Johnson gets new crew chief

On the brink of missing the playoffs for this first time in his career, seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson is moving on to another new crew chief in the hope of reversing a serious slide into irrelevance.

Johnson’s bid to snap a tie with Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty for career Cup titles is on the backburner for now, as the first goal becomes simply making NASCAR’s postseason.

Hendrick Motorsports on Monday made its second big shakeup in months atop Johnson’s pit box and replaced Kevin Meendering with Cliff Daniels. Daniels will call the shots Sunday in the road course race at Watkins Glen International.

“We have to act now,” Johnson said. “We don’t have any time to waste.”

Johnson won seven championships with crew chief Chad Knaus over 17 years before they split up after last season. Meendering failed to steer Johnson into victory lane, and the former champ is 12 points out of the 16-driver playoff field with five races left before the cutoff.

“We want to get back to our winning ways,” Johnson said. “We want to get back to winning championships.”

Johnson, who turns 44 in September, has 83 career victories but none since June 2017 at Dover and is mired in easily the longest losing streak of his career. He finished 15th Sunday at Pocono Raceway and has just three top-five finishes this season.

“We have great confidence in Cliff ’s ability to win races with Jimmie and the team,” team owner Rick Hendrick said. “He’s a natural leader and tremendously talented from both a technical and communication standpoint.”