Top teams need to heed early season warning signs

Danger!

Two races into the Sprint Cup season, and already there are teams in trouble. Top teams. Teams that have staked out an annual presence -- or close to it -- in the Chase.

Yes, the season is only two races old, and there's plenty of time for struggling teams to rebound. That doesn't mean, however, that teams with alarming starts to their 2009 campaigns should ignore much-needed wakeup calls.

A closer look after Fontana reveals plenty of danger signs.

• Jeff Gordon is second in the point standings, but none of his three Hendrick Motorsports teammates stands better than 19th. That's the position three-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson occupies.

Now, no one ought to suggest that Johnson will fail to qualify for the Chase this year, since he has never missed NASCAR's version of the playoffs, but his ship is in need of righting after a 31st-place result at Daytona and a ninth at Fontana, where the No. 48 Chevy dominated early and faded late.

The problem for Johnson is that the series heads next to Las Vegas, unquestionably his worst track in 2008. Johnson fought his car all day and finished 29th without wrecking or blowing up. The 48 team needs to find a solution to the 1.5-mile speedway in order to begin moving in the right direction.

The other two Hendrick teams -- the No. 5 of Mark Martin and the No. 88 of Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- simply haven't gotten the results to match the quality of their equipment. This year was to be Martin's resurrection, with the 50-year-old contending for the championship with Hendrick in his first full season since 2006. He's 27th in points after an engine failure at Fontana. (Continued)