Need for Speed
A NASCAR BLOG BY Jared Turner
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Johnson endures rough outing
Mar
3
When was the last time, prior to Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas, that Jimmie Johnson’s Chad Knaus-led Hendrick Motorsports team failed to cure a car’s handling woes?
The most ardent NASCAR addict would be hard-pressed to remember.
It certainly wasn’t during last year’s 10-race title chase when Johnson reeled off four straight victories. In the opening two races of the 2008 season, the defending series champ was also his characteristically solid self.
But Johnson’s Chevrolet on Sunday was downright sorry, never sniffing the lead pack and falling two laps behind on the way to a 29th-place showing at day’s end. Countless adjustments during multiple visits to pit road did little to diagnose the problem. His car’s handling was irrevocably evil.
It ‘s tempting to say Johnson’s struggles might be just a microcosm of Hendrick Motorsports’ lack of traditional dominance over the season’s first three races. But the four-car team flexed plenty of muscle at Daytona where Dale Earnhardt Jr. won twice during Speedweeks and Johnson earned the Daytona 500 pole. The Hendrick stable was also stout two weekends ago at California, where Johnson and Jeff Gordon finished a solid second and third.
Even Sunday, as Johnson struggled to keep pace, Gordon and Earnhardt Jr. were in the hunt throughout. It’s safest to chalk Johnson’s poor Vegas performance to one cold, hard and unforgettable fact: In the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, even the best occasionally have a bad day.
The most ardent NASCAR addict would be hard-pressed to remember.
It certainly wasn’t during last year’s 10-race title chase when Johnson reeled off four straight victories. In the opening two races of the 2008 season, the defending series champ was also his characteristically solid self.
But Johnson’s Chevrolet on Sunday was downright sorry, never sniffing the lead pack and falling two laps behind on the way to a 29th-place showing at day’s end. Countless adjustments during multiple visits to pit road did little to diagnose the problem. His car’s handling was irrevocably evil.
It ‘s tempting to say Johnson’s struggles might be just a microcosm of Hendrick Motorsports’ lack of traditional dominance over the season’s first three races. But the four-car team flexed plenty of muscle at Daytona where Dale Earnhardt Jr. won twice during Speedweeks and Johnson earned the Daytona 500 pole. The Hendrick stable was also stout two weekends ago at California, where Johnson and Jeff Gordon finished a solid second and third.
Even Sunday, as Johnson struggled to keep pace, Gordon and Earnhardt Jr. were in the hunt throughout. It’s safest to chalk Johnson’s poor Vegas performance to one cold, hard and unforgettable fact: In the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, even the best occasionally have a bad day.
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