Kenny Bruce: A memory lapse for Jimmie Johnson?
INDIANAPOLIS – Jimmie Johnson says it’s so tough to win races today, and you wonder if he’s forgotten that he’s already won five times this season.
Hard to believe that would be the case. His Hendrick Motorsports team is only two races into its latest “slump,” and while he might be a new father, he’s still a couple of months shy of 35 and his mind should be pretty sharp.
When he strolled into his weekly meeting with members of the media here on the grounds of Indianapolis Motor Speedway Friday, he was wearing blue jeans and a golf shirt with the appropriate Lowe’s markings. Then again, maybe all his shirts are stitched accordingly, and it’s hard to make a fashion faux pas when that’s the case.
Who knows? When you win multiple races for multiple years en route to becoming a multiple champion, the multiple darling of many and the multiple enemy of others, maybe the memory does start to play tricks on you. Maybe he’s forgotten that even though he’s third in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series point standings, his five wins and eight top-five finishes would make him the No. 1 seed in that all-important “if the Chase started today” category.
Maybe he’s forgotten that he’s still the guy with the bulls-eye on the back, the guy everyone wants to beat every week, but you’d think after four years, he’d be more likely to forget his anniversary than forget that.
The competition get its chance here again Sunday, when the Brickyard 400 gets under way, and it’s not likely their memories will be foggy. They know Johnson has won the last two times the Cup series has come here, and three of the last four.
Tony Stewart won the only one Johnson didn’t during that span, but the owner/driver heads into the race winless on the season and has only recently begun putting together a stretch of solid finishes expected from a team of his caliber.
Kevin Harvick, points leader for 10 consecutive weeks, is a former Indy winner as well and always seems to be a contender here, but his two wins have come at restrictor-plate tracks this year and thus far, NASCAR’s made no mention of bringing out the plates for this weekend’s race.
Denny Hamlin’s surgically repaired knee is no longer an item of interest, and although he’s managed to win a career-best five races this season as well, the Joe Gibbs Racing team has yet to prove it can master Indy’s technically difficult layout.
It may be up to Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon to derail Johnson this weekend. After all, he’s second in points and the only thing between Johnson and Harvick, but Gordon has spent the better part of this season building an impressive resume of races he’s failed to win.
It’s a pretty clear picture for those guys, and a handful of others – beat Johnson and there’s a good chance you’ll end up in the winner’s circle. Here and most anywhere else.
Johnson says his team’s not simply idling through the remaining races and “waiting to turn it on” when the 10-race Chase arrives.
He calls it a “fragile environment” and says the closeness of the rules keeps any advantage from lasting more than a month.
But by then, he says, “everybody in the garage has it, and you’re off trying to find the new thing again.”
Maybe so, but looking at his team’s track record you get the idea that his “month” has stretched out for the better part of four years.
“When we've been on a roll and we go into the media center and see everybody, you don't realize how hard it is [to win],” he says. “And you guys roll your eyes and say, ‘Oh, yeah, sure.’ We're serious.”
You think he’s on the level after all, but it’s hard to tell, because you’re too busy wondering if he ever wears all four championship rings at the same time.
