Las Vegas where Hendrick, Johnson began to hit stride

LAS VEGAS -- Two Sprint Cup races, and two wins by teams other than the one that dominated NASCAR's premier series for most of last year. Already, the questions are arising -- has the rest of the field caught up to Hendrick Motorsports? Has the stock-car racing juggernaut slipped back to the pack?

Well, pardner, belly on up to the table, place your chips on the felt, and see if any of the casinos here in Las Vegas are willing to take that bet. Because if history is any indication, NASCAR's super team doesn't really get rolling until the series visits 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Hendrick began the streak of good luck that netted it the big jackpot at the end of last year.

By the Numbers: 4

Consecutive victories at Las Vegas for Jimmie Johnson IF he wins the UAW-Dodge 400 this week. Johnson has been involved in a couple of other four-race win streaks.

• More Numbers, click here

Jimmie Johnson's victory in the desert last March kick-started a run of 10 race wins in 12 weeks for the organization that ultimately won 18 of 36 Cup events and collected its seventh championship. Then as now, Hendrick cars had trouble in the season-opening Daytona 500 and weren't a factor in the end. Then as now, Hendrick drivers rebounded with second- and third-place finishes at California, with Johnson and Jeff Gordon on Monday reversing their positions from a year ago. And then as now, Hendrick's two big guns come to the desert ready to assert themselves at the top of the standings.

"I really feel at this point of the season, it's about hitting your stride," said Johnson, who's won the past three races at the facility, which was resurfaced and reconfigured last year. "Vegas seems to be a track where we get things rolling and moving in the right direction."

That's particularly true for Johnson, who won his third consecutive event at Las Vegas last year despite the changes in the racetrack, and will go for four in a row this year in a new car. But this isn't Lowe's Motor Speedway outside Charlotte, a place where Johnson felt comfortable from the beginning, and looked it in the string of five wins in six points events he complied there from 2003-05. Las Vegas is all about adaptation, nothing new for a driver and crew that's been near the top of the sport for seven years now.

"When I think about tracks that I really look forward to going to, the Vegas track is not one of those," he said. "It's because it's early in the season. There's a lot of doubt in my mind. There's usually new things with cars and setups, new crew members. There's really a lot of doubt surrounding Vegas, it's so early in the season. So, unfortunately, I don't think of Vegas when I think about tracks that I look forward to going to, and I should. I've had a lot of success [there]. It's a great facility. Mentally, I guess I'm focused in other areas."

As is his competition. Drivers are curious to see how the new car will fare in its maiden voyage on a 1.5-mile tri-oval, this one a Las Vegas track that generates tremendous speeds and offers an abundance of grip. Although teams tested at the facility in January, they did so under cold, cloudy conditions unlike those that drivers typically see for a race.

"At the Vegas test, you could really attack with the car," Johnson said. "It seemed like the track was getting a middle lane, if not an outside lane. So as we get into that weekend and all that activity on track, I hope that the track really widens out. I think it's going to be a better show for us to put on because we can really be aggressive with the cars. At [Auto Club] Speedway, there's not a lot of banking to tiptoe around, but at Vegas you can really charge."

Which is why Monday's race in Fontana isn't an accurate barometer of how the new car might fare on the faster Las Vegas track. "Vegas is such a different animal than California, just for the fact the speeds are so much higher," Kevin Harvick said. "These cars run faster down the straightaways than what our old cars did. I think Vegas is just going to be one of those places where track position is going to mean a lot because the speeds are so high, and it's just a little bit harder to pass."

Gordon was the last driver to win the same event four times in a row, claiming the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway from 1995-98. Johnson, who seemed more comfortable on the old, flatter Las Vegas layout, doesn't come to Nevada with quite the confidence level his Hendrick teammate always brings to the egg-shaped oval in South Carolina. But he's won here anyway.

"It's so early in the season, and I feel like the team's trying to get into a rhythm, I'm trying to get into a rhythm, that it's not been a race that I've gone into saying, 'All right, we're in our stride right now and we're going to win in Las Vegas.' It's just worked out that way," he said. "We usually finish second in Fontana, leave Fontana with some good thoughts, good direction, then head on over to Las Vegas and win. I hope we can do that again."