Best Richmond International Raceway Drivers: No. 5, Jimmie Johnson

There are only two tracks on the entire NASCAR circuit where five-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson has a worse average finish than Richmond International Raceway.

The result of the 18 times Johnson has visited the 0.75-mile short track is an unimpressive 16.9 average finish, and he’s also well behind other top drivers in NASCAR’s driver rating stat.

So why the heck are we ranking him as the No. 5 best current Richmond driver?

For one thing, Johnson has won at Richmond three times, which is tied for the most among all active drivers. And just because a 16.9 average finish isn’t great for Johnson’s standards doesn’t mean it’s bad for everyone else.

But clearly, it’s been either feast or famine for Johnson at the Virginia short track.

“Those three wins were three races ago, and the last three times we have been here, it’s been quite a bit of a struggle,” Johnson said prior to last September’s Richmond race.

Of course, then he fixed that problem by finishing third and leading laps at Richmond for the first time since his most recent victory there, which came in 2008.

“This track has always been that way for us,” he said. “It’s been on or off.”

The first 11 times Johnson attempted to win at Richmond, it was “off.” Though Johnson earned a runner-up finish there in May 2004, it marked his only top-10 Richmond result in his first 11 tries.

Imagine that: There was a time when top-10 machine Jimmie Johnson struggled to get top-10s at Richmond.

Johnson actually won 26 career races at 12 different tracks – and his first Cup championship – before he finally won a Richmond race in 2007.

That’s when his Richmond success turned to “on.”

During a four-race stretch from 2007-08, Johnson won at Richmond three times and led over 240 laps there. In other words, it’s what we think of typical Johnson today.

Johnson’s May 2007 victory – he held of Kyle Busch for the win – sparked an exuberant celebration from a driver who sometimes seems reserved in Victory Lane.

“It means the world to win here,” he said afterward. “We haven’t been that strong here. ... We beat a track that’s been tough on us.”

He won again in September ‘07 – the first driver to sweep both Richmond races since Rusty Wallace in 1989 – and then did it again the following September.

But then, as quickly as his Richmond wins had begun to pile up, they stopped coming. Johnson hasn’t won at Richmond in the four races since – and wasn’t even really competitive until last September.

Still, he said, there’s nothing holding him back from winning at Richmond anymore.

“I feel good about this track,” he said. “I don’t come here anymore feeling like there’s a thorn in my side with this place.”