Johnson doesn’t overstate his edge

Jimmie Johnson starts NASCAR’s Chase for the Nextel Cup as the favorite, but the reigning champion prefers to feel he’s behind, not ahead, as the playoff begins.

Johnson won the last two races in the 26-race regular season in stock-car racing’s premier series -- and had a series-high six victories overall -- to finish first in points among the 12 drivers competing in the Chase.

The 10-race playoff starts Sunday with the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway, a 1.058-mile oval in Loudon with flat, sharp turns, a layout drivers say resembles a paper clip.

Each driver had his points reset to 5,000 for the Chase. But they also got 10 bonus points for each victory earlier in the year, so Johnson has the initial lead with 5,060 points.

Jeff Gordon, his teammate at Hendrick Motorsports and a four-time Cup champion, is second with 5,040, having won four races this year in his No. 24 Chevrolet.

Johnson, who turns 32 Monday, said “being the top seed is certainly an advantage.” But the El Cajon native and driver of the No. 48 Chevy said he likes to think “I’m in a hole and we need to dig out. We need to stay aggressive.”

The Chase also includes stops at Kansas Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama and Lowe’s Motor Speedway in North Carolina, among other tracks. The penultimate race is in Phoenix and the season ends Nov. 18 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida.

On Friday, Clint Bowyer won the pole position for Sunday’s New Hampshire race with a fast lap of 130.412 mph, edging Martin Truex Jr. (130.255) in a duel of first-time Chase starters.

Johnson is trying to be the first back-to-back champion since Gordon in 1997-98, but Johnson repeatedly has said this year’s Chase field is the strongest since the format was introduced in 2004.

“We’ve got a 20-point margin over [Gordon], and it goes on down from there,” Johnson said. “I’m not sure how helpful that’s going to be. In my mind I still feel like Jeff had such a great year that he’s probably the guy to keep our eyes on the most.”

Indeed, Gordon appears to be his toughest rival in the Chase but, as Johnson said, the field is deep and several drivers already have shown what it takes to hoist the Cup at Homestead-Miami.

They include Tony Stewart, who won the title for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2002 and 2005; Kurt Busch, the Penske Racing South driver who won the first edition of the Chase in 2004 when he was with the team now known as Roush Fenway Racing, and Matt Kenseth, the Roush Fenway driver who won the title in 2003.

Stewart starts the Chase in third, thanks to three wins this year at Chicagoland, Indianapolis and Watkins Glen. He’s also hungry to do well after missing last year’s Chase by just 16 points.

“I’m just glad we’re back and glad we’re running the way we are,” Stewart said. “We start the Chase third, so we’re in a good spot. According to the odds, we’ve got a one-in-12 shot.”

The odds might be better than that. The Gibbs and Hendrick teams were the class of the sport during the regular season, winning 16 of the 26 races.

“Hendrick cars, I would say, are probably the favorites going in,” Busch said. “Then you’ve got to rank the Gibbs cars,” which are Stewart and second-year driver Denny Hamlin. And don’t forget about Kenseth, Busch said: “You can never count him out.”

Many are also keeping a close eye on Carl Edwards, the Roush Fenway driver who has four top-five finishes in the last five races, including a win at Bristol, Tenn., and a second-place at California Speedway.

Harvick’s prospects also are strong, at least early in the Chase, because he’s the defending winner at New Hampshire.

But getting off to a good start is critical for every driver.

“You can’t win the thing in the first few races, but I believe you can lose it if you have a few bad runs right off the bat,” said Jeff Burton, driver of the No. 31 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing.

Just ask Kyle Busch, Kurt’s younger brother and another Hendrick driver who’s moving to Gibbs next season.

A year ago he wrecked on the second lap at New Hampshire. “It was a horrible way to start off the Chase,” he said. “After that, there were only two races out of the 10 where we didn’t have problems.”

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james.peltz@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The Chase

The 12 drivers, and their starting points, in NASCAR’s Chase for the Nextel Cup that begins Sunday at New Hampshire International Raceway:

*--* Driver Points Jimmie Johnson 5,060 Jeff Gordon 5,040 Tony Stewart 5,030 Carl Edwards 5,020 Kurt Busch 5,020 Denny Hamlin 5,010 Martin Truex Jr. 5,010 Matt Kenseth 5,010 Kyle Busch 5,010 Jeff Burton 5,010 Kevin Harvick 5,010 Clint Bowyer 5,000 *--*

Source: NASCAR