"When you need a friend, you can always count on your teammates." -- Jim Brown

Jimmie Johnson's quest for a fourth consecutive Cup Series champions begins with the Daytona 500. In order to hoist the trophy again at Homestead he will have to fend off the likes of the new Stewart-Haas team, Tony Stewart and defending Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman, and the formidable Roush Fenway stable of preseason favorite Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, David Ragan and Jamie McMurray.

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And if that isn't enough competition to keep a driver on his toes, Johnson also will have to remain the top driver within his own Hendrick garage, which includes four-time series champion Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and newcomer Mark Martin, who has finished as the series runner-up four times.

Johnson has never finished outside the top five in points during his seven seasons. He has four top-five finishes in the Daytona 500

Earnhardt has three top-five points finishes in nine years, and he has five top-10s in the Great American Race.

Johnson and Earnhardt will get a lot of attention during Sunday's season opener. Both drivers are among the best at navigating the 2.5-mile tri-oval; both are previous winners of the race; and both have title aspirations.

Both drivers also have similar stat lines at the track:

"Truthfully, I'm so far ahead of the goals I set for myself five or six years ago, that I'm just damn happy where we're at," Johnson said. "And again, talking to what I said earlier, the fact that we've done these things is very cool and something I'm very proud of but I still have that feeling today to show up here and race Daytona as I did my rookie season.

"I mean, it's not like we're fat and happy and feel that we're better than anyone."

The No. 48 team may not feel that way, but it does have the hardware to back it up. Nonetheless, it's a new year and there are 36 races to determine the series champion. Johnson maintains that the crew is focused on the big picture -- not just the Chase.

"Those 10 [Chase] tracks really are good for us, so I think that's a factor," he said. "We really show up each week to do what we can to win. In '05 we thought we had things under control and we got cute before the Chase stated and worked on some stuff and that ended up biting us. Then '06 went our way and '07 was an interesting season and last year we were just frankly catching up.

"Thankfully, we had so much time to catch up and we got to September and we had ourselves right and were organized as a team and knew what we needed to do. It's just I wish we could say that we were planning on just turning it on for the Chase but that's not really the case. We're fighting hard each week."

Earnhardt, who is entering his second season with Hendrick, said making the 2008 Chase was a good first impression but work remains to be done.

"I feel a little more comfortable and a little less concerned," Earnhardt said. "Going to a race season with a new team, you have not had any laps with, man; you really wonder how it is going to work out.

"We kind of have an idea that we are a pretty good team. We make a few adjustments, do some things right, catch a few breaks and we are a great team. We are going to try and make that happen this year. I feel pretty comfortable though, no real worries."

On Sunday, Johnson and Earnhardt -- and 41 other drivers -- will start at zero. How they roll out of Daytona will not make or break their season (Stewart finished 43rd at Daytona in 2002 and rebounded to win his first series title), but it could be a springboard to greater heights. Eight drivers have won the Daytona 500 and the Cup Series championship in the same season -- most recently in 2006, when Johnson began his streak of consecutive title seasons.