{"id":25738,"date":"2019-05-17T18:30:48","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T23:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=25738"},"modified":"2019-05-18T09:13:42","modified_gmt":"2019-05-18T14:13:42","slug":"jimmie-johnson-arrives-at-charlotte-ready-to-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/17\/jimmie-johnson-arrives-at-charlotte-ready-to-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmie Johnson arrives at Charlotte ready to win"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Dressed in shorts, a polo and his sponsor Ally\u2019s ballcap, Jimmie Johnson<\/strong> looked comfortable and right at home Friday afternoon meeting with members of the media before qualifying at Charlotte Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jimmie Johnson. (Photo by Donald Page\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Johnson should be comfortable.<\/p>\n

His four victories in Saturday night\u2019s annual Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race (at 8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is best all-time. And his four wins in the sport\u2019s longest race of the year, next week\u2019s Coca-Cola 600 \u2013 as well as his eight regular season Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> wins overall at the 1.5-mile Charlotte oval – is tops among active drivers too.<\/p>\n

The statistic that Johnson may be most mindful of, however, is that he hasn\u2019t won a regular season race in two full years \u2013 the longest such streak in his 83-victory, seven series championship, NASCAR Hall of Fame-bound career.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/CLT-MENCS_Johnson_051719.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

These Charlotte high banks have been especially good to Johnson in the past. So some of that positive juju would be especially appreciated in this weekend\u2019s $1 million-to-win All-Star exhibition to prime Johnson\u2019s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team for next weekend\u2019s Memorial Day endurance.<\/p>\n

A win is a WIN for this team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is challenging, there\u2019s no way around it,” Johnson conceded. \u201cEvery week I\u2019m able to go to the shop and check in and see what we\u2019re working on and how hard everybody is working. You get excited for the week. You get to Friday and I let things roll off my shoulders and hit the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pretty frustrated when I got out of the car in Kansas (last week). The first half or first two-thirds of the race was pretty bad. I rallied back to sixth, which was respectable. And then I realized I was in fourth and before that restart, I was hopeful our outside lane could advance and maybe have a look at a win or a second-place finish behind Erik (Jones).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nice to be back in that moment but certainly the frustration is coming through. I\u2019ve never worked so hard to run where I do. I\u2019ve never seen our team work so hard to not be able to get back to where we want to in a short period of time. That\u2019s the hard part.”<\/p>\n

Since Johnson\u2019s last regular season win \u2013 a victory in the June, 2017 Dover International Speedway race \u2013 he has 22 top-10 finishes. The closest he\u2019s been to another win is third at Dover in the Fall, 2017 race and third in last year\u2019s Bristol, Tenn. Spring race.<\/p>\n

He did win The Clash in February \u2013 Daytona Speedweeks\u2019 kickoff non-points race.<\/p>\n

Since then Johnson has earned five top-10s through the opening 12 races. His best weekend included a pole position at Texas Motor Speedway in April and a fifth-place finish. His 60 laps led in that race is also a 2019 season high.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s certainly been building momentum. His sixth place effort at Kansas last weekend put him back into the Playoff top 16 in the standings (16th).<\/p>\n

This week \u2013 as happens from time to time \u2013 the 43-year old Johnson was asked whether he\u2019s considered retirement. With a smile indicative of his motivation and expectation, he firmly assured everyone that it\u2019s not time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t have anything signed beyond 2020, so those conversations usually start a year out so Rick and I will get into that before long,” Johnson said. \u201cThe real reality is I don\u2019t have 10 years left.”<\/p>\n

Then he added with a laugh, \u201cI probably don\u2019t have five years left so being impatient in the comment that I made there is there\u2019s less runway than there was when I first started.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been able to be patient through my career in a lot of ways and it\u2019s served me well. I feel like now, here I am, I don\u2019t have that luxury any longer if I want a shot to win eight or nine (championships) or whatever it is; more wins. I don\u2019t have that luxury.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year is almost halfway through. And then, next year will be here before we know it. So I\u2019m just aware of my opportunities to accomplish what I want to. There are just fewer of them left and we need to get after it.”<\/p>\n

Charlotte Motor Speedway is a place where Johnson certainly \u201cgot after it\u201d last year. He famously collided with then race leader Martin Truex Jr. on the final lap of the debut ROVAL road course race during the Playoffs. He was going for the win.<\/p>\n

It was a firm reminder that he isn\u2019t racing to finish second. Not then and not now.<\/p>\n

And even with all the shiny trophies and high expectation, Johnson knows the question of \u201cwhen will he win again\u201d remains inevitable.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got a job to do and that\u2019s part of it,” Johnson said smiling when he was asked Friday about his frustration level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been racing my whole life. I\u2019ve been through all the ups and downs. I\u2019ve sat at this very desk [in the media center] with a lot of highs and enjoying those moments. Racing is racing. You\u2019re going to have all that stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, I\u2019m not smart enough to quit. I\u2019m not smart enough to walk away. I love what I do. I want to be out there racing. I love driving for Rick (Hendrick) and Ally has been an amazing sponsor. So, just keep on digging.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s all I can do.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Dressed in shorts, a polo and his sponsor Ally\u2019s ballcap, Jimmie Johnson looked comfortable and right at home Friday afternoon meeting with members of the media before qualifying at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Johnson should be comfortable. His four victories in Saturday night\u2019s annual Monster Energy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":24927,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[11],"tags":[233,16],"class_list":["post-25738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-charlotte-motor-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/MENCS_BMS_JohnsonPrac2_040619.jpg?fit=5472%2C3648","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-6H8","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25738","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\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25738"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25768,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25738\/revisions\/25768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}