MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- It should be no surprise that the winners of the last eight races at Martinsville Speedway average 17 starts each at the short, paper-clip shaped half-mile oval.

Even Denny Hamlin, the Chase for the Sprint Cup contender in Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 11 Toyota who won here in the spring, despite having only six Cup starts at Martinsville, has hundreds of laps here in Late Model stock cars.

“

I've been racing my whole life and I've felt like I was kind of slow and late, but truthfully I feel showing up at the Cup level in my mid-20's was really a blessing in disguise.

”

-- JIMMIE JOHNSON

But experience still rules, according to two-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who's won four of those eight races and who'll start on the pole for Sunday's Tums QuikPak 500 thanks to his lead position in the current Chase standings.

"Experience is everything," Johnson said early in the weekend. "I still feel like I'm learning more and more each year and learning how to deal with our sport and the challenges in it. Experience has done a lot for me.

"I feel in the next two or three years I'll be even stronger and better as time goes on. It's crazy. And I've been racing my whole life and I've felt like I was kind of slow and late, but truthfully I feel showing up at the Cup level in my mid-20's was really a blessing in disguise. I showed up at the right time, had a lot of experience and had matured in a lot of ways.

"I think watching some of these young guys come along, it's challenging for them. I'm not saying it can't be done, but they're going to have other challenges that I didn't experience. So I'll take the experience and I'll love to be competitive at 40 years old and racing for championships. And I really think it's possible."

Experience is not the only answer for Johnson, who in 13 career starts at Martinsville is riding a string of 12 consecutive top-10 finishes. He said experience has taught him patience, and at Martinsville that's key.

"I feel like in the past, and I'm hoping it continues this weekend, I've been able to take my time," Johnson said. "The first 20 laps on a set of tires, the field is very close. And then as the run goes on, tires give up, the rubber starts to lay down on the track and there are more lines and options out there to pass than you would think.

"A lot of guys aren't creative enough to look for it and to find it and they're just stuck in the same rhythm and the same line and I can see that, and know how I can adjust what I'm doing and find a way by. So after 20 or 30 laps, I get into a rhythm and things just click and go well. I can go on different parts of the track where guys are not, get position on them and work my way to the front." (Continued)