Jimmie Johnson isn’t worried about his unusually poor finish on Sunday at Loudon.
"By all means we did not want to finish 25th,'' Johnson said on a teleconference with reporters on Tuesday.”I don't think it's taken us out of our drive for a fifth championship. We still have that opportunity. We can't have another bad race. We've got to be spot on from here on out, I believe."
"The other guys are going to have some trouble at some point, at least I'm hoping for that," the four-time and defending Sprint Cup Champion said.
Although he admits that the odds of eleven drivers having a problem are small; it’s possible.
Jimmie Johnson has been started in a hole before and come back from a worse start of NASCAR’s ten-race playoff called "The Chase". In his first Championship year, 2006, he finished a lowly 39th in the first race, also at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
"In 2006, there were a lot of guys that led at different points in the Chase, but the pressure forced the teams to make mistakes, drivers made mistakes, there were failures and wrecks and they let everyone back in."
With the resources of Hendrick Motorsports and the single-minded crew chief, Chad Knaus, Johnson has learned how to overcome the pressures for the past four years and isn’t about to start worrying with nine races to go.
So it’s back to business as usual in the shop and in the car for Johnson and his team with a little glance back, and determination to focus on the future.
"That's the thing; you just never know what the finishing average is going to be for the champion. We have to pick our chin up, lift our heads up and go to work and show up at Dover and give 100 percent again and just get to work, bottom line. The only way to go is up at this point, and we know we can't make mistakes and have to be spot-on," Jimmie Johnson said.
"By all means we did not want to finish 25th,'' Johnson said on a teleconference with reporters on Tuesday.”I don't think it's taken us out of our drive for a fifth championship. We still have that opportunity. We can't have another bad race. We've got to be spot on from here on out, I believe."
"The other guys are going to have some trouble at some point, at least I'm hoping for that," the four-time and defending Sprint Cup Champion said.
Although he admits that the odds of eleven drivers having a problem are small; it’s possible.
Jimmie Johnson has been started in a hole before and come back from a worse start of NASCAR’s ten-race playoff called "The Chase". In his first Championship year, 2006, he finished a lowly 39th in the first race, also at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
"In 2006, there were a lot of guys that led at different points in the Chase, but the pressure forced the teams to make mistakes, drivers made mistakes, there were failures and wrecks and they let everyone back in."
With the resources of Hendrick Motorsports and the single-minded crew chief, Chad Knaus, Johnson has learned how to overcome the pressures for the past four years and isn’t about to start worrying with nine races to go.
So it’s back to business as usual in the shop and in the car for Johnson and his team with a little glance back, and determination to focus on the future.
"That's the thing; you just never know what the finishing average is going to be for the champion. We have to pick our chin up, lift our heads up and go to work and show up at Dover and give 100 percent again and just get to work, bottom line. The only way to go is up at this point, and we know we can't make mistakes and have to be spot-on," Jimmie Johnson said.