NASCAR’s Jimmie Johnson remains a favorite to compete in Chase

They might be among the most dreaded words in the NASCAR garage: “I feel good about things.”

So declared Jimmie Johnson on Friday as the El Cajon native pursues an unprecedented sixth consecutive Sprint Cup Series championship.

Johnson, 35, is fifth in this year’s Cup standings heading into Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at the curvy Infineon Raceway road course, where he is the defending champion.

He had been second to Cup points leader Carl Edwards until last weekend’s race at Michigan International Speedway, when Johnson spun his No. 48 Chevrolet, struggled to regain the lost positions and finished 27th.

Even so, Johnson is only 29 points behind Edwards as the series moves closer to the 12-driver Chase for the Cup title playoff.

The top 10 drivers in points after the season’s first 26 races qualify for the Chase, along with two “wild-card” drivers who have the most wins among the drivers between 11th and 20th in points.

Everyone expects Johnson to be in the Chase again, of course, and although Johnson has gone about his business with relatively little fanfare this year, Edwards said Johnson always remains the driver to beat.

“Those guys are mentally strong enough that they will gather everything up and be fast for the final 10 races,” Edwards said of Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports team.

“If [Johnson] made it into the Chase on a wild card in 12th position, I think he would be just as dangerous if he were leading right now,” Edwards said.

On Friday, Johnson qualified 12th in the 43-car field for Sunday’s race while Joey Logano won the pole position with a lap of 93.256 mph around the 10-turn, 1.99-mile Infineon track. Edwards qualified 23rd.

Johnson has one win through 15 races this season, at Talladega in April. But he’s often driven under the radar amid the attention in NASCAR that’s been paid to Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s resurgence, Kyle Busch’s recent spat with team owner Richard Childress and Kevin Harvick winning three races already this year.

Johnson also has simply struggled at times; Michigan marked the fifth time this year that he’s finished 15th or lower.

“I wouldn’t say this is our worst year to this point,” Johnson said. “I still think that probably 2008 was our toughest operating half of the season.”

Even so, “we know we need to be better,” he said. “We’re working hard to get there.”

Earnhardt, one of his Hendrick teammates, is third in the Cup standings. Even though the popular NASCAR driver has now gone three years without a win, Earnhardt has eight top-10 finishes this year.

Earnhardt has never been a fan of racing on twisty road courses, and he’s never finished in the top 10 in 11 previous starts at Infineon Raceway.

But just as Earnhardt’s overall performance has become consistently stronger this year, so his attitude toward racing in Sonoma has improved.

Asked what his hope was for this weekend, Earnhardt replied, “To make it my favorite place,” adding that he wants to “be a factor all day.” He qualified 18th.

Edwards, meanwhile, declined to say whether he’s leaning toward renewing his contract with Roush Fenway Racing or moving to another team after this season. The latest rumor had him looking at the Joe Gibbs Racing team.

“I am working on all this stuff and when I know what is going to happen, I will let you guys know,” Edwards told reporters before qualifying. “I am not going to force anything or rush anything.”

james.peltz@latimes.com