Johnson returns to familiar place atop standings

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Jimmie Johnson began to face questions about a potential fifth consecutive Cup Series championship almost as soon as he settled into his chair in the Kansas Speedway interview room. He dismissed them just as quickly.

"That would be foolish," he said. "It is way too early to think about those things. Way, way too early."

Jimmie Johnson

Remaining Chase tracks

Track	Wins	Avg. Fin.
Fontana	5	5.5
Charlotte	6	10.2
Martinsville	6	5.4
Talladega	1	17.8
Texas	1	10.1
Phoenix	4	4.9
Homestead	0	12.7

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And yet, for everyone else, it's impossible not to given that Johnson's runner-up finish on the 1.5-mile oval was enough to move him to the top of the standings, by eight points over Denny Hamlin. It's a narrow margin, but it looms large given Johnson's performance on the kind of intermediate track that dominates the Chase schedule the rest of the way. Oh, and there's also the fact that in two of the previous four years, Johnson took the points lead for the first time in the playoff at Kansas. And there's the fact that the circuit now heads to Auto Club Speedway in Southern California, where he's won five times, including four of the past six events.

But Johnson isn't hearing any of it, at least not yet.

"All I can do is worry about my team, what we have to do," Johnson said Sunday after finishing 7.638 seconds behind winner Greg Biffle. "Again, it's early. I'm not worried about who is leading the championship right now. I know we came in second. Of course, I wanted to be leading. ... It's just not time to worry about that stuff. After Talladega, teams and drivers can work on a strategy of protecting or taking chances. We have to get deeper into the Chase to be concerned about who the points leader is."

Still, Sunday had to be an encouraging sign for the No. 48 team, which qualified 21st, lost track position early in the race because of traffic on pit road, but watched Johnson steadily march through the field. It helped that Hamlin faced his own obstacles and finished 12th, but crew chief Chad Knaus said input from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon also played a role in turning an early struggle into a strong finish.

"It started pretty poor, obviously," Knaus said. "It was kind of odd, because we came off the truck in qualifying trim, and usually we're respectable -- especially this year, we've been qualifying fairly well. To qualify as poorly as we did, we were kind of surprised. And in race trim, the car really wasn't the way we needed it to be, either. We leaned a lot on our teammates. We talked to Jeff and [crew chief] Steve Letarte on the 24, and took some of what they had, and put it into what we were doing, and fortunately enough we were able to get a setup that was running pretty good [Sunday]."

Kansas marked the second consecutive strong run on an intermediate track for Johnson, who also notched a third last month at Atlanta. Three more such ovals -- Fontana, Charlotte and Texas -- loom on the schedule, and Johnson's historic strength on those layouts has been key in his championship reign. But Knaus isn't taking anything for granted.

"I don't think anybody has anything figured out," he said. "If you look at it, it's pretty hit or miss right now. Everybody has to work pretty hard to run competitive, especially on the mile-and-a-halfs. .... The 98 car [of Paul Menard] was running well, the 43 car [of A.J. Allmendinger] came up through the pack, and he qualified poorly. There are a lot of guys that you don't typically see running up there up there, so you definitely have to stay on your game."

And yet, just the sight of Johnson atop the standings, a place so familiar to him in the past few years, has to have an effect. Like his driver, Knaus isn't buying it -- next weekend in Southern California, he said, the slate is wiped clean once again. Check back with him in a few weeks.

"It's cool, but it doesn't matter yet," Knaus said. "Come see me after Talladega. If we have it after Talladega, we'll be happy."

Related:
• Press Pass: Johnson talks about taking the points lead