[media-credit id=26 align=”alignright” width=”292″][/media-credit]Well some may have been looking at the wigs on the heads of the No. 48 Lowes team laughing, Johnson says it was a magic piece to their success.

“I’m just proud of this hair,” he says. “The hair really brought some speed to the team.  I could see our engine tuner who is catching the front tires that came across on pit stops, and I got a laugh every time I came on to pit road.”

While the hair may have been there for jokes to go with the promotion of Madagascar 3, there’s no joking matter about the success of the No. 48 team over the past couple of weeks. In the span of four races including the All-Star race, they have three wins. They also won the pit crew challenge a couple weeks ago, which they displayed those skills with fast stops all day.

“Clearly we had a fast race car, amazing pit stops,” Johnson says. “Strategy, when you lead the most laps, sometimes at the end the way the cautions fall it can backfire on the dominant car, and the way cautions fell today, it allowed us to really flex our muscle and bring home the win.”

In total, Johnson led 289 of the 400 laps on the way to his 57th career victory in 376 starts. It also marked his seventh win at Dover, tying Bobby Allison and Richard Petty for the most career wins at Dover.

“It’s just a huge honor,” Johnson says. “I’m never one that paid attention to stats.  I truthfully never thought I would be a guy that would build up any cool stats and here I am with some pretty cool stats.  With legends of our sport and guys that I’ve looked up to.”

The chassis that the No. 48 team was running was a brand new chassis, which showcased all of the research and development by the Hendrick Motorsports team lately to make their cars as fast as needed.

“We came off the truck and we were real fast right off the box,” crew chief Chad Knaus says. “We were trying a different set up and Jimmie felt like we needed to do something different.  He made a big call personally for us to shift the setup in the race car and we did and he felt like it was some big changes. So we had to significantly change the race car once we got here.  First in qualifying, Jimmie did a great job with the car then and that led us down the path we were today.  Man, it went great.  It went really well.  It was a lot of fun.”

Knaus adds that it showcases the effort that the Hendrick Motorsports team is putting in to have the cars ready, from top to bottom, since the sport is ever-changing and it’s difficult to stay on top.

“To get to where we are, a solid three or four weeks for Hendrick Motorsports is nice,” he adds.

The 200th win for Hendrick Motorsports at Darlington Raceway last month released the string of success that they’ve been on, but Johnson says he doesn’t think the win had anything to do with reliving any pressure.

“We, of course, wanted to be the team to win the 200 for Rick, but we didn’t sit there and obsess over it and talk about it,” Johnson says. “We were really so close since really the start of the year to Victory Lane.  We were more focused on our deal and not making mistakes, and continuing with the technical side of the race car that has given us the speed that we are finding right now.”

Johnson adds it was about refining their package and not making mistakes, which everything just so happened to come together at Darlington to put the win together. He then continues on to say that since, they’ve been flawless and had the speed to continue the string.

Well this may have the No. 48 team looking like championship favourites for their sixth championship, Johnson says it’s too early to talk about the championship.

“I mean, we are doing the things right now that will win one, but we need to do this in September and on,” Johnson says. “You know, it’s nice to have the success right now because the last two years, we have been working very hard in a lot of areas and when you have success and continued success, you narrow down your focus in where you need to be.”

He says right now he’s just concentrated on making the Chase and the two victories put him in good contention to do that.

“We need to keep the pressure on and roll into September with the same thing going on in order to win a championship,” Johnson continues. “When you look at what Tony and Carl went through last year, that’s a perfect example.  You just don’t show up and think everything is going to turn out as you hoped.  You have to get in there and race hard for all ten races.”

[media-credit name=”Ed Coombs” align=”alignright” width=”248″][/media-credit]As NASCAR continues in the month of June, a lot of unknowns develop. We travel to newly repaved Pocono Raceway this week and then next week we go to the newly repaved Michigan International Speedway.

As we go to Pocono, the newly repaved surface develops some questions, and Michigan is expecting speeds of 210+ MPH going in to turn one.  What kind of speeds are we going to see? Is there going to be a preferred line now with the newly repaved surface? Will the action at Pocono be different than before?

During a test session earlier this year, we saw faster speeds at Pocono but not much of a different style of racing. Another question is what drivers will be successful at the tricky triangle? Drivers like Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, and Tony Stewart have been successful there in the past but now with the new surface, we could see some new drivers finding the key to success.  All of these questions will be answered this Sunday on TNT.

When we go to Michigan in a week, we still have many unknowns there also. What speeds are we going to see? In the test session, Kyle Busch tweeted that he sailed into turn one at a whopping 219 MPH. Will there be any change in the racing? Will drivers take more risks? All of these questions will be answered shortly as the first race date at Michigan approaches.

Those two races don’t take up the entire month.

After Michigan we head to the west coast for the first road course race of the season at Sonoma. The track has given us surprises every year. Different drivers have been able to get a victory at Sonoma but some big names like Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin have never been to victory lane there yet. Juan Pablo Montoya has his only career victory there in 2007, so he could be a threat. Marcos Ambrose has been ever so close to victory there but never able to close the deal. Road course ringers look to come in and spoil the cup regular’s party but that hasn’t happened in years.

The final race in the month of June is at Kentucky. This is only the second race ever at Kentucky for the Sprint Cup Series, so there are many unknowns going into that race. The two things that I remember from last year’s inaugural race at Kentucky were; Kyle Busch winning and all the traffic problems that kept some fans from going to the race. Kyle Busch is the only driver to find success there so far, so he might have a slight edge on the rest of the field. The traffic problems have been fixed by money-man Bruton Smith. Smith essentially threw money at the speedway and the speedway updated and expanded its parking areas.

The sell-out crowd from last year likely won’t return but we’ll still see a great crowd. As June continues, we’ll see our questions answered but right now there all still a mystery. The month should provide lots of fireworks and excitement. I expect lots of changing things in the Sprint Cup Series by the end of the month like, the point’s standings and the wild card standings. Stay tuned in for the NASCAR action all month long.