ERIK JONES RULES DAYTONA
Saturday at Daytona International Speedway began with a giant U.S. flag on the infield and ended with a checkered flag for Erik Jones, the winner of the Coke Zero Sugar 400. It was Jones’ first win in NASCAR’s Monster Energy Cup Series.
The NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 race was not completed in time for this edition. Read the late race story in our e-edition at OrlandoSentinel.com/late or on our website.
DAYTONA BEACH — Jimmie Johnson has spent his career in Victory Lane. Now the 42-year-old icon is in uncharted waters.
The seven-time Cup Series champ entered the July race at Daytona International Speedway without a victory for the first time in his career. Johnson has not won since last June in Dover — a span of 40 races.
Ever since he became a full-time driver in 2002, Johnson has won at least once by the season’s midpoint and had fewer than two wins on just three occasions. But a car switch into the struggling Chevrolet Camaro and continued inconsistency within the Hendrick Motorsports team have been difficult to overcome even for the most accomplished driver of his generation.
“We’re hungry. I mean, we are hungry for a win, hungry to turn this thing around,” Johnson told the
Orlando Sentinel three hours prior to Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400. “I feel we keep making strides. Unfortunately, the competition keeps getting stronger.
“But we’re getting there and we continue to keep finding more ways to make our cars better.”
Johnson’s unprecedented struggles have been an unexpected storyline as the 36-event season segues into the second half following Saturday night’s race. Eight events will remain before the 10-race playoffs begin.
Equally surprising has been the dominance of a handful of drivers. Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick each has five wins while defending season champion Martin Truex Jr. has three. Only three other drivers have won during 17 races.
“Obviously we’ve got to do a job to get more winners,” Daytona 500 winner Austin Dillon said. “Only six is kind of tough to see that.”
Unless things change, Busch and Harvick each has a legitimate shot at double-digits wins for the first time since Johnson won 10 times in 2007.
“We call them the Big Three — Truex, Busch, Harvick? How many more wins can they get?” said Dale Earnhardt Jr., now an analyst for NBC Sports. “Will anybody get in there in join the conversation?”
An 83-time Cup Series winner, Johnson remains optimistic he can. In 2008, he arrived to Daytona in July with just one win and finished the season with seven victories and his second Cup Series crown.
A big key will be improved performance of the Camaro. The car has not produced a victory since Dillon won the seasonopening race here.
“I think in the summer stretch we’re getting ready to debut a lot of thoughts,” Johnson said. “I’m excited to get to the track next week; Pocono should be another good step for our cars. We have some stuff kind of coming off the assembly line going into the system now that we think will a lot better.”
Friday qualifying offered reason for optimism. Three of the top four cars were Chevys, including Johnson in the fourth position and Chase Elliott on the pole. But Johnson noted Hendrick Motorsports long has excelled in restrictor-plate races.
Making a second visit to 12 tracks during the next 18 weeks, including nine during the Cup Playoffs, also could help as Johnson and his team continue to learn their car.
“Repeats help without a doubt,” Johnson said. “They help everybody, so it’s hard to to say it will help just us. But the deeper the notebook on a new car, the better we’re going to be.”
Anything, though, would be an improvement on Johnson’s last visit to Daytona International Speedway.
The two-time Daytona 500 winner’s famous No. 48 car was knocked out of the race during a nine-car wreck. It was the third time during Speedweeks Johnson was involved in a race-ending accident and lost a car.
Thus began a season filled with frustration.
Dillon, who drives a Chevy for Richard Childress Racing, said the exasperation felt by Johnson’s team has become increasingly obvious.
“I walked by [Johnson crew chief ] Chad Knaus after Sonoma and said they looked like they had a pretty good car today, and he didn’t even know I was there because he was so mad,” Dillion recalled. “And then he stopped and turned around and said, ‘Hey, man, sorry about that;’ he said he was frustrated and wanted to get back to Victory Lane.
“I don’t know if that sums it up for you.” It did for Johnson. “We’ve had a lot of change going on, a lot going on internally at Hendrick, a new car, some bad luck,” he said. “I think Sonoma we had a good run and we had a little misfortune that had Chad in that 1,000-foot stare.”