CUP: A Quiet End For Johnson

Sprint Cup

CUP: A Quiet End For Johnson

Statistically, Jimmie Johnson had the worst year of his NASCAR Sprint Cup career...

Tom Jensen | Posted November 24, 2011 Charlotte, NC

Jimmie Johnson's two race victories were his fewest ever and for the first time he failed to win at least one pole in 2011. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

For most NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers, a year with two race victories, 14 top-five and 21 top-10 finishes would be something to celebrate and enjoy.

Then again, Jimmie Johnson isn’t like most NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers, which is why the above numbers translated into what was the worst year of his career, statistically speaking.

Johnson’s sixth-place points finish was the first time in 10 full seasons that he didn’t finish in the top five. His two race victories were his fewest ever and for the first time he failed to win at least one pole.

In the Chase for the Sprint Cup, where Johnson historically has been unconscious, there was mistake after mistake: Instead of finishing second or third at Chicagoland Speedway in the Chase opener, Johnson ran out of gas and finished 10th; late contact with Kyle Busch dropped him to 18th in New Hampshire; driver error at Charlotte Motor Speedway — a track he used to dominate at — left Johnson to finish 34th after hitting the Turn 2 wall; poor drafting strategy led to a 26th-place run at Talladega. And Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Johnson finished 32nd after going down five laps for a carburetor replacement.

Despite one victory and two runner-up finishes in the Chase, Johnson’s average finish over the last 10 races was a subpar 15.4. And what Johnson said at Homestead could have applied to his entire Chase: “Just disappointed. We had a fast car.”

In the Chase, the entire Hendrick Motorsports organization was just a step behind the Roush Fenway Racing Fords of Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth and especially champion Tony Stewart, who drove Chevrolets built by Hendrick and powered by Hendrick engines.

So now, Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and the rest of the team will decide what they need to do to get back up front, as they had been when Johnson won five consecutive championships from 2005-2010.

“I do not see any changes taking place next year,” Johnson said Friday. “We have a lot to learn from this year and Chad and I have already been in meetings throughout this last week setting up wish lists of what we think we can do better, how we can do a better job at it. We are moving forward on next year and figure out how we can dissect weak spots. If it is on track, you know, pit calls have changed dramatically this year. What can I do differently as a driver? All those different components, we are addressing and working on them now.”

Johnson felt the hollow feeling of losing last week in Florida, when he was not part of the annual Thursday championship contenders’ press conference for the first time since the Chase format was adopted in 2004.

“Some of those little parts of last year (were) bleeding over into here and looking at those experiences and not necessarily emotional, just thinking about it, like, ‘Wow,’ it really is over,” Johnson said last Friday. “Disappointed that it is over but very proud at what this team has done, what we have done over the last really 10 years, the last five obviously stand out but what we have done as a group over the 10-year run so far has been truly amazing.”

The next gut check will come a week from Friday, at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Awards Banquet in Las Vegas.

“We do not have that nice seat upon the stage,” Johnson said. “We will be sitting down on the floor and wishing we were up there. I am sure we will leave the banquet highly motivated. Motivation comes easy for all of us. I know that question is asked a lot, but we just want to race and if we are going to spend all the time to do all this, we want to be racing for the championship.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.

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Tom Jensen

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