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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Johnson Confident He Can Bounce Back At Cali
Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson is second in the Chase For The Sprint Cup standings heading into Sunday's race at Auto Club Speedway...
SceneDaily.com  |  Posted October 09, 2009   Fontana, CA
Jimmie Johnson has won twice in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series second yearly race at Auto Club Speedway in California. (Photo: Getty Images)

A big reason why Hendrick Motorsports’ Jimmie Johnson has won the last three NASCAR Sprint Cup championships is his team’s ability to run its best at the end of the race.

Indeed, Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus seemed to have lived a charmed life with their strategy during races.

But this year, Johnson hasn’t been able to capitalize at the end of as many races as he has in the past. Last week at Kansas Speedway, pit strategy moved Johnson back in the pack, and he was unable to make up much ground.

“We’ve been a little frustrated with leading [a lot of] laps early and then at the end it slipping through our fingers for whatever reason,” Johnson said Friday at Auto Club Speedway, which will host the Pepsi 500 on Sunday. “We’ve had a handful of those this year, if it has been running out of gas, taking a chance because we were locked in [the Chase For The Sprint Cup], an incident like we had at Kansas.

“We need to address that. We need to close. That’s what we’ve always been so good at, is being there at the end and running our best at the end of the race.”

Last weekend’s Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway is still a puzzle for Johnson and Knaus. Midway through the race, Knaus ordered a four-tire pit stop, while other leaders only changed two.

It backfired, because Johnson didn’t charge through the field despite having fresher tires. He ended up ninth and lost ground in the Chase standings to teammate Mark Martin, although he still trails by only 18 points with seven races left to decide the 2009 title battle.

“Kansas is still a bit of a mystery,” Johnson said. “As we’ve gone through everything, it still kind of boils down to track position, I guess, and the fact that we took four and everybody else took two. … I have a hard time believing that was all of it because I started [the race] 11th, worked my way up through there, passed a lot of cars and put them down a lap and didn’t have the imbalance in the car like I did those last two runs.”


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