For all those begging to see something different this season in the Sprint Cup series, there is sobering news.

Jimmie Johnson is a full week ahead of schedule -- or at least the one he set last season when he went on to capture his third consecutive points championship. That had been done only one time previously, by Cale Yarborough 30 years earlier, but it hardly was enough to satisfy the fiercely competitive Johnson.

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In my mind, it's really about finding that rhythm and [to] stop making mistakes. We're in better company at this point in '09 than we were in '08. We just need to clean up our act and stop making mistakes.

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-- JIMMIE JOHNSON

Now he's on the hunt to accomplish what has never been done before in NASCAR. He wants to become the first driver to win four championships in a row.

After Sunday's performance in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway -- a place where Johnson has in the past struggled mightily -- the defending champ is sporting the look of a guy who is ready to speed off in the right direction toward his goal. His third-place finish vaulted him to ninth in the points hierarchy, and now he's poised to head to some of his favorite places.

Last year at this time, Johnson was mired in 13th in the standings and it seemed everyone wanted to know what was wrong with him. He said recently that he experienced that feeling himself to a degree, as did his No. 48 Chevrolet team as a whole.

Their collective solution to dig their way out of the so-called "slow start" in '08 was to step up their testing program in between events. They went anywhere they could during whatever spare time they could muster until they felt like they were getting it right, and kept up the relentless pace until they hit a stretch where it started translating into more consistent finishes at the track.

This year, they no longer had that option. Sure, they could go to Rockingham and places like that for limited testing. But they couldn't go to any tracks where NASCAR-sanctioned events are held because of NASCAR's new rules eliminating testing at those facilities.

Johnson said prior to Bristol that the new rules definitely hampered his team.

"I think the testing rules have affected us some, and I wouldn't say that it's from performance in the car or speed in the car," Johnson said. "It's really been about being in rhythm as a team and not making mistakes. This year I think we've been far more competitive than we were last year at this time.

"We've had some small mistakes that have kept me from being on the podium [in the top three] at the end of the race, if not in Victory Lane." (Continued)