Johnson feels no pressure about recent lack of wins - MotorSportsTalk

After heading into this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup with a series of poor finishes, Jimmie Johnson started the post-season with a solid fifth-place finish at Chicagoland Speedway. But the five-time champion has not won a race since he claimed the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona this past summer.

Nonetheless, Johnson feels that it’s not wise to look back upon the regular season at all during the Chase. It also seems that he is fully aware that he’ll have his chances to pick up critical wins in the final nine events.

“It doesn’t matter if you dominated [the regular season] or if you’ve been behind – [The Chase] is a 10-race stretch of it’s own,” Johnson said Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “With that in mind, I haven’t won in a week. I finished fifth and had a shot to win last week. So, that’s how you have to look at it honestly.

“I know that Dover, Martinsville, our performance on the plate tracks this year, and on 1.5-miles in general, I know there are very good opportunities for us ahead. So, blinders on – focus on the No. 48 [car], focus on what we need to do and not let the outside opinions or what goes on to be a distraction for us.

“We need to run our best 10. I honestly feel if we put together our 10 best races, we’ll be in contention for the championship.”

So far, so good for Johnson, who has won the Chase with much worse results in a post-season opener than the fifth-place finish he got at Chicagoland. His run to the 2006 Cup title began rather poorly with a 39th-place finish at NHMS in that year’s first Chase race.

One of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Dale Earnhardt Jr., finds himself in the same position this time around after an engine failure ruined his race last weekend.

Johnson feels that neither Earnhardt or Joey Logano (who also had an engine failure) are done for in the championship, but noted that poor finishes can remove the ability to hold your own destiny in the end.

“As you have poor finishes or bad finishes or whatever the cause, you lose control and that’s the worst part,” Johnson said. “But we’ll see. In 10 races, anything can happen. Talladega is still out there in front of us and I think once you get through Talladega, the championship picture becomes much more clear.

“Again, it’s not the way they want to start, but it’s not time to panic yet.”

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Ryan Hunter-Reay was named to replace Conor Daly in Ed Carpenter Racing’s No. 20 Dallara-Chevrolet, starting in the NTT IndyCar Series event next week at Road America.

Hunter-Reay is the 2012 series champion and 2014 Indianapolis 500 winner. He finished 11th for Dreyer & Reinbold last month in the 107th Indy 500, his first start since the 2021 season finale. He drove full time for Andretti Autosport from 2010-21.

“We need to improve our competitiveness and I wanted to add a fresh perspective from a driver like Ryan who has a massive amount of experience and success as well as a reputation as a team leader. I am excited to welcome Ryan to the team,” team owner Ed Carpenter said in a team release. “We have worked together in the past as teammates and he tested for ECR at Barber Motorsports Park in October 2021, where he made an immediate impact as we were able to qualify one of our cars on the pole following that test. I am confident that his experience and technical abilities will be an asset to ECR as we move forward toward our goals as a team.”

Hunter-Reay has 18 IndyCar victories, most recently in 2018. He also is a winner in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, having been a part of winning entries in the 2020 Twelve Hours of Sebring and 2018 Petit Le Mans. Last year, he was an endurance driver for Cadillac Racing while being on standby for Chip Ganassi Racing.

He replaces Daly, whose departure was announced a day earlier in what the driver and team said was a mutual decision.

“I was surprised when I got the call from Ed,” Hunter-Reay said in a team release. “He described how frustrated he was that his team has not been able to realize its potential despite their efforts, investments, as well as technical and personnel changes over the past few years and asked for my help. Ed and I are very close friends and have been for a long time. I’ve worked with the team in the past and they are a very talented group with high expectations and a committed partner in BITNILE.COM.

“This will certainly be a challenge for me as well. It’s a tough situation jumping in a car in the middle of the season without any testing in what I believe to be the most competitive series in the world. Certainly, part of my motivation in saying ‘yes’ to Ed is the great challenge ahead. The last time I turned right driving an NTT IndyCar Series car was in October of 2021 with this team at Barber. However, I remain very confident in both my driving and technical abilities and believe by working with the talented people at ECR and Team Chevy, while representing BITNILE.COM, we will make progress. I am going to do everything I can do to help the team achieve its long-term objectives.”

Said Milton “Todd” Ault, the chairman of sponsor BitNile.com: “It is great for BitNile.com to be aligned with an Indy 500 Winner and an NTT IndyCar Series champion. I have followed Ryan’s career for years and I am confident he will challenge the entire ECR team to perform at higher levels. I wish everyone luck at Road America.”