and he obviously has incentive to stand alone with eight titles.

But last year, despite three victories in the first half of the season, his car repeatedly was without the necessary speed and handling to win in the latter half. He failed to become one of the four drivers in the championship finale and finished 10th in the Cup series points as Martin Truex Jr. won the title.

Johnson and his longtime, highly respected crew chief, Chad Knaus, are sometimes compared with quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots — a methodical, well-prepared duo that repeatedly roll over opponents.

Jimmie Johnson leaves the inspection area during qualifying at Auto Club Speedway on Friday.
(Sarah Crabill / Getty Images )

So last year’s shortfall left Johnson and Knaus puzzled and disheartened.

“What was so frustrating is I’ve never worked so hard in my life to get such little return,” Johnson told reporters earlier this year. “I know Chad can say the same.”

Advertisement

The main problem was “trying to find speed, that’s where the frustration really came from,” Johnson said. “We just couldn’t figure it out.

“It’s been easy to find motivation for 2018,” he said. “My desire to be competitive, my desire to be a champion, my desire to win races, has never wavered,” Johnson said. “That’s who I am, it’s what I am.”

Johnson learned last week that his longtime main sponsor, Lowe’s, will not return to NASCAR next year because the home-improvement chain wants to spend those marketing dollars elsewhere.

That means Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports team must search for one or more new sponsors for 2019 and beyond. It is “an opportunity we haven’t had before, to go out and shop our deal and see what’s out there,” Johnson said Friday.

Meantime, Johnson has been adapting to the youth movement in NASCAR.

With gray in his beard, Johnson is the elder statesman on his Hendrick team, now that Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have retired. Johnson’s three teammates are Chase Elliott, 22; Alex Bowman, 24; and William Byron, 20, and Johnson is needled about being “grandpa” in the garage.

After Harvick captured his second consecutive win this month, at Las Vegas, Johnson couldn’t help himself and wryly tweeted: “How about those young guys! Oh wait …a 42-year-old won. And won for the 2nd time this year …man I’m happy to be 42.”

Advertisement

Adding to his challenge is that NASCAR this year introduced a new “rules package,” that is, its guidelines for the cars’ aerodynamics and other features, Chevrolet introduced a new Camaro for its Cup drivers and Hendrick made several organizational changes.

“A lot of change from [the] rules to the new Camaro, [and] the internal restructuring that’s going on at Hendrick,” Johnson told reporters early this year. “You add that with the driver lineup, this is the most change I’ve ever seen at Hendrick Motorsports in my 16 seasons competing there.”

Regardless, Johnson said he’s as dedicated as ever in his “race for eight” and that “I know we’re going to figure it out.”

And listening to the naysayers in the meantime is hardly new to Johnson, who has used social media to remind everyone that while his car still might lack that extra burst of speed, he has not lost a step.

“I saw enough haters [on social media] questioning my desire, my work ethic, my abilities, my age,” he said. “I was like, let’s put an outbound message or two here on these topics. A few things struck me and I’m like, man, I’m going to clear up those thoughts right now.”

james.peltz@latimes.com

Advertisement

Twitter: @jpeltzlatimes

Advertisement