Johnson's break-through year continues at All-Star Challenge
CONCORD, N.C. — Winning yet another race at Lowe's Motor Speedway guarantees Jimmie Johnson absolutely nothing. He learned that the last three years, when his domination at his "home" track failed to win him a Nextel Cup championship.
This time, he hopes, will be different.
After winning the Nextel All-Star Challenge on Saturday night — his seventh victory since 2003 — Johnson said this is the year he may finally break through and win a championship.
"I believe so in my heart. I really do," he said, wearing a firesuit soaked in champagne. "I just feel like we have always been there, and as you all know, we always do so well until August and that is the big challenge for us this year is to make sure we can keep that momentum.
"We are looking at everything and trying to do everything we can to put together out best 10 races at the end."
In years past, Johnson has dominated the early and middle part of the season to put himself in contention for the title.
Those runs have included a mastery of Lowe's, the track that the primary sponsor of his No. 48 Chevrolet owns the naming rights to. He made his Cup debut here in 2001, and two years later had established himself as the driver to beat on the 1.5-mile superspeedway.
Johnson has won the last four points races, three-straight Coca-Cola 600s, and now has his second $1 million All-Star victory.
But that impressive resume has meant very little in the closing months of the season, when his burnt-out Hendrick Motorsports team limped to the finish. Johnson finished second in the season standings in 2003 and 2004, then fell back to fifth by wrecking in last year's season finale.
Avoiding the same fate this year is now his goal, and crew chief Chad Knaus thinks he and the driver are finally poised to pull it off.
"Although we have been in championship battles ... I don't know that we were ready as a team, nor was Jimmie ready as a driver to pull it all off," Knaus said. "Now I think our team has matured enough, and Jimmie has matured enough, to actually go out there and do it. "
They'll take another step next Sunday, when Johnson will go for his fourth straight Coca-Cola 600 victory. His All-Star win makes him the overwhelming favorite to sweep the two events, which he also did in 2003.
The bad news for the rest of the field? Knaus thinks the Chevy he's bringing to the track next week is even better than the one Johnson drove to victory Saturday night.
