Johnson in 48-race skid, still clinging to playoff spot
INDIANAPOLIS — Jimmie Johnson doesn’t have a playoff spot locked in as the seven-time NASCAR champion prepared for rain-drenched Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the final race of the regular season.
Johnson is in a 48-race losing streak headed into today’s Brickyard 400 and his Hendrick Motorsports team has been inconsistent all season. It’s put him up by just 19 points over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman in the battle for the 15th position on the playoff grid. That should be enough to get Johnson into the playoffs, but a surprise race winner could jumble the final berths.
“We’ve had a tough year,” Johnson said Saturday. “It’s been extremely frustrating and extremely difficult to live through, but we are all still very eager to turn it around and know that we will.”
Johnson is a four-time winner at Indianapolis and even in a crummy season, he doesn’t discount how quickly things could flip for the No. 48 team. Johnson won his seventh title in 2016 and despite three victories last season, he peaked in the first quarter of the year and was 10th in the final standings. His last victory was at Dover on June 4, 2017.
“A win is the way to turn it around,” Johnson said. “We’ve seen this team get hot at times and we’ve been unstoppable. A win would be the starting point.”
NASCAR moved the regular-season finale this year to Indianapolis as officials from the sanctioning body and the track tried to make the Brickyard a bigger draw. The race has struggled for much of the past decade in its traditional summer slot in part because of heat, lack of on-track action and low stakes. As the 26th race on the schedule, though, the show has increased meaning because it will finalize the 16-driver playoff field.
But expectations have been doused, first by the NFL scheduling a home game across town for the Indianapolis Colts, then a torrent of rain that disrupted all activities at the Brickyard. All activity was washed out both Friday and Saturday, including Cup qualifying. The field was set by points with Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr., the so-called “Big 3” this season, lined up first through third.
The washout Saturday prevented teams from getting any track time prior to the race and all will start with setups based off notes. But all previous experience was during July, when the temperature made the surface of the track hot and slick. The move to September should favor drivers, particularly as they adjust their cars.
A victory in the regular season earns a driver an automatic berth into the playoffs and 10 drivers have already locked up spots. They are: Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott, Erik Jones and Austin Dillon. Four drivers — Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Aric Almirola — are locked in by points.