With his fourth NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race victory in hand, Jimmie Johnson now looks to re-assert himself as the king of NASCAR’s longest challenge — the Coca-Cola 600.
Johnson, the five-time Sprint Cup champion, won three consecutive “600s” at Charlotte Motor Speedway from 2003 to 2005. But the 1.5-mile oval outside the Queen City has changed considerably since those days with a major repave taking place there in recent years, and Johnson has not won at CMS since claiming the track’s fall 500-miler in 2009. It’s a problem that he would like to correct next Sunday night.
“We’ve had decent finishes and been competitive and led laps but the track is just so different now than it was then, and we had it scienced out,” said Johnson, who takes a 44-point lead in the standings over Carl Edwards into the “600.”
“We knew literally what time in the afternoon, what the adjustment needed to be made to the car, and it was like clockwork — [it] didn’t matter the year, just every single time. It’s not that way anymore.
“We certainly want to have that magic because winning here in Hendrick [Motorsports]’s backyard and [having sponsor] Lowe’s corporate offices just up the road, there’s a lot of reasons we want to be good here. But more importantly, it’s like we know that we’ve had it so we feel like we can find it again, and we’re knocking on the door. But like I was saying earlier, we’re one of three or one of five that can make something happen here now, where before we had a pretty strict advantage.”
After winning last night, Johnson mentioned Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch, and Matt Kenseth as possible threats to win the “600” outside of himself, with crew chief Chad Knaus throwing Carl Edwards into the mix as well. All of those drivers have had solid success at Charlotte in their careers, particularly Kahne and Kenseth, who both have multiple Cup wins at CMS to their credit (Kahne with four, Kenseth with two).
