With three crashes in the past four races leading to finishes of 39th or worse and no top-10 finishes in that stretch, it’s clear that Jimmie Johnson’s midseason slump is in full swing.
In years past, he has had similar stretches of poor finishes, but he always manages to rally for the start of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Johnson, who was in Atlanta this week to promote the upcoming NASCAR weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, said his recent run of bad finishes can’t be attributed to his team trying new setups that might be used in the Chase.
“We’re always trying new things and trying to develop our race car,” he said. “We lost a new car at Pocono unfortunately … At Indy we should have been inside the top 10, but on the last restart the inside lane didn’t go.
“The other three races, we crashed because of tires. It’s been a bizarre year for us with tires. We’ve never had tire problems and this year we’ve been plagued with them from the first race at California.”
Goodyear officials say many tire failures this season are because teams run low air pressure. Johnson has maintained that’s not the case with his team.
Johnson, who has already secured his spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, said he’s looking forward to a strong run at Atlanta on Aug. 31, which is the next-to-last race before the start of the 10-race run to the championship. In 22 career starts at Atlanta, he’s had three wins and eight other top-five finishes, but was 34th and 28th in his two most recent starts.
“We’ve won championships without momentum starting the Chase and won with momentum,” he said. “Having momentum on your side is so helpful. The Chase gets so stressful. If you feel like you are digging out in the first race, it’s a long 10 weeks.”
Testing at AMS: Sprint Cup rookie Austin Dillon, who drives the No. 3 Chevrolet owned by his grandfather Richard Childress, was one of five drivers testing at Atlanta Motor Speedway this week.
Dillon, who sits 15th in the points standings and in a tight battle for a Chase berth, said he believes he can make the cut for the Chase even if he doesn’t win one of the next five regular season races.
“We got banged around on that last restart [at Pocono Raceway last week] or it would have been our third top 10 in a row,” he said. “The cars are getting faster. We’re working hard at RCR to make them faster. … Each and every week we creep up on the competition.”
Dillon said taking gambles on fuel mileage and other strategies to try to win a race isn’t practical in many instances, even under the new Chase rules that essentially guarantee a Chase berth to a driver won wins one of the 26 regular season races.
“You’ve got to be smart about the championship race,” he said. “You need to be running in top 10 [in a race] to take chances.”
Title sponsor revealed: AMS has announced a title sponsor for the Aug. 31 Sprint Cup race. It will be the Oral-B USA 500. Track officials say Oral-B's sponsorship of the race is a way to celebrate the Labor Day weekend by supporting American jobs. According to a track release, the Oral-B plant in Iowa City, which opened in 1958,is the largest toothbrush factory in the world, employing more than 470 employees who make a million toothbrushes every day.
