This Streak Worth Shedding
Jimmie Johnson Has Lost 48 Straight, Tackles Brickyard
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 48race losing streak headed into the 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 fourtime 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 wins 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.
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 last 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 the city 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.
James wins at Waterford: Kyle James of Ashaway, R.I. got his seventh win in 11 starts in the 40-lap SK Modified feature Saturday at the New LondonWaterford Speedbowl.
Todd Owen of Somers was second and Andrew Molleur of Shelton third.
Jason Palmer of Berlin got his fourth win of the season in the 30-lap Late Model feature. Anthony Flannery of East Hampton was second and Brian Norman of Clinton third.
Jason Chicolas of Sutton, Mass. got his second win of the season in the 30-lap Sportsman feature. Al Stone III of Durham was second and Shawn Gaedeke of Groton took third.
Doug Curry of Groton got his second win of 2018 in the 25-lap Mini Stock feature. Charles Canfield of East Haven was second and Ian Brew of Wood River Junction, R.I. third.