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A ninth Martinsville win could launch Johnson to historic seventh title

Jimmie Johnson has been the master of Martinsville Speedway over the past decade.

Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

NASCAR Media

Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Race winner Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Race winner Jimmie Johnson celebrates
Victory lane: race winner Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, celebrates
Race winner Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon battle
Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon
2013 champion Jimmie Johnson
Richard Petty congratulates Dale Earnhard on his seventh championship

Since the fall race of 2006 -- the same year he won the first of five straight Sprint Cup Championships -- Johnson has scored seven of his eight wins on the half-mile track. Despite his stellar record at Martinsville — which includes an average finish of 7.5 — the six-time NASCAR Cup champion doesn’t feel he’s a lock to advance from the Round of 8 to the final four Chase drivers.

There is just a certain rhythm to this place and it’s still Martinsville even though we have different generations of cars and aero balances

Jimmie Johnson

But after NASCAR changed the playoff format in 2014, Johnson hasn’t been in the title hunt by the time the season finale rolls around.

“There is a reason we run the race, and a reason you have to play the game,” Johnson said. “Stats are cool, but they don’t mean what is going to happen in the future…I think the best example is me last year going to Dover with 27 points up, thinking I would easily transfer out of the 16 in to the Round of 12, and a $5 part breaks. You just cannot take anything for granted.

“The biggest reason why it is different is at this point there would be two or three cars you would have to worry about, and the Chases that I have won the way the format was. Now there are eight guys on the table, and then it goes down to four with equal points at Homestead. You can’t build a feeling or pick a favorite. It is fun to do, and it creates conversation, but it's impossible to truly pick a favorite at this point.”

Johnson's Martinsville prowess

Still, Johnson has excelled at Martinsville. He’s been able to sense trends and use that to his advantage. Although restarts are problematic and have the tendency to promote chain reaction wrecks over the first couple of laps, the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevy says a good set of brakes can help to avoid such mishaps.

“I have had some trouble with the accordion effect on a restart maybe for a second lap something happens people check-up and by the time it gets to you five, six, seven cars back it’s like on the interstate and you just plow into the guy in front of you and cause some damage then,” Johnson said. “I think once we get moving and get to three to five laps into a run it’s much easier to control your destiny.”

Perhaps that’s why Johnson has been running at the finish in 28 of his 29 starts at Martinsville. He’s finished on the lead lap in 26 of those races and led twice as many laps (2,746) as any other full-time competitor.

Johnson credits his consistency to being able to find the rhythm of the race track. The strategy he uses for a fast lap in qualifying is completely different from his philosophy during short and long runs during the race. But his mastery of the paperclip did not come overnight.

“To manage all of those things is tough,” Johnson said. “It’s a challenge that outside of the first two trips I came here I have been able to hit on things and make work. It literally took me being lapped by Tony Stewart to figure out how to drive this place. Once that happened, things took off and went far better for me.

“There is just a certain rhythm to this place and it’s still Martinsville even though we have different generations of cars and aero balances on the cars, it’s still slow in the corner, which mechanical grip is key. When you hit on something here it usually lasts a long time because it’s a track that requires mechanical grip and not aero grip.”

Another Martinsville master to lean on

Johnson will have an additional resource to pull from this weekend in Jeff Gordon. Gordon, subbing for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 Chevy, will be the only driver on the track this weekend with more wins (nine) at Martinsville than Johnson. Toward the end of Gordon’s career, the No. 24 cars were developed in a separate shop. Now with the Nos. 48/88 cars being built under the same roof, Johnson believes he’ll have a greater advantage.

“Granted the notebook is always there, but the way the (24) cars are built are just different,” Johnson said. “Now we are virtually in identical cars. That is going to be a first time in a long time that we have had that situation.

“I look at really pulling off of Jeff this weekend and using him to make my car better to work on my techniques in the race car and hopefully get the best performance out of myself this weekend.”

A ninth Martinsville win would once again tie Johnson with Gordon for victories at this track. More importantly, it would take the pressure off of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team leading into the Champion Round.

Not thinking about title number seven

But as far as contemplating the potential of tying Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most championships on NASCAR’s top tour, Johnson hasn’t allowed himself to dwell on the possibility.

“This Chase has such a different feeling than Chase’s I’ve won in the past,” Johnson said. “I still feel like I have this massive hurdle to get over to get into the Final Four. With that in mind I have not gone there.

“My chances are a lot better than they were three weeks ago for sure, but this format just requires such a different mindset and a different way to make it to the Final Four to even have a shot at the championship. Not yet.”

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