Jimmie Johnson undeterred by slow start, career-long winless streak

Mere bad luck or a sign indicative of a deeper problem that cannot be explained away by happenstance and being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Two races into the Monster Energy Cup Series season is much too soon to make any declarative statements, especially regarding a driver and crew chief combination that has proven time and time again they deserve the benefit of doubt.

So what to make then of Jimmie Johnson posting finishes of 38th and 27th to open the season? Those are the results that follow him coming off the worst season of his career and had some wondering if the prolonged dominance of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 team had finally reached the end of its line.

The answer, of course, is that while Johnson’s current 25-race winless streak may be the longest winless stretch of his Cup Series career, it is too soon to sound any alarms.

The season-opening Daytona 500 is a restrictor-plate race leaving drivers vulnerable to circumstances beyond their control — exactly what happened to Johnson when contact between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Blaney triggered a multi-car crash leaving him with no avenue to escape the destruction. And Lady Luck was not on Johnson’s side when a right-front tire failure caused him to crash last week at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Two races and two crashes have Johnson residing 35th in points heading into Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, Fox).

“Honestly, I don’t take too much stock in the points at this point in the season,” former teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. said this week on his podcast, The Dale Jr. Download. “One thing that you pay attention to is if we get five races in, and Jimmie hasn’t rebounded somewhat, that’s some cause for some serious concern.

“Jimmie could go out and run in the top three next week and cure this issue right away.”

Although it may be too soon to be overly concerned, there are valid reasons to wonder if there is something askew with Johnson, whose seven Cup titles has him sharing the NASCAR record with Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty. How Johnson began this season mirrors how he started 2017, where finishes of 34th and 19th at Daytona and Atlanta, respectively, had him 31st in points.

That uneven start preceded a season where Johnson may have won three times and advanced to the semifinal playoff round, yet also set career lows in several major statistical categories, including top fives, top 10s, laps led, and average finish. By his own account, 2017 was disappointing and frustrating year, which had him vowing this off-season to do everything he could to reclaim his spot atop the NASCAR mountaintop.

Johnson’s woes coincided with Hendrick Motorsports experiencing a rare down season — it won just four races overall — indicating the issues inflicting the No. 48 went far deeper. In response, the organization made several personnel changes and brought the teams of Johnson, Alex Bowman, William Byron, and Chase Elliott into closer alignment. Gone was the structure of the four teams divided into dual two-car groups, a byproduct easily leading to diverging approaches and ultimately an array of varying performances.

Chevrolet replacing the outdated SS with the more aerodynamic Camaro was another way Hendrick — and by extension, Johnson — would combat the superior Toyota Camrys of Joe Gibbs Racing and Furniture Row Racing this season, with the intent of returning the organization back its customary dominant self. Thus far, the kinks are continuing to be worked out.

The capabilities of Chevrolet’s new model were negated in the season’s first two races at Daytona and Atlanta, two speedways unlike the most on the schedule and not necessarily indicative of speed that will lead to success later on. Daytona is a restrictor-plate track, with Atlanta’s coarse surface creating excessive tire wear.

Those within Hendrick maintain the changeover in body styles will take time, particularly with how the schedule lays out. Las Vegas is the first of three consecutive races on the West Coast. That will naturally slow the process of studying what does and does not work, then effectively implementing it on how future cars are constructed, and then making those changes to car setup.

“I think after the West Coast swing is a good time to evaluate,” Elliott said. “You might not get all the changes you want by then, but it’s a good time to look and see where you’re at.”

Still, Hendrick is supposed to be better than it has shown through two weeks, with Elliott’s 10th-place finish at Atlanta representing the best among his teammates. And how Johnson did in that race was especially out of character.

On a style of track where his talent and experience should be accentuated and able to overcome any engineering shortcomings, Johnson was instead outran by his lesser experienced teammates. He was lapped once and nearly a second time before the tire failure sent him spinning. Elliott, as has often been the case over the past 12 months, again carried the Hendrick flag and salvaged a decent day. Byron finished 18th, Bowman 20th.

Johnson and the No. 48 team long ago proved mashing the panic button on matters related to how things are going on the track is unwise. Writing off Johnson is on the same list as spitting into the wind and tugging on Superman’s cape. You just don’t.

This slump, however, does feel different than any before. It’s gone on longer and rarely has Johnson appeared as ordinary as he has since he last won — at Dover International Speedway on June 4, 2017. During this 25-race drought, he’s recorded just one top-five finish and led just a total of 45 laps. He also doesn’t have a top-10 finish in the past eight races, another career-long stretch of futility.

But for anyone willing to think for a second this may be end of Johnson’s run, he offers a word of warning.

“We all know it was not even close to the result we were looking for,” Johnson said. “We have a lot of smart people on our team, so I’m not hitting the panic button. I posted this on Twitter: ‘Fear has two meanings — Forget Everything and Run or Face Everything and Rise. I’m ready to rise.’”