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Can Defending Nascar Champ Repeat? - 2007/03/10 22:29
Defending NASCAR champ driven to complete rare repeat
By:The Press-Enterprise
A few days after capturing the pole in his Daytona 500 debut, Jimmie
Johnson strolled over to crew chief Chad Knaus and handed him a
bottle of champagne with a note scrawled down the side of it.
"To Chad," the message read. "This is only the beginning."
In the five years since he wrote those prophetic words, Johnson has
transformed himself from a promising rookie into one of the most
dominant drivers on NASCAR's premier circuit. The 31-year-old El
Cajon native enters Sunday's race at California Speedway looking to
build momentum in his quest to do what no other driver has in nearly
a decade: win two consecutive Cup championships.
"It is a good problem to have," Johnson said this week on a
conference call. "There is always pressure to do something. Last year
we did a really good job, and we're really hitting our stride right
now. Hopefully for the next five or six years, we can just stay in
rhythm and in this pace and get another championship or two."
In this era of unprecedented parity in NASCAR, Johnson's bid to
repeat was no shoo-in even before he put himself in an early hole
with a late crash and a 39th-place finish Sunday in Daytona. No
driver has won back-to-back titles since Jeff Gordon in 1997 and '98.
The highest a defending champion has finished since then is fifth.
"It's so difficult to win two straight championships in our series,
it's not even funny," Knaus said by phone. "The competition is
stronger than it's ever been, but what we've got on our side is we've
been a consistent-performi ng team."
Before a sterling 2006 season in which he won the Nextel Cup's two
most prestigious races and finally captured the series title,
Johnson's career had been defined by a series of maddening near
misses.
Though he won 18 times in his first four full seasons in Cup racing,
Johnson's title bids fell short. He took second in 2003 and 2004,
then finished fifth in 2005 despite leading the points race most of
the season.
"Jimmie was so close so many times that the pressure was a little bit
more," said Kyle Busch, Johnson's teammate with Hendrick Motorsports,
by phone. "Now the pressure is off, in a way, because he's finally
the bride and not the bridesmaid."
Unlike most of his peers on the circuit, Johnson didn't grow up
racing stock cars. His early years were spent riding motorcycles
until he and his father determined his talents were better suited for
four wheels.
Five years after Johnson climbed through the window of a stock car
for the first time, car owner Rick Hendrick plucked him from the
second-tier Busch Series and awarded him a full-time Cup ride. At the
time, Johnson was overshadowed by his teammate Gordon.
In his first public appearance since winning the crown, that was no
longer the case.
"I've never had that many people around trying to get a picture or
autograph, so that really was my first exposure to what a
championship brings to a driver," he said.
To contend for the title again, Johnson feels he must improve on the
two road courses and at quirky Bristol Motor Speedway, where he
finished an average of 12th last year and led a total of three laps.
He also will have to contend with the introduction of the bigger,
boxier Car of Tomorrow, which will be used in 16 of 36 races.
Gordon said it's more difficult to win back-to-back titles today than
when he did it because the 10-race Chase for the Championship rewards
the streakiest driver, not necessarily the best.
"Chances are Jimmie's going to be one of those 12 guys" who qualify
for the Chase, Gordon said by phone. "But then to pull it off is just
kind of a crapshoot."
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