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FORT WORTH -- In the moments following a qualifying miscue Friday evening at Texas Motor Speedway, Jimmie Johnson good-naturedly offered up an assessment of his 2017 season.
"I think we used up all our good luck at Homestead last year," the seven-time NASCAR Cup champion told reporters with a smile.
The luck he referred to was a happy ending to the 2016 season finale when he started last in the field and rallied to victory in the final three laps to clinch a record-tying seventh title.
MORE: Johnson 'fortunate' for pressures put on team
This year has been a different story -- a lot less "Cinderella" and a lot more "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day."
He'll line up 24th on the starting grid for Sunday's O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) instead of anywhere close to the top-five effort he had put in before the No. 48 Lowe's Chevy spun in time trials.
It's kinda been that way for Johnson early in the 2017 season. He is winless and ranked 14th in the standings entering Sunday's race -- the lowest he's been ranked after six races ever in a Hall of Fame-certain 16-season career.
With a series-best six victories on the Texas high banks -- including three consecutive from 2014-15 -- Johnson is absolutely the all-time best here. He has five runner-up finishes and an all-time tops 1,023 laps led. He has a winner's cowboy hat for nearly every day of the week.
The statistics are all promising for Johnson, however, this is also the first race on the newly paved, reconfigured Texas oval. In addition to the fresh pavement, the banking in Turns 1 and 2 has been lessened from 24 degrees to 20 degrees and the racing surface there widened from 60 to 80 feet.
READ: Texas repave prooves difficult | Drivers eager to race on repave
There was no testing prior to the race weekend, and four teams had to go to Plan B because of accidents in practice. Rookie Erik Jones and Chase Elliott will race backup cars after crashes in Friday's practice. Trevor Bayne and Kasey Kahne will race back-up cars after crashes in Saturday's final practice.
WATCH: Elliott spins | Jones to backup | Bayne with issues | Kahne into wall
Johnson, meanwhile, was the fastest in that last practice and ran more laps (45) than all but two drivers. Brad Keselowski completed 46 laps and Kyle Busch ran 47.
"I have it in me, but I think it's a clean sheet of paper," Johnson said of the new-look Texas track. "You can't pick a favorite right now. Anytime there is a reconfiguration, a new asphalt, it's a total game-changer. All of past history is now out the window and it's like we are coming here for the first time."
In addition to the Texas-specific challenges, Johnson's results elsewhere this season appear underachieving at first glance. He has only a single top 10 in six races -- ninth at Phoenix. And his average finish on the year so far is 18.2. Three times he's finished 19th or worse. A 34th-place result -- he was caught up in a crash not of his making -- in the season-opening Daytona 500 left the team playing catch-up immediately.
The comforting news in all this is that the 80-time winner Johnson does not appear frantic or overly concerned about his season's start, but rather calm and optimistic.
See: Relive all 80 wins
And when it comes to navigating the Texas high banks, Johnson has every reason to feel that way.
"I don't mind the questions, I mean, they are rightfully asked," Johnson said last week of the more frequent questions about the team's start. "I think the overreaction on either side is very amusing. If we are not winning, how big of a deal some make of it and when we win, how big of a deal some make of it.
"I think our history shows that we can rebound quickly and we have unfortunately had slow summers through our existence. There are a few dynamics there that are pretty darn predictable even though we try to change them, especially that summer slump.
"I am so fortunate in (that) my career has shifted in a way to where there are high expectations that come with it. I will gladly take that than a lot of shoes that other drivers are sitting in."