RELATED: Starting lineup for Bojangles’ Southern 500
DARLINGTON, S.C. – Jimmie Johnson is a seven-time NASCAR champion and the defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion and a three-time winner this season but …
But Johnson hasn’t won since early June … and his three Hendrick Motorsports teammates have combined for just one victory … and the playoffs begin in two weeks … and team owner Rick Hendrick acknowledges “we haven’t been as good as we would like to be.”
So Jimmie Johnson did what any other racer would do during the season’s final off week — he and his wife, Chandra, ventured out into the middle of the desert. To hang out. At something called Burning Man, a week-long arts and music festival of sorts held in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.
“It’s awesome,” Johnson said of the excursion. “What an experience.”
Because of his racing schedule, attending Burning Man hasn’t been possible in the past. But since he and his wife were already in Joshua Tree National Park for a friend’s wedding, “We were so close we were like ‘We’ve got to figure out a way to get out there and just look around,'” Johnson told NASCAR.com.
“We missed all the real chaos but still saw plenty and what a neat ‘city’ out in the middle of the desert. You can read a lot (about it) and form opinions but until you go and see it yourself and experience it. … It was really cool.”
Now, it’s back to business and business for Johnson and his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet team this week means Darlington Raceway and Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
It’s been another summer spent watching other drivers and teams win races, something Johnson doesn’t enjoy but has come to expect.
“It’s been pretty common,” he acknowledged. “I think in my rookie year (2002) we won the spring Dover race, went on a dry spell until we came back to Dover again in the fall. So I guess there’s been some form of it really through our (team’s) existence.
“I don’t think we were aware of it for a long time but then unfortunately there seemed to be a trend and we can’t hide from it.
“Believe me, we’ve made huge efforts to try to avoid this. It’s just tough to operate at that top level for the whole calendar year.”
Johnson has led just 16 laps of the 2,327 contested since his Dover victory earlier this year. He’s failed to finish four of the 11 races contested since his 84th career win.
It’s a common occurrence but hardly comical.
“Some situations we were experimenting, others we weren’t,” Johnson said of the team’s annual summer struggles. “We’ve had slumps while we were experimenting and slumps while we were trying to be competitive.
“It’s a tricky thing to say ‘experimenting’ because teams can’t sit still, they’re always evolving a little bit. We’ve put a lot of thought into it and I think we’re kind of at a point now where it’s, ‘Forget wasting energy on thinking about why and just start figuring how to have good races and finish out strong.’
“We’ve had some high spots and some speed, just haven’t put together a full race weekend and we need to get back to doing that first.”
Johnson is a three-time winner at the legendary 1.366-mile Darlington track, sweeping here in ’04 and winning again in ’12. Sunday’s race, and next week’s stop at Richmond International Raceway, complete the series’ 26-race regular season. Then it’s off to the 10-race playoffs where Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and the No. 48 team have enjoyed so much success. His 29 career playoff wins (excluding two won after he had been eliminated) are tops for the series. If it’s true that the team slumps in the summer, it’s just as true that it rises to another level once the playoffs begin.
Still, there are no guarantees.
“You always worry,” Johnson said. “Even when you’re on top you’re worried. ‘Am I going to stay here? Are we going to keep speed in our car?’
“I think in motorsports, 80 percent of your life is spent worrying about something. ‘Can I keep it? Or where did it go?’ Right now we’re wondering where it went, trying to find it.”
Hendrick has seen his drivers win titles in just about every way possible. Jeff Gordon brought him his first in ’95, Terry Labonte added No. 2 the following season and then Gordon won three of the next five.
Johnson ripped off an incredible five in a row from ’06-10, added No. 6 in 2013 and a record-tying No. 7 last season.
“He’s won three races (this year),” Hendrick said. “A lot of people would like to win three races. You like to feel like you’re dominating.
“We’ve been where Martin Truex is. … That feels good and everybody says you’re the one to beat. We usually gain momentum when we get in the playoffs. We usually bring good stuff.”
Truex, driver of the No. 78 Toyota for Furniture Row Racing, is the points leader. He’s won four times and collected seemingly every bonus point available. His team has been pegged as one of this year’s title favorites.
Saturday, he qualified No. 2, alongside pole winner Kevin Harvick (Stewart-Haas Racing).
Johnson will start 18th in the 40-car field and hasn’t been in the dialog much of late. Which really isn’t all that unusual. This time though, he said he thinks folks “aren’t over-reacting.”
“It seems like everyone is patiently letting it run its course,” he said.
