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Sprint Cup
CUP: Johnson Smoking Early Season
Jimmie Johnson has won four NASCAR Sprint Cup Championships in a row...
Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe's Chevrolet, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
Jimmie Johnson is batting .600. They put baseball players in the Hall of Fame for much less.
LINK > UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: Food City 500 - BRISTOL
Five races, three wins. Victories at a two-mile track (Auto Club Speedway), a 1.5-mile track (Las Vegas Motor Speedway) and a high-banked half-mile (Bristol). A win Sunday in an unlikely scenario.
Although Johnson is third in Sprint Cup points, he is only 14 behind leader Kevin Harvick, and you could lose a lot of money by betting against him winning a fifth straight championship.
All cylinders were clicking in the No. 48 camp Sunday in the Food City 500, and Johnson knocked down one of the few remaining barriers in his career by winning at Bristol for the first time. Now there are only five Cup tracks – Michigan, Chicago, Watkins Glen, Homestead and Infineon – the 34-year-old Californian has not conquered.
“It’s one thing to have some success but to continue to do it year after year and find tracks that are really our weakest tracks and get better at them is really a cool experience,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of work that goes into it.
“If we’re winning here, I think we have something more for the rest of the year.”
You think?
In fact, with Johnson’s super-strong start and a trip next weekend to Martinsville Speedway, where he has won six times, some might assume everyone else now is racing for second place.
Not Johnson.
“We’re off to a great start, but we’ve all seen enough teams rise and fall,” Johnson said. “You can never just hand it to anybody. We have a lot of confidence and momentum and feel like we’re working in the right areas, but only time will tell.”
Crew chief Chad Knaus said it’s a long run to season’s end in November.
“We have a long, long way to go,” Knaus said. “Someone said your bucket is almost full. But, as far as I’m concerned, we dump it out every week and start over. We have expectations we have to live up to. If we can do that week in and week out, we’re doing our jobs.”
Winning at Bristol certainly boosted Johnson’s enthusiasm to another level. He was unusually expressive on the team radio after the win and in victory lane. He said he has come to the track in a funk because of the failure to do well here.
“I’ve wanted to get excited about this track and just haven’t until now,” he said. “Every time is extremely special but when a track kicks your butt for so long and you finally win at that track, there’s something unique about it.”
Knaus said Bristol was a Johnson target in the preseason.
“This was pretty high on his list,” he said. “Jimmie and I write a little preseason summary of what it is we want to accomplish. Bristol was pretty high on his list. To say he wanted to focus on that and then do what he did, I think that speaks volumes.”
LINK > UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: Food City 500 - BRISTOL
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.
LINK > UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: Food City 500 - BRISTOL
Five races, three wins. Victories at a two-mile track (Auto Club Speedway), a 1.5-mile track (Las Vegas Motor Speedway) and a high-banked half-mile (Bristol). A win Sunday in an unlikely scenario.
Although Johnson is third in Sprint Cup points, he is only 14 behind leader Kevin Harvick, and you could lose a lot of money by betting against him winning a fifth straight championship.
All cylinders were clicking in the No. 48 camp Sunday in the Food City 500, and Johnson knocked down one of the few remaining barriers in his career by winning at Bristol for the first time. Now there are only five Cup tracks – Michigan, Chicago, Watkins Glen, Homestead and Infineon – the 34-year-old Californian has not conquered.
“It’s one thing to have some success but to continue to do it year after year and find tracks that are really our weakest tracks and get better at them is really a cool experience,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of work that goes into it.
“If we’re winning here, I think we have something more for the rest of the year.”
You think?
In fact, with Johnson’s super-strong start and a trip next weekend to Martinsville Speedway, where he has won six times, some might assume everyone else now is racing for second place.
Not Johnson.
“We’re off to a great start, but we’ve all seen enough teams rise and fall,” Johnson said. “You can never just hand it to anybody. We have a lot of confidence and momentum and feel like we’re working in the right areas, but only time will tell.”
Crew chief Chad Knaus said it’s a long run to season’s end in November.
“We have a long, long way to go,” Knaus said. “Someone said your bucket is almost full. But, as far as I’m concerned, we dump it out every week and start over. We have expectations we have to live up to. If we can do that week in and week out, we’re doing our jobs.”
Winning at Bristol certainly boosted Johnson’s enthusiasm to another level. He was unusually expressive on the team radio after the win and in victory lane. He said he has come to the track in a funk because of the failure to do well here.
“I’ve wanted to get excited about this track and just haven’t until now,” he said. “Every time is extremely special but when a track kicks your butt for so long and you finally win at that track, there’s something unique about it.”
Knaus said Bristol was a Johnson target in the preseason.
“This was pretty high on his list,” he said. “Jimmie and I write a little preseason summary of what it is we want to accomplish. Bristol was pretty high on his list. To say he wanted to focus on that and then do what he did, I think that speaks volumes.”
LINK > UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: Food City 500 - BRISTOL
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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