Heading into the 2010 race season, Jimmie Johnson was, of course, among the favorite preseason picks to claim the Sprint Cup Series title, yet again. He headed into the season as the reigning four-time champion and there didn’t look to be anybody who could knock him off his pedestal to keep him from claiming a fifth-straight.
The season started just as expected with Johnson visiting victory lane following three of the first five races of the season. But after five races, NASCAR made a significant change to the Cup car that seemed to put a chink in Johnson’s armor—the switch from the wing that made its debut with the car of tomorrow a couple years prior to a new rear spoiler.
When the new spoiler arrived, Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and the No. 48 team seemed to have problems with it. It’s not that their first several finishes with the new spoiler on the car were in the toilet by any stretch of the imagination. They just weren’t the top finishes people had come to expect from them.
The team did seem to figure things out and get back to its winning ways at, of all places, a road course. Johnson broke back into victory lane with his first career road course win—a victory at Infineon Raceway. He followed that up with another win one race later.
To read more, visit Auto Racing Daily.
Photo of Jimmie Johnson courtesy of NASCAR Media.
0 comments:
Post a Comment