{"id":16971,"date":"2018-05-04T13:10:45","date_gmt":"2018-05-04T18:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=16971"},"modified":"2018-05-04T20:27:22","modified_gmt":"2018-05-05T01:27:22","slug":"jimmie-johnson-optimistic-despite-winless-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/04\/jimmie-johnson-optimistic-despite-winless-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmie Johnson optimistic despite winless drought"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Dover, Del. \u2013 If it were as simple as good vibes producing great results, Californian Jimmie Johnson<\/strong> is a sure-bet to end a 33-race trophy drought in the AAA 400 Drive for Autism (2 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Dover (Del.) International Raceway this weekend.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe’s for Pros Chevrolet, talks with his crew chief, Chad Knaus, during qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway on May 4, 2018 in Dover, Delaware. (Photo by Jerry Markland\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But it takes more than just positive energy. Yes, Johnson, 42, conceded, he is encouraged by a string of three consecutive top-12 finishes (including a third place at the Bristol, Tenn. half-miler) entering the weekend. And he always feels a sense of calm arriving at the notoriously tough Dover \u201cMonster Mile\u201d, where he has been absolutely dominant over the course of his career. Eleven trophies will do that for you. He is one shy of having as many Dover wins as Sunday\u2019s entire starting field \u2013 combined.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith it being my best track and the love I have for this place, I\u2019m always excited to come, but trying to get the No. 48 [Lowe\u2019s for Pros] car back into Victory Lane, I can take a little pressure off myself here knowing that the rhythm-style and the way you drive this track and the set-up for the car,\u201d Johnson said Friday. \u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll get it close, and history shows that. Hopefully we get it perfect and we can have the day that we really want to have and get back to Victory Lane. But it does take a little pressure off me knowing that this is my best track and knowing that this is my favorite track.\u201d<\/p>\n

But other than a last-lap win by Austin Dillon in the season-opening Daytona 500, the Chevrolet drivers like Johnson have admittedly been on a learning curve getting the hang of the new Camaro body this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working hard on it and we are doing a better job and we\u2019re seeing those rewards slowly coming along,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cI think we have been the benchmark or that high watermark for so many years, that other manufacturers and teams invested a couple of years in figuring out how to beat us. And we\u2019re living through that right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re needing to recreate ourselves and how we go about handling business. And a lot of that change has happened, and I think it\u2019ll just take a little bit longer before it really starts providing for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he spoke to the NASCAR media Friday morning from the track, Johnson was his typically calm, optimistic and realistic self. And in the midst of everyone else\u2019s \u201cconcerns\u201d that he hasn\u2019t won since the Dover spring race last year \u2013 the longest time in his career between wins – he also issued a good reminder for his fans and the race pundits to stay calm.<\/p>\n

His historic tally of 11 wins at Dover, his seven Monster Energy NASCAR Cup championships \u2013 including an unprecedented five straight from 2006-2010 \u2013 are an absolutely remarkable accomplishment; one most don\u2019t believe will ever happen again in the history of the sport.<\/p>\n

And with 83 wins \u2013 nearly twice as many as the next closest active driver \u2013 Johnson is a single victory from tying NASCAR Hall of Famers Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip on the all-time list. That big number could easily come this week.<\/p>\n

Patience and understanding in always-evolving circumstance are necessary, he cautioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m doomed, regardless, right now,\u201d Johnson acknowledged a bit tongue in cheek, adding, \u201cI mean it doesn\u2019t matter the track or the result unless it\u2019s a win, and lots of wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have created an environment of very high expectations because of the success we\u2019ve had and I think people forget how special our run has been and we certainly want to get back into those ways and have it happen again. But history shows it doesn\u2019t happen very often. And we\u2019re very fortunate to harness lightning for a long stretch of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe encouraging news is we are making our cars better each and every week. I\u2019m more of a realist in where we\u2019re at and what we\u2019re doing, and reflect back and think damn, we had it really good for a while and it was really special. But we\u2019re a victim of our own success, and I hope to create the headlines that we want and the headlines being along the lines of well, they should have won. It was Dover.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has five pole positions, and a series best 17 top-five finishes in 32 starts \u2013 better than 50 percent of the time. Johnson holds the all-time record for laps led (3,105 laps) and his 9.1 average finish is best among any driver with more than four starts. Only nine times in his 17-year career has he not scored at least a top-10 finish here.<\/p>\n

So while Johnson \u2013 always a Hendrick Motorsports team player \u2013 smiled and offered encouragement when asked about his 22-year old teammate Chase Elliott\u2019s chances to score his career first victory at Dover on Sunday \u2013 there was little doubt as to Johnson\u2019s preferred storyline.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a good one,\u2019\u2019 Johnson answered, smiling. \u201cBut, I know who I want it to be. Chase is a great guy and [Johnson\u2019s daughter] Lydia\u2019s favorite driver, but, it\u2019s time for dad to win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Dover, Del. \u2013 If it were as simple as good vibes producing great results, Californian Jimmie Johnson is a sure-bet to end a 33-race trophy drought in the AAA 400 Drive for Autism (2 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Dover (Del.) International Raceway this weekend. But it takes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-16971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-4pJ","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/MENCS-Dover-JJohnson-050418.jpg?fit=4956%2C3368","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16974,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16971\/revisions\/16974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}