Johnson Wants to Chase His Blues Away

With everyone focused on which top drivers will make NASCAR’s title chase and which won’t, the man safely atop the standings, Jimmie Johnson, has remained largely in the background.

But at today’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, the Californian could be excused for feeling as much pressure as Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the others trying to make the chase for the Nextel Cup.

That’s because Johnson, 30, has come close to winning the championship the last four years, only to come up empty. And now he’s the favorite again.

“I would be disappointed, without a doubt” to let another title get away, said the El Cajon driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

“I feel very fortunate to be in the situation I’ve been in,” Johnson said. “At the same time, I look back at the last few years and look at mistakes I’ve made and the team has made ... and I don’t feel in my heart that we have reached our potential yet.”

Johnson won the season-opening Daytona 500 and then, over the first half of the season, was a model of consistency.

He won two more races, at Las Vegas and Talladega. He’s also finished in the top five seven times and in the top 10 in all but four of the first 20 races this year.

Johnson has led the points nearly all season, and now holds a 97-point advantage over runner-up Matt Kenseth coming into today’s 400-mile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Johnson qualified fifth Saturday behind pole-sitter Jeff Burton, whose lap of 182.778 topped the 43-car field. It was the third pole this year for Burton, who’s third in the points behind Johnson and Kenseth.

Burton’s teammate, rookie Clint Bowyer, qualified second to give Richard Childress Racing the front row for today’s race.

Under the series’ chase format, the top 10 drivers in points after 26 races compete for the title over the last 10 races of the season. There are only six races left to determine who will be in the chase.

Among the drivers struggling to make it are four-time Cup champion and Brickyard winner Jeff Gordon (ninth in points), defending Brickyard winner and reigning Cup title holder Stewart (10th) and Earnhardt Jr. (11th).

All are fan favorites, yet one or more could miss a shot at the championship. When Stewart was asked if he thought that meant the chase format should be changed, he said: “Why, is it supposed to be guaranteed that we’re supposed to be there? Just tell us the 10 guys you want in the chase and we’ll try to get them to put that in there next year.”

As for Johnson, history indicates he could struggle today. In his four previous Brickyard races, his best finish was ninth in 2002, and he has failed to finish in the top 35 the last two years. He has never led a lap at Indianapolis.

“This has been one of the tougher tracks on us,” Johnson acknowledged. “Realistically, a top-10 here would be huge for us.”

Overall, Johnson and his team are trying to avoid a repeat of 2005, when they buckled under the pressure and finished fifth in points.

The stress “went way too far, and we were spent by the time we got to the final races,” said Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus.

“This year we’ve taken a different mind-set, a different approach. We’re more relaxed and trying to focus on the big picture.”

Knaus got Johnson’s year off to a rocky start in February when NASCAR found that the crew chief had illegally modified Johnson’s car to gain an aerodynamic edge in qualifying for the Daytona 500.

Knaus was suspended for four races and fined $25,000, but Johnson won the race anyway and has barely missed a step since.

But Johnson’s lead going into the chase doesn’t mean he’s the favorite to win the Cup, Knaus said.

“I don’t feel like it’s ours to lose,” he said, because any of the 10 finalists could win. But Johnson’s current lead has enabled Hendrick “to give our guys a little time off to relax and keep refreshed” ahead of the chase, Knaus added.

“That’s probably the single most important thing, because for the next 16 races we’re going to be whipping those guys like horses.”

Johnson also knows that luck will play a major role, saying, “We’ve been fortunate with no mechanical failures. We’ve missed a lot of wrecks.

But it’s not over yet,” he said. “Mathematically, we could still fall out of this thing.”

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Other California drivers in today’s race include Robby Gordon of Orange, who qualified ninth; Kevin Harvick and Casey Mears, both of Bakersfield, who qualified 10th and 40th, respectively, and road-racing specialist Boris Said of Carlsbad, who qualified 37th.

Kurt Busch qualified third but then crashed his Penske Racing South Dodge during practice, so he’ll have to start at the rear of the field today.