Jimmie Johnson: Shuttling between Pocono and the Glen, will it take a toll?

 Jimmie Johnson: is there a problem here? Rivals can only hope. Johnson (here Friday at Watkins Glen, and then flying back to Pocono) has made some rare mistakes lately (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
 

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   POCONO, Pa.
   So what's wrong with Jimmie Johnson?
   Ouch!
   He's getting rather tired of hearing that question.
   "We're doing fine," Mr. Four-time NASCAR champion was saying, between practice sessions at Watkins Glen and Pocono, in a shuttle game designed to improve his NASCAR game at Sonoma in two weeks.
   "You read the headlines and it's like the team is shutting down.
    "But in our world, yeah, it hasn't been the best for us...but we look at Dover (where he dominated but lost on a late pit road speeding penalty three weeks ago), and we just accelerated faster than we thought we would.
    "People still think I sped up when I got next to Kyle Busch (first out of the pits on the race-key stop)...but that wasn't the segment I got busted in. It was me leaving the pit box harder than I had any other time.
    "So I'll take the blame for that one.
    "The All-Star race (where he spun out late) -- I was pinned down next to Denny (Hamlin) coming to the white (on the late restart), I said 'The hell with it,' and just stayed in the gas and spun. I knew if I didn't clear him there, I had no shot at catching Kurt Busch. And there weren't points on the line. So I said 'The hell with it, I'll hold it wide-open and hope it sticks.' And it didn't.
    "I was a lawnmower, off through the grass.
    "But last week (in the 600), I made some mistakes (twice slapping the wall).
    "The first one the car was edgy, and I got loose off turn four and into the outside wall.
     "The next problem I had: we fixed the car, got it back in some competitive order...and I had Kurt on my tail coming to pit road for that sequence of pit stops. Kurt had been so fast, I was just legging the car really, really hard and spun out off turn two.
    "I've always had good rhythm walking that tightrope...and you step over it from time to time.
    "Lately I've been stepping on the wrong side of that line, and I need to bring it back, and make sure we finish where we should.
    "And if we don't have a car that can win the race, fine. We'll just take what we can get."

   This weekend Johnson is testing his limits, running Grand Am at Watkins Glen and running the 500 here.
   Watkins Glen? Because Johnson has targeted Sonoma and the Glen road courses as missing links in his NASCAR resume and he wants all the seat time he can get.
   Still, it's a bear of a travel schedule, particularly with the iffy weather.
   Friday morning Johnson flew up to the Glen for practice: "We landed in a field outside of the track....had a brief meeting with their series director, because I missed the driver's meeting. My team handed me a map and discussed what I needed to do on track.
    "Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. helped me out -- set up a simulator with the Watkins Glen long track in it. I had some ideas of what needed to go on. I looked at the track map and asked if I was in the right gear here and there, and what I saw in the game, and confirmed that.
    "We worked on four or five driver changes. Practice got started 10 minutes late. I made my four or five laps, and got out of the car, had a quick debrief.
    "Then golf cart to a car, a car to the helicopter, a helicopter up to the pad over here, and then took another golf cart in, and climbed right in the Cup car and was the second car on the line.
    "My biggest thing was to not take away from my Cup effort."
 
   And here Sunday? Johnson was one of the fastest in Saturday's final round of practice.
    However Johnson has essentially had four DNFs this season (though he did get enough repairs at Charlotte to be running at the end, though gaining no points).
   "We've lost some points....but this track doesn't apply to anything we race on at the end of the year," Johnson points out.
    "So in one light, it's important for points.
    "In another light, if you don't run well here, it doesn't really matter."
    Still, this is Jimmie Johnson, four-time champ. And champions are supposed to be performing smoothly.
    And he concedes his problems lately are creating a problem of their own: "What I'm now starting to experience is the overall expectation of everyone, and where the car should run."
    At least he can laugh about that.
    Still, a bit ruefully perhaps.
    "We want points, we need points," he says. "We've been slipping in the points because of mistakes.
    "But I think we're going to be good here. We'll get all we can this weekend and go on to the next one.
    "I'm really going to be focused on getting what I can out of the car -- if it's a fifth-place car or a 10th place car, I'm not going to step over that line and bust my butt again."
    

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    Kevin Harvick, the tour points leader, has never led a lap at Pocono. Will Sunday be more charmed? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)