Johnson needs a win
Hoping to get back on track at Martinsville
The last few months of Jimmie Johnson’s racing career haven’t been the best, or fastest, of times.
He continues to wrestle a winless streak that extends to 28 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races, and another low point was reached with the recent announcement that Lowe’s, Johnson’s ultra-loyal sponsor, would leave auto racing at the end of this season.
The seven-time champion, whose numbers clearly make him one of the best drivers in the sport’s history, was reduced to listening to suggestions that it might be time to retire.
No way, Johnson said.
This weekend might be the one in which he derails the negativity.
It’s Martinsville week.
The STP 500, the sixth race of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season and the first on a short track, is scheduled for Sunday (2 p.m. ET, Fox Sports 1), though a wintry mix of snow and rain is in the forecast for Saturday and could affect racing conditions the next day.
Martinsville will present Johnson with his best chance at victory. He has won nine times at the half-mile flat track and once won five races in a sixrace stretch.
How much does Johnson like Martinsville? Consider:
❚ His average finish at one of the sport’s most physically demanding tracks is a remarkable 7.7.
❚ He has won nine times at a track that has befuddled some of the sport’s best. Among the drivers who have never won a Cup race at Martinsville are Bill Elliott, Bobby Allison, Ned Jarrett, Matt Kenseth, Terry Labonte, Joey Logano and defending series champion Martin Truex Jr.
❚ On the Martinsville victory list, the closest active driver to Johnson is Denny Hamlin, with five wins.
❚ Only two drivers — Richard Petty with 15 and Darrell Waltrip with 11 — have won more Martinsville races than Johnson. His former Hendrick Motor- sports teammate and current NASCAR Fox analyst Jeff Gordon also has nine.
❚ Johnson has led 20% of the nearly
16,000 laps he’s run at the track. His record there includes 17 top-10 finishes in a row.
❚ In 32 Cup races at Martinsville, Johnson has failed to finish only one — his very first race at the track in spring
2002.
Johnson’s 2018 started with thumps and bumps, but he ran well Sunday at Auto Club Speedway, finishing ninth, his first top-10 run since October.
Johnson has pushed back against suggestions that his age (42) is contributing to his slowdown, instead saying changes at Hendrick Motorsports and the team’s adjustment to the new Camaro model have limited progress.
“We’re working hard,” he said. “I think there will still be a month or two before we can really see the fruit that this is going to provide for us and see what we can produce working even closer together. I still see a lot of growth for Hendrick Motorsports this first half of the year.
“We do have a better product with the Camaro body. We just haven’t maximized it yet. The No. 9 (Chase Elliott) and the No. 42 (Kyle Larson) Chevrolets have clearly been way closer to the front than we have. So we need to look at ourselves until we’re the lead Chevy and start looking elsewhere.”