Johnson utters title talk early
HAMPTON, Ga. — Two wins in the first four races don't guarantee success over the course of a season, but Jimmie Johnson is already looking way down the road.
"We're thinking championship already," Johnson said Sunday after winning for the second week in a row. "That's really the mode anymore. You have to think about points and being in the top 12 all the time."
The reigning NASCAR Nextel Cup champion passed Tony Stewart three laps from the end at Atlanta Motor Speedway and went on to take his 25th career victory and move a little closer to the points lead.
Johnson led 132 of the first 238 laps. Then, the only laps he led the rest of the way in the 325-lap event on Atlanta's 1.5-mile oval were the last three as he and the crew on his No. 48 Chevrolet worked through some tire problems and made some key handling adjustments.
The victory of his Cup career moved Johnson within 28 points of current series leader Mark Martin, who plans on skipping next week's race at Bristol and the race the following week at Martinsville.
That would leave Johnson just 20 points behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon and 17 behind Jeff Burton going into Bristol, the fifth of the 26 races that will determine the 12 drivers in the Chase for the championship.
"After you win a championship, I think it changes you a little bit and that's what you really focus on and what you want to do again and again," said Johnson, who won his first title in his fifth season in Cup after finishing in the top five each previous year.
"Since we came into '07, the team meetings and discussions, everything is about trying to win another championship," he added. "Right now, things are going good and we're doing the right things, but it's way too early to get too excited."
Johnson, who overcame a penalty in the pits at Las Vegas to beat Gordon the previous week, had to chase down and pass two-time Cup champion Stewart late in Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500.
Stewart appeared on the way to his first victory of the year after coming off pit lane ahead of Matt Kenseth and third-place Johnson after the final stops by the leaders during a caution period on lap 311.
After the green flag waved with 11 laps to go, Johnson took just three laps to get past Kenseth, then took off after Stewart.
Johnson caught Stewart on lap 322 and then got his nose out ahead just past the finish line. As the two drove through turn two, Stewart scraped the wall, all but ending his chances of victory.
