Jimmie Johnson doing his best to not let Talladega get inside his head
Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson is leading the Chase For The Sprint Cup standings heading into Sunday's race at Talladega Superspeedway. // Jeff Robinson, NASCAR Scene
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Hendrick Motorsports’ Jimmie Johnson is trying not to expect the worst for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Despite holding a healthy 118-point cushion in the standings over second-place Mark Martin and being 150 ahead of third-place Jeff Gordon, Johnson could still mathematically lose his points lead at Talladega.
And if there’s one track in NASCAR’s 10-race Chase For The Sprint Cup that has the potential to shake things up, it’s Talladega. Restrictor plates, which are only used at Talladega and Daytona, keep drivers bunched in tight packs and often breed unavoidable multicar accidents.
“We all know the dangers and what exists at this track, what can happen and we just hope we’re not in that category of what happens,” Johnson said Friday at the 2.66-mile track where he’ll compete in Sunday’s Amp Energy 500. “We’ll just prepare … and focus on the things that we can control and just be smart in the race. … We’d love to finish as high as we could and hopefully that’s ahead of the 5 [of Martin] and the 24 [of Gordon].”
While others still have a mathematical shot at the title, Johnson is most concerned about Hendrick teammates Martin and Gordon, who won earlier this year at Texas, the site of next weekend’s race. Martin did the same at Phoenix where the series will head the following weekend.
So while there are only four races left, Johnson knows that two of the upcoming tracks could play to his teammates’ advantage. And the defending three-time series champion believes that makes a strong finish for him at Talladega all the more important.
“When I look at the points knowing we’ve never been in this strong of a position in the points, it does make me feel better about things, but there’s still just as much to lose points-wise,” Johnson said. “Yes, the deficit wouldn’t be as bad if the worst situation happened for the 48, but I still look at it and know that anything can happen in those other three races and I also know that I’m racing my teammates right now for this championships and the 5 car won Phoenix, did great on the mile-and-a-halfs, Jeff won at Texas. So when I look at the races following, I don’t want to lose any points.
“I don’t want to have to chase them in the points … As soon as I find some comfort in the fact that we’re 118 up right now, I think about the other three [races after Talladega] and I feel good about them, but I also know that they’re going to be good for my teammates.”
Even though Johnson has been in the title hunt almost every season since he joined the Cup series in 2002, he still finds it challenging not to stress about the what-ifs.
Johnson said he and crew chief Chad Knaus spent more than an hour Thursday discussing their strategy for this weekend.
“Falling asleep has been difficult, I have to admit,” Johnson said. “The brain wanders and thinks about a lot of different things, especially coming to a track like this where I just don’t want to miss an opportunity. I think one aspect that helps us [with] staying calm, in some respects, is that we think things through and we’ve very well prepared when we come to the track.
“This race, you can look at like eight scenarios and then on top of that all those scenarios can go out the window and not even exist.”
Ultimately, Johnson believes it’s better for everyone involved with his group when he doesn’t worry exceedingly about all that can go wrong in a championship battle.
“You can worry yourself to death on how things will turn out here and all it’s going to do is shorten your fuse ... and put the team on edge where you make bad decisions, and we don’t need that,” he said.
