CUP: Johnson Carries Numbers To AMS

Sprint Cup

CUP: Johnson Carries Numbers To AMS

Jimmie Johnson will be looking for a three-peat this weekend...

Mike Hembree | Posted March 02, 2010 Charlotte, NC

Jimmie Johnson has won two out of the first three races of 2010. He swept both races at Atlanta in 2007. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Can Jimmie Johnson score a third straight Sprint Cup victory Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway?

Jimmie Johnson has won two out of the first three races of 2010. He swept both races at Atlanta in 2007. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

The way Johnson’s season is going, the answer to that question is a simple one. Certainly, he can. In fact, it’s easy to consider him the race favorite entering the fourth event of the year after he won race two at California and then stormed to the front late to back up that victory with a win at Las Vegas last week.

Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus seem to have turned up the burners early this season in their search for a fifth straight championship, and the statistics make success this weekend well within their reach.

Johnson has won three times at AMS. He swept both races in 2007 (and won on Halloween 2004), and his average finish there is 10.7, best of all drivers currently in the top 12 in the point standings (Johnson is fifth).

Of all current drivers, Johnson is fourth behind only Bobby Labonte (6), Bill Elliott (5) and Jeff Gordon (4) in career victories at AMS.

“We’re excited to have won the last two weeks, but there’s still a lot of work going on,” Johnson said Tuesday. “We’re looking forward to getting on the racetrack and looking for a third.”

Team owner Rick Hendrick described Johnson as “a computer in a car,” and it’s that approach that can pay dividends at AMS, a superfast track with an abrasive, bumpy surface and one that requires a studious approach. The entrances to turns one and three are dramatically different, and the track is so wide that different lines work best under different conditions and as tires wear.

“I’ve worked really hard to drive laps I can repeat and to understand what I feel I need in a race car,” Johnson said. “It’s taken a lot of years of experience to get here and to have the important people around me. I hope I can keep it up.

“I think Atlanta is such a fast track that when you strap in for qualifying you know you have to step up and get it done. You’re sometimes driving the car way over your head.”

Some drivers describe Atlanta as a “bigger Darlington,” a view that Johnson endorses.

“You really have to concentrate on the car with it slipping and sliding so much,” he said. “Every time you slide the car, it’s taking speed off the run. You have to be very aware of how the tires are working and looking for ways to balance the load between all four tires. When you’re able to do that, the car drives very comfortably, and you need that for 500 miles at Atlanta.”

Kobalt Tools 500 qualifying is scheduled at AMS Friday night. The weekend also will include a Saturday afternoon Camping World Truck Series event.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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