CUP: Johnson Running On Road To Recovery

Sprint Cup

CUP: Johnson Running On Road To Recovery

Jimmie Johnson hits Daytona for testing this week not wearing the crown he’d become accustomed to…

Mike Hembree | Posted January 09, 2012 Charlotte, NC

Jimmie Johnson's run of consecutive Sprint Cup titles ended at five. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

For the first time in six years, Jimmie Johnson will be rolling into Daytona International Speedway for preseason testing without carrying a championship in his back pocket.

This is strange territory for Johnson, who won the Sprint Cup title from 2006 to 2010 only to watch as Tony Stewart – the eventual champion – and Carl Edwards fought for the crown in the closing weeks of last season.

The suspicion is that Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus will come loaded for bear, both to begin the hunt toward returning the Cup title to Hendrick Motorsports and to prove that their status near the top of the sport has not been compromised.

It isn’t as if the reliable Johnson-Knaus axis spun wildly off course. Johnson won two races – at Talladega and Kansas – and was second in five others, including Chase races at Dover and Martinsville.

And he finished sixth in points.

Still, Johnson led the point standings only once all season, and he wasn’t really a Chase threat after the playoffs’ halfway point.

He and Knaus probably will have steely eyes from Day One at Daytona. Teams are scheduled to test Thursday through Saturday this week at DIS, and among the obstacles will be NASCAR’s new fuel injection system and various changes implemented late last year in an attempt to gain some control over tandem drafting.

For Johnson, however, the bigger issue will be re-energizing his team in pursuit of a sixth championship.

Johnson said the team has turned over every rock in an attempt to pick apart its 2011 season and to open the door on 2012 with force and finesse.

“We’ve discussed what changes we can make, what we can do better, the ways we communicate, the notetaking we do – all of the aspects of how we work the garage and the time at the track,” Johnson said. “We’re not necessarily redesigning or restructuring things, but we’re just trying to make sure we’re doing all the right things.

“Times change. What worked for us the last five years didn’t work (in 2011), so maybe we need to make some changes in how we go about things.”

Johnson said mistakes – in particular his wreck at Charlotte and contact with Kyle Busch at New Hampshire – cost the team last season.

“The way in which we lost the championship, I think, is more motivating than anything,” he said. “We as a team made mistakes that kept us from winning a championship. We need to learn from those mistakes.”

The road back to the top begins this week.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

DAYTONA PRESEASON THUNDER TESTING: During the Jan. 12-14 test sessions at Daytona International Speedway, fans can submit questions and comments through Twitter @SPEED (http://www.twitter.com/speed) using the #daytonatesting hashtag.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Hembree

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