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."

A new approach

The new rules left Johnson and his team needing to find another way to get it done. But unlike last year, there never seemed to be any sense of panic. If nothing else, because of how last year turned out, they and everyone else seemed to sense that it was only going to be a matter of time until they turned it up a notch.

"I've never really watched where he finishes [at Bristol], but I do watch Jimmie at a lot of other tracks," said Kasey Kahne. "I try to watch certain things he'll do in certain situations, and I'll be like, 'Wow, that's something I need to be doing.' I've learned a lot from Jimmie Johnson. I think probably a lot of drivers have, because he's pretty darn good.

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I try to watch certain things he'll do in certain situations, and I'll be like, 'Wow, that's something I need to be doing.' I've learned a lot from Jimmie Johnson. I think probably a lot of drivers have, because he's pretty darn good.

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-- KASEY KAHNE

"I don't know why he hasn't done better at Bristol. Sometime he will win there. He always wins at some point."

Kahne got to watch Johnson finish just ahead of him Sunday at Bristol, even though Kahne produced a strong fifth-place finish himself.

Johnson said if he made it past the halfway point Sunday, he figured he might be able to finish better at the place that has haunted him so often in the recent past.

See, at one point earlier in his career, Johnson seemed destined to win at Bristol even more than Kahne believes he is now. He finished in the top 10 in five of his first six Cup starts at the venue, including another third in the August race in 2004.

But after that stretch, while Johnson blossomed into a winner virtually everywhere else, he began struggling to find his way on the half-mile oval in the hills of Tennessee. He finished in the top 10 just twice in his next nine races -- until Sunday's effort.

"It's just a track that doesn't fit me, and I'm doing everything I can to make that right. We put a lot into it each time we go up," Johnson said. "I've been driving laps in my head. I've been watching videos. We've talked about car setups and worked with engineers in pinpointing what I'm looking for. I've even grown a beard, hoping that will help bring me some good luck for that race."

Maybe that was it. With less serious testing available to produce the desired results, maybe the beard did it.

What's ahead

Then again, you knew it was only a matter of time. That's why there was no panic in the 48 camp this year, and certainly none in Johnson's mind.

Perhaps he had looked ahead at the Cup schedule and realized what is up ahead next. Last year he went on a tear at this precise point, finishing fourth at Martinsville, second in Texas and winning his first race of the season at Phoenix. That stretch vaulted him from 13th to fourth in points.

He never fell outside of the top nine the rest of the season.

Now that he's back there this season, his fellow competitors have real reason to fear that he's not likely to fall back again. It's much more likely that he will instead to begin to surge forward, with some wins not far in the offing.

"In my mind, it's really about finding that rhythm and [to] stop making mistakes," said Johnson, citing a speeding penalty on pit road in Atlanta and other problems that have short-circuited otherwise decent runs this season. "We have the speed in the cars. We've shown that. Our [Hendrick Motorsports] teammates have shown it. Jeff [Gordon] is leading in the points.

"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."

To do that, look for Johnson to be in the No. 48 whenever he can -- even when it's at a Goodyear tire test like the one held last week at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. With car-specific testing down for all teams, Johnson said he relishes the value of climbing into his race car whenever he can.

So whereas in the past, a developmental driver might have been used for some non-specific tests, that's just not going to happen again anytime in the near future.

"It's really about me, as the driver, being in the car -- especially when you're trying to find something small that you're trying to validate," Johnson said. "If it's something completely off the wall or a durability situation, you maybe could use a guy at that point. I know we've used developmental drivers to work on stuff in the past -- but now when that 48 car goes to the track, I'm in it. That's my car; this is my team.

"I'd like not to do the Daytona testing, if that ever comes back. But other than that ... it's really, really important to find that last little bit with your driver in there."

It seems Johnson inched closer to finding that last little bit Sunday at Bristol. So look out. Full-scale testing or not, here he comes.