Team Lowe's Racing driver Jimmie Johnson is looking for Victory Lane in this weekend's road-course race at Watkins Glen International.
The championship driver has turned in three top-three finishes in as many weeks, including a third-place result at Pocono Raceway last weekend. He has started from the pole in the last two events -- Pocono and Indy.
Watkins Glen International is one of seven Sprint Cup Series tracks in which Johnson hasn't visited Victory Lane. He has three top-five finishes in six starts there.
JIMMIE JOHNSON QUOTES
HOW MUCH HARDER, MENTALLY AND EMOTIONALLY AND CONCENTRATION-WISE, IS A ROAD COURSE COMPARED TO AN OVAL? "I would definitely say that (it's harder). With every corner there's a different rhythm to it, even on an oval, but it's repetitive. Indy might be one of the hardest ovals because each corner is so different. I'd put Pocono maybe second most intense, mentally. But when you get to a road course, you've got to turn left, turn right, hard-braking zones and intermediate braking zones, down-shifts and up-shifts. There is a lot of stuff going on over the course of a lap on a road course."
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO RECOVER FROM A LITTLE MISTAKE ON A ROAD COURSE AS OPPOSED TO AN OVAL? "If you're under pressure and somebody gets by you, you're in trouble at that point. But in my own mind, I typically chase the lap times that are fed to me over the radio. So if it's Bristol and a 15-second lap, I only have 15 seconds to worry about it and then I try again. At Watkins Glen, it's a minute and something before I get another shot at it. So that's what you really focus on."
RACE NOTES
Watkins Glen International
Johnson has made six Cup Series starts at Watkins Glen International, collecting three top-five finishes and starting from the pole once.
Watkins Glen International is one of only seven tracks at which the back-to-back Sprint Cup champion hasn't won.
Johnson has completed 87.6% (475 of 542) of competition laps at the 2.45-mile road course.
Johnson has an average start and finish of 7.8 and 14.2.
Chassis
Johnson will pilot chassis number 442 in Sunday's 90-lap race. The Lowe's driver drove that chassis to a 15th-place finish at Infineon Raceway in June. The backup chassis, No. 419, was last driven at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March.
CAREER NOTES
Wins
Johnson has 35 wins in his Sprint Cup Series career.
Johnson's most recent victory, on July 27 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, moved the reigning champion into a tie with Mark Martin for both 17th place on NASCAR's all-time wins list and the third-highest win total among active drivers, behind Jeff Gordon (81) and Bill Elliott (44).
Johnson has won at least three Cup races a season since he posted his first victory in 2002. He is the only driver in the modern era to win at least three races in each of his first six full-time seasons.
Johnson has won Sprint Cup Series races at all but seven (Bristol, Michigan, Infineon, Chicago, Watkins Glen, Kansas, Homestead) of the 22 tracks at which the series competes.
Johnson's 10 wins in 2007 was the highest number recorded in a single season since Jeff Gordon posted 13 victories in 1998.
The four consecutive wins scored by the No. 48 team in the 2007 Chase for the Championship ties a modern-era NASCAR record.
Poles
Johnson has one pole at Watkins Glen International -- Aug. 15, 2004.
Johnson has collected 16 poles in his Sprint Cup career.
The championship driver has earned at least one pole a year since his first full-time season in 2002. He had a career-high four in both 2002 and 2007.
Johnson's most recent pole position was in the Aug. 3 event at Pocono Raceway.
Miscellaneous
Johnson has finished in the top five in the Sprint Cup Series point standings each year since his first full season in 2002.
In 240 Sprint Cup Series starts, Johnson has posted 93 top-five and 145 top-10 finishes.
He has a top-five finish at every track on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series circuit.
Johnson has led a total of 6,208 laps (of 68,857) in his Sprint Cup career, covering more than 92,592 miles.
He has finished on the lead lap 183 times.
TELEVISION SCHEDULE
Watkins Glen International
(All times Eastern)
Friday, Aug. 8
Sprint Cup practice, noon, ESPN2
Sprint Cup qualifying, 3 p.m., ESPN2
Saturday, Aug. 9
Sprint Cup practice, noon, SPEED
Sprint Cup happy hour, 1:20 p.m., ESPN2
Sunday, Aug. 10
Sprint Cup pre-race, 1 p.m., ESPN
Sprint Cup race, 2 p.m., ESPN
PRIMARY CAR HISTORY: CHASSIS NO. 442
| Car | Date | Event | Start | Finish |
| 48-442 | 6/24/2007 | Infineon race | 42 | 17 |
| 48-442 | 8/12/2007 | Watkins Glen race | 7 | 3 |
| 48-442 | 6/22/2008 | Infineon race | 2 | 15 |
BACKUP CAR HISTORY: CHASSIS NO. 419
| Car | Date | Event | Start | Finish |
| 48-419 | 3/01/2008 | Las Vegas race | 35 | 29 |
JOHNSON'S WATKINS GLEN RECORD
| Race | St | Fin | Laps | Money | Status | Led |
| 8/11/02 | 12 | 16 | 90/90 | 44,000 | running | 0 |
| 8/10/03 | 20 | 4 | 90/90 | 86,850 | running | 0 |
| 8/15/04 | 1 | 40 | 23/90 | 72,640 | engine | 1 |
| 8/14/05 | 2 | 5 | 92/92 | 136,596 | running | 2 |
| 8/13/06 | 5 | 17 | 90/90 | 110,111 | running | 1 |
| 8/12/07 | 7 | 3 | 90/90 | 169,711 | running | 0 |
JOHNSON'S 2008 SPRINT CUP STATISTICS
| Race | Site | Start | Finish | Laps | Status | Led | Points | Pt. total | Pt. pos. |
| 1 | Daytona | 1 | 27 | 200/200 | Running | 1 | 87 | 87 | 25 |
| 2 | Fontana | 1 | 2 | 250/250 | Running | 76 | 180 | 267 | 8 |
| 3 | Las Vegas | 33 | 29 | 265/267 | Running | 0 | 76 | 343 | 14 |
| 4 | Atlanta | 13 | 13 | 325/325 | Running | 0 | 124 | 467 | 13 |
| 5 | Bristol | 1 | 18 | 504/506 | Running | 14 | 114 | 581 | 13 |
| 6 | Martinsville | 10 | 4 | 500/500 | Running | 135 | 165 | 746 | 10 |
| 7 | Texas | 5 | 2 | 339/339 | Running | 65 | 175 | 921 | 6 |
| 8 | Phoenix | 7 | 1 | 312/312 | Running | 120 | 195 | 1116 | 4 |
| 9 | Talladega | 10 | 13 | 188/188 | Running | 1 | 129 | 1245 | 5 |
| 10 | Richmond | 12 | 30 | 400/410 | Running | 0 | 73 | 1318 | 7 |
| 11 | Darlington | 3 | 13 | 367/367 | Running | 0 | 124 | 1442 | 6 |
| 12 | Charlotte | 10 | 39 | 351/400 | Engine | 35 | 51 | 1493 | 9 |
| 13 | Dover | 4 | 7 | 399/400 | Running | 2 | 151 | 1644 | 7 |
| 14 | Pocono | 2 | 6 | 200/200 | Running | 59 | 155 | 1799 | 6 |
| 15 | Michigan | 6 | 6 | 203/203 | Running | 65 | 160 | 1959 | 5 |
| 16 | Infineon | 2 | 15 | 112/112 | Running | 27 | 123 | 2082 | 5 |
| 17 | New Hampshire | 23 | 9 | 284/284 | Running | 0 | 138 | 2170 | 5 |
| 18 | Daytona | 30 | 23 | 162/162 | Running | 4 | 99 | 2269 | 5 |
| 19 | Chicagoland | 5 | 2 | 267/267 | Running | 15 | 175 | 2444 | 5 |
| 20 | Indianapolis | 1 | 1 | 160/160 | Running | 71 | 195 | 2639 | 4 |
| 20 | Pocono | 1 | 3 | 200/200 | Running | 34 | 170 | 2809 | 4 |
JOHNSON'S YEAR-BY-YEAR CUP STATISTICS
| Year | Starts | Wins | Top-5s | Top-10s | Poles | Final pts |
| 2001 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 52 |
| 2002 | 36 | 3 | 6 | 21 | 4 | 5 |
| 2003 | 36 | 3 | 14 | 20 | 2 | 2 |
| 2004 | 36 | 8 | 20 | 23 | 1 | 2 |
| 2005 | 36 | 4 | 13 | 22 | 1 | 5 |
| 2006 | 36 | 5 | 13 | 24 | 1 | 1 |
| 2007 | 36 | 10 | 20 | 24 | 4 | 1 |
NO. 48 AT-TRACK CREW LIST
| Name | Shop Job | Track Job | Hometown |
| Knaus, Chad | Crew Chief 48 | Crew Chief 48 | Rockford, IL |
| Bazzell, Kyle | Truck Driver 48 | Truck Driver 48 | Fairburg, IL |
| Bosserman, Todd | Shock Specialist 48 | Shock Specialist 48 | Waynesboro, VA |
| Bradshaw, Marcia | N/A | Scorer 48 | Charlotte, NC |
| Claridge, Joe | Mechanic | Mechanic 48 | Barrington, NH |
| Emerick, Danny | Engine Tuner | Engine Tuner 48 | Bryn Mawr, PA |
| Evans, Brandon | Engineer | Engineer | South Hill, VA |
| Gober, Ken | Truck Driver 48 | Truck Driver 48 | Manchester, NH |
| Gutierrez, Rich | Mechanic | Gas Man 48 | Yorba Linda, CA |
| Ives, Greg | Race Engineer | Race Engineer 48 | Bark River, MI |
| Kerlin, Sean | Mechanic | Tire Specialist 48 | Marysville, PA |
| Knauer, Mike | Mechanic | Catch Can 48 | Cambridge, MD |
| Lingerfelt, Mike | Mechanic | Front Tire Changer 48 | Greenville, SC |
| Malec, Ron | Mechanic | Car Chief 48/Rear Tire Carrier 48 | Franklin, WI |
| Morin, Greg | Pit Crew Coach | Pit Crew Coach | Waltham, MA |
| Nicely, Bobby | Asst. Pit Crew Coach | Asst. Pit Crew Coach | Virginia Beach, VA |
| Puchalski, Marc | Mechanic 48 | Mechanic 48 | San Jose, CA |
| Purcell, Kenneth | Mechanic | Jackman 48 | Savannah, GA |
| Reeves, Stevie | Machinist | Spotter 48 | Speedway, IN |
| Simmons, Art | Chassis Set Up | Front Tire Carrier 48 | Kirksville, MO |
| West, Jeremy | Mechanic | Rear Tire Changer 48 | Harbor City, CA |