Jimmie Johnson, following a victory in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a result that all but guarantees him a spot in NASCAR’s playoffs, enters this weekend at Dover International Speedway, a circuit he’s dominated in recent seasons.
Johnson, 38, has eight triumphs at the ‘Monster Mile’, making this weekend a golden opportunity to extend his legacy and confidence in chasing a seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.
“We are coming to my favorite race track and by the stats probably our best track as well,” Johnson explained in a media center appearance at Dover. “Excited to be here, look forward to getting on the race track and seeing how this new rules package works here.”
Dominating in Dover, Delaware has been quite familiar to Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports. However, this weekend, after NASCAR implemented the new rules package, it’s left the team questioning their performance in America’s first state.
“Over the years we have been able to adapt to a variety of generations of car and hopefully we can adapt quickly to what is needed here and what the set-up needs to be to get around the ‘Monster’ once again,” Johnson further commented. “Really at the end of the day there is a feel, a sensation, I look for to get around this race track.”
“This is still the Gen-6 cars, but a different rules package under it. Regardless of change there are just some tracks that work well for you and you are able to still find that feeling you are looking for regardless of circumstances.”
Johnson, though, isn’t fretting over the rules package; instead, he’s hoping to add another ‘Monster’ to his trophy collection at his ‘man cave’.
“I have a great man cave. It’s a big warehouse and I have a huge bar that I restored and it’s got a big top shelf on it. And I think five of them are up there. They stand out. They’re a big trophy and they certainly draw a lot of attention.”
Nevertheless, according to Johnson, winning this weekend and improving upon his record-breaking eight victories at this track, is expected and needed after letting wins slip by them this season.
“We feel like wins have gotten away from us this year that we weren’t happy about and we also feel that there are tracks that we went to where we just had poor performances,” Johnson finished his appearance with. “So, the win is great, but we kind of hold ourselves to that standard and we’re coming to one of our best tracks and the expectations are very high for this weekend.”
