Subscibe to our feedJohnson Travels to Pocono Raceway Looking for Another Solid Finish
Coming off his 42nd career victory with a dominating performance at one-mile Dover International Speedway, Jimmie Johnson will now turn his attention to Pocono Raceway, where he will be vying for his third win at the triangle-shaped track.
“Dover obviously was a very fun one for us,” said Johnson. “Chad and (engineer) Greg Ives and our whole engineering staff, we sat down earlier in the week and worked on some ideas and made a wish list, and these guys made it all work.”
Johnson, who now sits third in the driver standings, 64 points behind leader Tony Stewart, hopes the Dover result will kick off a set of top 10 finishes like it did last season, where he scored eight top-10 results from Dover to Watkins Glen. And what better place to continue the trend than the 2.5-mile track on which he’s scored nine top tens in 14 starts.
“Pocono is a really unique track and has changed a little over the last few years,” said Johnson. “(The short shoot straightaway between Turns 2 and 3) is a good passing area. It’s changed some now because there is that outside line. But in the past if you were able to get position inside of someone into Turn 3 there’s no way they could hang on and fight you for that spot. It’s kind of confusing now and you don’t know where to put yourself because the outside of Turn 3 has been so good the last couple times.”
Another change teams have seen recently is the lack of shifting.
Johnson explained, “Turn 1 we’re running a much higher line now because we don’t have the option to use third gear. And you’re so low on rpms coming off of the bottom of Turn 1 that the engine just doesn’t pull right so that’s why you see us running higher down there now. Same goes for Turn 3 when they put that piece of asphalt in we can keep the rpms much higher and the engine in the power band to run down the straightway if we move up. The tunnel turn is a very important turn. It’s probably more important now since we can’t shift over there. Because if you get that corner wrong and the guy behind you gets it right, he is in the power band of the engine and can make a pass.”
Despite changes, Johnson is confident the Lowe’s team will be strong this weekend in Pocono.
“We led some laps last year and had a couple of pretty good finishes,” said Johnson, who finished sixth and third in last year's events. “Hopefully we can take the momentum from Dover and do it again this week.”
Sunday’s race will be broadcast live on TNT beginning with a pre-race show at 12:30 p.m. ET.
RACE NOTES
Pocono Raceway
- Johnson has made 14 Sprint Cup Series starts at Pocono Raceway, where he has collected two wins, five top five and nine top-10 finishes.
- The three-time Champion has completed 99.7% (2676 of 2685) of competition laps at the 2.5-mile track and has led 368.
- Johnson has an average start and finish of 7.4 and 9.8.
Chassis- Johnson last drove primary chassis No. 534 to a 13th place finish in this year’s All-Star event at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. He started that race from the pole.
- The backup chassis, No. 480, started and finished third at Bristol Motor Speedway in March.
NEWS & NOTES
Jimmie is scheduled to join 25 other drivers in the Fifth Annual Prelude to a Dream on Wednesday, June 3 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. Johnson will drive a late model Chevrolet featuring a Hendrickcars.com paint scheme with Lowe’s and Jimmie Johnson Foundation logos as well. For the second consecutive year, Johnson will drive for car owner Clint Bowyer.
Hendrickcars.com features more the 5,000 quality pre-owned vehicles from Hendrick’s 80 franchises. Fans who visit the site also have the opportunity to win a trip to this year’s Brickyard 400 to meet Jimmie, his team, tour his hauler and watch him try for his third win at the fabled track. Airfare and hotel are included.