June 29th, 2010 
Journo Look around and you’ll see a common headline: ‘Jimmie Johnson is back.’ For weeks many questioned whether the #48 team had lost its Midas touch. After all Johnson went (gasp!) 10 races in between wins. In that time he had two DNFs, and three finishes worse than 30th. Jimmie had hit rock bottom. Or had he?
I wrote here a little more than a month ago that the team was struggling, not because of the spoiler as many had suggested, but because of bad luck and mistakes. The truth is the team has run quite well despite a few hiccups here and there.
Since the implementation of the spoiler – and before his latest two wins – Johnson had six top-10s, three top-fives, one pole, and he led a total of 422 laps (in spite of those two DNFs, and three bad finishes). Since Charlotte, where Johnson finished 37th after a series of maladies, he has finished 5th, 6th, 1st, and 1st.
As we move forward through the season there are certainly still questions about Johnson and team #48. Can they shake the bad luck and mistakes for the remainder of the season? Will the new addition to the Johnson family make any difference? And could Jimmie be peaking too early?
Still this season is shaping up a lot like Johnson’s 2007 championship season. Some bad luck, and DNF’s through the mid-point of the season gave way to ten wins, and one of Johnson’s best seasons to date. Six of Johnson’s wins came after Daytona, and four of those wins came during the Chase (four in a row to be exact).
My point with all this is to say Jimmie may have had some bad luck, and certainly made a few mistakes during the first half of this season, but he has never faded from competitiveness. Perhaps an argument could be made that the field is catching up to Johnson – he’s not necessarily having the dominating performances he has had in past years. Competition is strong from a number of teams. Johnson and Denny Hamlin, for instance, will, at this moment, enter the Chase tied for first with their win totals. Certainly, I think this year he’ll face some stiffer competition going into and through the Chase, but don’t count out team #48.
Is Jimmie back? As far as I can tell he never left.
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I dont care whether Jimmie stayed or left for awile, I STILL HATE HIM!!! The one thing I do have to say though is Congrats to NASCAR for NOT giving the win to Jimmie. Unlike last week at Infineon where it was clearly gifted to him! On one of the pics from the LENOX Tools 301 gallery on NASCAR.com it even says quote, “Jimmie Johnson is handed another victory of the 2010 season”, end quote. Just sayin. Anyway Jimmie if you read the site. Maybe you do maybe you dont. I HATE YOU AND MUCH OF THE NASCAR COMMUNITY HATES YOU! I TURN OFF THE TV WHEN YOUR LEADING AND IF YOU WIN I DONT WATCH ANY OF THE NASCAR SHOWS THAT WEEK! Until practice or qualifying on Friday’s. AND TO NASCAR QUIT GIVING JIMMIE JOHNSON WINS THAT HE DOES NOT DESERVE!!!!!
Marcus
Marcus: When are fans like you going to finally realize that NASCAR doesn’t give Jimmie wins? The only person that handed JJ the win at Sonoma was Marcos Ambrose. NASCAR made the right call in the situation and Johnson just happened to be the benefactor. For the nine millionth time, what in the world does NASCAR have to gain by letting Jimmie win four championships in a row? How about NOTHING. They would be much better off, and would make more money if somebody different won every week. So please, explain to me why you think NASCAR gives the Jimmie wins? Because I have yet to hear a good argument for it…
Alright T.C, then why dont they help other drivers get to victory every week? Because they sure don’t. If JJ is winning every week I do have to agree it is hurting NASCAR a bit. Because many fans like me turn off the TV temporarily when he is leading. That hurts them I will agree. But if Jimmie winning all the time hurts them so much wouldn’t they help someone else win? Example Dale Earnhardt Jr. Thats my point. Let me know what you think.
One more question? Do either you or Journo work for the 48 crew? Because you guys are always on his side. I know you wont answer because of annonymity but I do believe that you may.
Marcus: NASCAR doesn’t “help” any driver win. It doesn’t matter whether it’s JJ or any other driver. And NASCAR won’t help another driver beat Jimmie because that would kill the integrity of the sport. I know it sucks that the 48 wins so much, but right now, they are just that good.
And to your second question, you know I can’t answer that. Either way though, these discussions have nothing to do with picking sides. If you want to call us NASCAR homers or JJ homers, go right ahead. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time. We look at situations differently then fans do, and we are going to present our perspective on issues that will often differ from the rest of the media and the masses. Like we’ve said before, we just call it like we see it. And instead of trying to explain what happens in NASCAR by using inuendo and conspiracy theories, we look at things as logically as possible. If that makes us look like we lean one way or the other, so be it.
TC, me thinks brother Marcus is just yanking your chain! or maybe Marcus is not a “he” at all!
For me, the real question revolves around Stewart. Is Tony poised to make is patented mid-Summer streak?
Funny Neon. I do think though that Tony will make a mid-summer streak. For example Daytona, INDY, and Watkins Glen are good spots for him to win. Hopfully he beats Johnson at INDY! By the way Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the best track in NASCAR rite now!!!! That’s why I hate that Johnson is good there! Anyway enough about Jimmie. I understand what T.C was saying but I also understand what I was saying as well. So enough of T.C and I’s little bantering If you call it that. I will just go back to reading the site as usual and posting comments. Hopefully T.C didnt take anything personal or offensive. If you did I apologize for whatever I said.
Marcus
The #48 has got it figured out. They are the team to beat, plain & simple.
That being said, I wish NASCAR would have helped out Ward Burton a little more when he was driving. I didn’t realize that NASCAR helped drivers. I wonder if I should e-mail NASCAR & ask them if they would help Ward Burton out if he came back. That way, if an owner knew Ward Burton was assured of getting NASCAR’s help, he could secure a ride. I sure miss Ward Burton.
Marcus: Don’t worry, we never take things personal. And there is nothing wrong with a little banter! You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but if I disagree, I’m probably going to tell you so. We’ve just heard this thing about NASCAR favoring Johnson a lot, and nobody has yet to give us any logical reasoning or evidence why it could possibly be true. So when somebody comes along saying it again, I’m going to challenge them.
windowlicker everybody! He’ll be here all week, please tip your waitress…
Window… I miss hearing Ward speak, in his native Virginian dialect that is. Classic!
My teen son is the biggest 48 Fan I know, since 2002, and he has been laughing at the press this whole time. Guess what… Me too!
AHA!! I always suspected Windowlicker was a girl.
I do miss Ward Burton! That Daytona 500 in 2002 was great! To bad Morgan-McClure ran out of money! Ward could at least be a on-track in the race mentor for other drivers! Tommy Baldwin, Dusty Whitney, James Finch do you hear me??? Talk to Ward. And to T.C I totaly agree nothin wrong with some banter. And finally to DD, good for your son. Were happy for him. I am sorry he has no other supporters to cheer with! NO ONE LIKES JIMMIE! Well except for your son. I am a teen as well but at least I like a better driver! CARL EDWARDS ALL THE WAY!! Get a win soon!!
Much to my surprise, I find myself becoming a Johnson fan. Actually, I’m becoming a 48 car fan. They are a terrific team, from HMS to Knaus to Johnson. They work hard, they say what they mean, and have done absolutely nothing to earn the hatred heaped on them except beat everyone else. Johnson himself has never been anything other than a model for NASCAR and racing in general. You don’t like him? Beat him on the track.
Jimmie Johnson is an amazing driver with a can do attitude. But Chad Knauss has it all down pat. Between running the shop & race strategy, I don’t think there has been a better crew chief than Chad since Ray Evernham. They know the rule book inside out & they optimize the car to those specs. Then they run a carefully laid out strategy on race day, making changes as necessary. I don’t see anything the other teams have changed that will overcome the package that the #48 team uses. Jimmie will win a 5th. If they were cheating, they would have been caught already. NASCAR has ripped apart many #48 cars, searching high & low. There has not been a bigger dynasty in modern NASCAR times.
I agree with people like Kevin in many ways. I openly admit that I dislike the 48 team and have little respect for Rick Hendrick, but they’re unstoppable. They’re bulletproof and will get all the breaks, “helped” or not. Two or three teams might even put a brief scare into 48 fans, but no one will be able to beat them at the end of the year.
Aw come on Journo. We usually receive better content from this site. Another JJ story? Balderdash. You’ve dropped a peg or two in my view. Every Tom, Dick, Harry, etc writes a story about JJ. I never expected the usual blah from this site. I hope in the future your high standards will reappear, because this is the ONE site I cherish.
I don’t have any “favorite” drivers, maybe a few that I dislike, but for the most part, I like them all. That said, JJ is still the one to beat this year. Looks like Hamlin, Harvick, Busch the elder, and maybe Busch the junior may have something for him, but unless any of these guys can both match him in wins and match him in avoiding the disasterous on off days, the best any of them can hope for is to be this year’s Mark Martin.
Admittedly JJ has had some uncharacteristic disasters this year, but he still has done better at avoiding them than the only other racer with as many wins. Meanwhile Harvick is doing a great job avoiding disasters but I don’t see him getting too many more wins unless something fundamentally changes on that team. They seem to have plateaued and it looks like their best chance to win is to be good on the same day JJ , Hamlin and Busch bros are off.
Either of the Busches could get on a roll, probably the elder has the best chance since he has a better head on his shoulders at this point, but again, I don’t see either of them with that one-two punch of wins and avoiding the disasters that JJ brings to the table.