When a driver falls, he falls hard. Often it seems drivers never fully recover from a winless season. In 2018, Jimmie Johnson failed to win for the first time in his career as a fulltime driver – a streak of 16 years.
Dale Earnhardt Sr. had a 15-year winning streak snapped in 1997. In his next two seasons, he finished eighth and seventh in the standings under the old points format. Jeff Gordon had a 14-year streak snapped in 2008; he rebounded briefly the next season to finish third in the standings, but was eighth or worse in his next three tries.
Compounding the problems that will be faced by Johnson this year is the fact that he will be teamed up with a crew chief that has very little experience at the top level. For several years now, it has been reported that Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus have been butting heads during the race – ostensibly because they want to go different directions with the chassis setups. That tension snapped in the middle of the year.
[[ad:athena]]
Hendrick Motorsports hopes that breaking up Johnson and his long time crew chief will be better for the organization as a whole. It will certainly improve the performance of rookie William Byron as he will get the experienced chief, but the pairing of Johnson and Kevin Meendering is far less certain.
Evaluating Johnson’s strength and weaknesses is going to be difficult if he is indeed on a downward trajectory. There are only a handful of tracks on which he has not yet won and discounting the inactive courses of North Carolina Motor Speedway and the old configuration of Homestead-Miami Speedway, there are only three courses where he has been shutout for more than a single race (Watkins Glen International, Kentucky Speedway and Chicagoland Speedway).
His reputation on similarly-configured, 1.5- and two-mile tracks is legendary, but since that is the type of track that gave Chevrolet so much trouble last year, it is difficult to predict he will earn top-fives on them in 2019. At least, that cannot be accurately predicted before we have a chance to see how Johnson and Meendering communicate.
Auto Club Speedway will play a critical role in his handicap next year. That is where he scored his first top-10 in Week 5 of the 2018 season and it is a track he has dominated in the past with six wins and seven more results of second or third in 24 starts. If he gets a top-five there in 2019, he should be watched closely on the remaining unrestricted, intermediate speedways.
This will be Johnson’s opportunity to show whether it was his feel for the chassis that made a difference all these years or if Knaus was simply able to give him a car that was fast regardless of who was behind the wheel. One way or another, this will be a defining season for Johnson.
Three Best Tracks
Auto Club (7.2 in 24 attempts)
Martinsville (8.0 in 34)
Chicagoland (9.6 in 17)
Three Worst Tracks
Daytona (18.6 in 34)
Watkins Glen (17.1 in 17)
Talladega (16.8 in 34)
2018 Stats
Victories: None, best finish of third at Bristol I
Top-fives: 2 (.056)
Top-10s: 11 (.306)
Top-15s: 22 (.611)
2018 Finishes at or above their rank? = 15 (41.7%)