A trip to Darlington might just be the cure for Jimmie Johnson’s recent struggles.
Johnson heads into Saturday’s Southern 500 coming off his two worst finishes of the season, 30th at Talladega and 36th at Richmond.
SOUTHERN 500
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It’s the first time since 2007 Johnson has had consecutive finishes of 30th or worse when he was 37th at Chicago and then 39th at Indianapolis.
At Richmond, Johnson encountered a variety of problems from brakes to a penalty when he went down pit road before it was open.
The clincher came with 75 laps to go when Johnson was involved in a three-car wreck with David Stremme and Kasey Kahne.
“We had a very fast race car. We just had a brake problem,” Johnson said. “We lost the brakes. We had a brake problem with the left front and lost some laps trying to get the brakes back on the car, and then I got caught up in a wreck.”
The finishes, however, are definitely not a reason for the California native to panic.
Johnson, who is sixth in points, came into last year’s Darlington race seventh and went on to his third straight championship, tying the mark set by Sardis native Cale Yarborough.
Johnson has enjoyed success at Darlington in the past, sweeping both races in 2004. He also put together a stretch of five finishes of seventh or better from 2004-07.
“I’m looking forward to going to Darlington. I really enjoy racing there,” Johnson said. “It’s such a unique track with so much history and tradition surrounding it. The track itself is really narrow and can be tricky, but it’s starting to give up some grip so it’s not quite as bad as with the old pavement.”
Johnson definitely had his struggles with the track’s new surface last season. He crashed twice during practice sessions on his way to a 13th-place finish.
But Johnson is hoping things will be smoother this time at the Lady in Black.
“We had some bad luck there last year and wrecked a couple cars,” Johnson said. “Then something happened late in the race that hurt us, so I’m looking forward to going back and having some better results this time.”
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