American stock car racing driver and a six-time champion in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Jimmie Johnson is confident of his place in the Sprint Cup. He drives the No. 48 Lowe's/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet SS for Hendrick Motorsports.
Many are worried of Johnson's current standing in the race. But for Johnson, he's just glad to be moving on after finishes of 12th, fifth, and third in the opening Challenger Round.
He said "These first three races went pretty well. I think Chicago was probably the track where we left the most points on the table. Today, we kind of ran, finished where we ran, but we had a decent car - really strong on the long runs but just would lose too much time to make up the deficit that I had there."
"Good solid day today, happy to advance."
But now comes the Contender Round, which begins next weekend at Kansas, continues on to Charlotte, and ends with the mother of all wild cards at Talladega.
Johnson commented on this saying "If I'm one of the guys that wins at Charlotte or Kansas, it's sure going to make the race at Talladega fun. Otherwise, you're just going to be on pins and needles and stressing like crazy. That's the strategy, really - try to win one of those first two so you can go to Talladega, pull them tight and let it rip."
Johnson was held winless through the first 11 races of the 2014 season.
During last Sundays race in Kansas, Johnson spun during qualifying on Friday and ended up 32nd. This means that Johnson was in the wrong spot on lap 85 when he got clipped and slid across the backstretch and into the inside wall.
He said "I just got tagged in the left rear. I heard on the radio that it was [Greg Biffle], haven't seen the video or anything yet. Cruising along on top and everything was fine and found myself sideways down the back straightaway."
Johnson said he had a top 10 or top five car, but the problem with his day was track position. He said "Top 10 was definitely within reach, I think a top five would have been. Our car, just listening to lap times and watching myself catch the big group of cars in front of me I felt we would have been top 10 top five."
