SONOMA, Calif. -- On his way to Infineon Raceway this weekend, Jimmie Johnson drove by the same hotel he stayed in when he was 15 years old, back when he ventured to the road course to test a car on asphalt for the first time. He remembered how excited he was, he remembered how much fun he had, and he tried to carry those positive feelings through the gate Friday morning as he continued his pursuit of another career goal on the 11-turn layout nestled in wine country.

Every stop at a road course extends Johnson's very personal quest to fill the one remaining blank spot on his otherwise peerless NASCAR résumé, a combined 0-for-16 record on the two tracks where Sprint Cup drivers turn right as well as left. Johnson has clearly stepped up his preparation, twice driving Daytona Prototypes in sports car races to try to enhance his road-racing skills, and working closely with engineers and crew chief Chad Knaus on the No. 48 team's road course setups.

“

I know I have it in me, I just have to figure out how to do it over the course of 90 laps.

”

-- JIMMIE JOHNSON

"Everybody knows how much I am focused on, and how badly I want to win on a road course, especially here," said Johnson, a California native. "So it's time."

Johnson has been through something like this before, for years chasing a victory on the short track at Bristol Motor Speedway, hating the track, and then convincing himself that he liked it, and then finally mastering the place with a breakthrough victory in March that he celebrated with all the gusto of a championship. For someone with four titles and 50 race victories, a road course win is one of few items still left on the table. Still, he doesn't feel like a golfer who's missing a particular major, but rather someone with an annoying splinter lodged in his thumb.

"It doesn't weigh as much as a Brickyard win or a Daytona 500 win, or even winning at Bristol to me was more of a résumé-builder," Johnson said. "This is just an irritation. I know I can do this. I've driven other road course cars, and I'm plenty fast and competitive, and I have run good at times in the Cup car on road courses. I know I have it in me, I just have to figure out how to do it over the course of 90 laps. So it's more of an irritation. It would certainly be good for my résumé, but it's not like I feel there was a void there."

And yet, there seems no question that winning road races brings with them a sense of immense fulfillment, particularly given that so many modern champions -- from Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart to Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace -- have rounded out their careers with road course victories. Kevin Harvick said his Watkins Glen win provided the satisfaction of knowing he could win on short tracks, superspeedways, and road layouts. Jeff Burton added that road course wins can set drivers apart from the rest. (Continued)