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CUP: Johnson Won’t Change A Thing
Written by: Jared Turner
SceneDaily.com   http://www.scenedaily.com
11/04/2009
Charlotte, NC
 
Despite being in command of NASCAR Chase for the Cup with only three races remaining, Jimmy Johnson said he isn’t letting his guard down. (Photo: LAT Photographic) » More Photos

With a commanding lead in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings and just three races left in the season, it might seem easy for Jimmie Johnson to let his guard down and coast to a fourth straight title.

Think again.

Despite holding a sizable 184-point cushion on Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin entering Sunday’s Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, Johnson isn’t engraving his name on another championship trophy just yet.

Sure, the odds are strongly stacked in favor of the El Cajon, Calif., native claiming an unprecedented fourth straight crown in NASCAR’s top series.

But Johnson knows that anything can happen. And he’s therefore not taking anything for granted.

“[I’m] really just treating these races as if they were other races, any other race,” Johnson said on a national teleconference this week. “I know it sounds stupid and corny and almost predictable, but it's the truth. I mean, the way we have prepared to this point has led to the points lead that we have and the race wins that we've accumulated over the year, and we need to do more of the same.

“From my standpoint, studying my notes from the previous races, working with the engineers, understanding the setup that we're taking, understanding what we're trying to qualify and what we're going to try and race trim, and being up to speed on all those potential changes that we can work on and understanding what we're hoping that they will do, that's all part of it.”

Johnson dodged a major bullet by finishing sixth in last Sunday’s Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, where he avoided two major crashes in the last five laps. Martin and Johnson's fellow teammate Jeff Gordon, meanwhile, were involved in the latter accident and lost considerable ground to Johnson in the standings.

While Martin is a distant second, Gordon now sits an even heftier 192 points back in third. Both had hoped to cut into Johnson’s lead at Talladega, the track in the Chase where the defending three-time champ appeared the most likely to falter.

He didn’t.

Texas, a 1.5-mile oval more typical of the majority of tracks where the series competes, doesn’t pose as big of a risk for Johnson. The same is true of the series’ last two stops – Phoenix International Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway.

None of the remaining tracks is as treacherous as Talladega, one of only two venues on the schedule where horsepower-reducing restrictor plates keep drivers bunched in tight packs and thus increase the chance of getting caught up in a wreck.

“I think this weekend will be a lot easier for me than Talladega because I'm going to be working on things that actually make a difference,” said Johnson, who scored a win at Texas in fall 2007 and finished second to Gordon there in April. “At Talladega, there was a lot of free time for my mind to worry because the rules are so specific, and
there's not a lot you can think about from a driver's standpoint. But this weekend it should go fast.

“As soon as we get in the car, [we’ll] be focused on how the car is handling and adjustments that we need to make right on through the race. I'll just try to fall into all of that and just live and breathe the race car as much as possible so that my mind doesn't think about outside things.”

Although the upcoming tracks seemingly don’t present the hazards of Talladega, Johnson isn’t exactly resting easy. That’s because he knows that trouble can come in forms other than wrecks.

“I don't want to open my mind up to too many things and let my guard down and I make a mistake,” he said. “The same for the team. We still have a lot of pit stops that could be costly. If they lose their focus, they would miss something on the race car.

“From a mechanical standpoint and a handling standpoint, we really need to keep our heads down and treat this as if we were behind and chasing so that we cross all the T's and dot all the I's.”

Johnson has room to be less than perfect over the next three races, however. He needs to finish only 10th or better in each to lock up the title. The 34-year-old can finish poorly and still claim the championship if Martin doesn’t win all three races and lead the most laps en route. Johnson could even clinch the title a week early if he leaves the Nov. 15 race at Phoenix more than 195 points up on the driver in second place.

But if there’s one thing Johnson has learned from his title runs the past three seasons, it’s to not get too comfortable. Just because he can still take the title without setting the woods on fire over the next trio of outings, don’t expect Johnson to suddenly go into conservation mode.

“We're showing up to win races,” said the driver who has recorded six of his 46 Cup victories this season. “Finishing 10th isn't as easy as it sounds. … It is a tough field of cars out there, and we need to be on our game. So with that in mind, we're going to race as hard as we can these next two races and see what happens for Homestead and see where we're at.

“Then at that point, I think, we can look at more of a specific strategy. But with three to go, we need to race these next two as if we're behind in the points and get every point that we can.”




SceneDaily.com• 10 Sprint Cup drivers on Nationwide entry list for Texas

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