There once was a time a of couple weeks ago when everybody kept questioning when Jimmie Johnson would win this year to secure his spot in the chase. That question is now a forgotten thought as the driver of the No. 48 Kobalt Chevrolet won the Coca Cola 600, before winning last weekend at Dover International Speedway for two straight.
So could Johnson make it three-in-a-row? Absolutely positively.
For starters, Johnson won the race last June at Pocono Raceway when teammate Kasey Kahne ran into mechanical issues. Johnson led 128 laps to score the victory after starting from the pole spot. In 24 starts at the tricky triangle, Johnson has three wins, 10 top-fives and 16 top-10s.
Pocono is not a race that s part of the final 10, so some wonder why the 48 has been successful there as they normally focus efforts towards Chase tracks. The reason – it’s crew chief Chad Knaus’ favorite track.
“I’ve said it time and time again, Pocono is one of my favorite racetracks,” he commented. “I think it’s a lot of fun. It’s very difficult. So from a driver standpoint, this is definitely a tough racetrack. From a Pocono standpoint, it’s definitely difficult crew chief’s tough track, so I’m looking forward to getting there.”
While most tracks have four corners, Pocono is a triangle – containing three different corners. As a result, it makes it difficult for the crew chief to set the car up so that way it is solid all the way around.
Even if this weekend wasn’t Pocono, the chances of Johnson being successful are high. It’s also known that when the 48 team gets on a roll, that roll lasts for a while as they are able to knock off a series of top-five finishes in a row. Beyond that, Johnson has won four races in a row previously.
Perhaps the bigger question to ask would be – why has it taken this long for Johnson to get on a roll?
Knaus admitted that the No. 48 team got behind early this year compared to other teams as they did not do as much homework as say Penske Racing or Stewart-Haas Racing due to focusing on their sixth championship. Though being behind brings forth only one thing – motivation.
“We’ve worked really hard,” he commented. “The one thing I’m really impressed with at Hendrick Motorsports is when we do get behind, which we feel like we’ve been just a pinch behind this year, everybody digs down really, really deep and they work hard, from the pit crew, from the guys that hang the bodies to the guys that build the chassis to the guys that build the engines and they try to find an advantage.
“When we do finally start to hit our stride, all those things that everybody worked on starts to culminate, and we can get out there and really start to make things happen. I think we’re seeing a lot of the fruit of a lot of people’s labor right now at the racetrack, and definitely looking forward to getting to Pocono.”
