Steve Waid: Jimmie Johnson makes a good first step toward history

COMMENTARY

It appears that Jimmie Johnson has taken the first very good steps toward making NASCAR history.

He finished fourth in the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire, the first of the 10 races that make up NASCAR's Chase For The Sprint Cup. As a result of that, he stands tied second in the point standings with Denny Hamlin. They are 35 points behind Mark Martin, who won the race.

Martin stood first in points after the seedings for the Chase with 5,040 points, 10 more than Johnson and Tony Stewart.

As impressive as Martin was at New Hampshire, where he earned his fifth victory of the season, it remains that Johnson is very much in contention for a record-setting fourth consecutive title.

Which many expected to happen.

Before the Chase began, most of the 12 title contenders declared that Johnson had to be the favorite.

Their reasoning was simple: Johnson had won the championship three straight times.

“He’s shown that he can do it,” said Carl Edwards.

“I’d be hard-pressed to pick someone else,” said Brian Vickers.

Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports team, led by crew chief Chad Knaus, have been known to turn up the wick when the Chase begins.

Johnson has 15 wins in the Chase, more than twice as many as his closest rival, Edwards, who has six. He won three of the 10 Chase races last year. He won four of 10 in 2007. It’s obvious he knows how to perform.

Johnson came to New Hampshire with three victories – he has won at least three races per season since 2002, his rookie year – and was seeded third when the playoff began. He has never missed the Chase.

All that said, Johnson came into the Chase devoid of momentum. Last year, the No. 48 team arrived at New Hampshire after winning the last two regular season races.

This year, it entered with finishes of 36th and 11th in two weeks.

Johnson admitted that performance wasn’t quite up to par, and he allowed that he had made his fair share of mistakes this year.

No matter, his rivals said. They said that it could be just a matter of time before Johnson’s bunch hits their stride.

Despite the fact he didn’t win, Johnson was on stride at New Hampshire. For him, that’s good. But he may be even better later in the Chase.

Most of the tracks ahead are to Johnson’s liking. He’s excellent on intermediate tracks and has done well at the only short track, Martinsville.

Atlanta is gone from the Chase this season, replaced by Auto Club Speedway in California, which is a Johnson favorite.

Even Johnson will tell you that the Chase offers him a stretch of good race tracks on which he has routinely performed well.

He has to be satisfied with his start at New Hampshire given what’s ahead for him.

But then a good start does not always mean a good finish.

Only one race in the Chase has been completed. It was a satisfying one for Johnson.

So far – yes, again, it’s very early – he has done what his rivals have expected of him.

Again, so far.