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JIM UTTER
The Charlotte Observer
Friday, Feb. 29, 2008
After Jimmie Johnson won the Sprint Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway two years in a row, they changed the track.
What did Johnson do? He won again.
Now, they’ve changed the car. Can Johnson once again hit the jackpot?
If preseason testing is any indication, Johnson should be in prime position to earn his fourth consecutive victory in Sunday’s UAW-Dodge 400. It also doesn’t hurt that he rebounded nicely from a wreck in the season-opening Daytona 500 with a second-place finish in Monday’s rain-delayed race in Fontana, Calif.
“At the Vegas test, you could really attack with the car. It seemed like the track was getting a middle lane, if not an outside lane. So, as we get into that weekend and all that activity on track, I hope that the track really widens out,” Johnson said.
“I think it’s going to be a better show for us to put on because we can really be aggressive with the cars. At California, there’s not a lot of banking to tiptoe around, but at Vegas you can really charge.”
It hasn’t always been that way.
When Johnson took wins on the 1.5-mile track in 2005 and 2006, Las Vegas was mostly a wide and flat oval that often produced single-file racing.
Track owner Bruton Smith made drastic changes before last season’s race, incorporating graduated banking to the track and remodeling the infield area.
Johnson’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team, faced with the new layout, came up with the same result, winning his third consecutive race at the glitzy venue.
Now, NASCAR has changed the rules, as Sunday’s race will mark the first for the series’ new “car of tomorrow” design on a 1.5-mile track, the most common type of track on the 36-race schedule.
Since Johnson won five of the 16 races utilizing the new car design on his way to his second consecutive series championship last season, he and his team should be in good shape.
“We feel really good about the year. I think as a whole, the company is carrying a lot of momentum. But we know it’s a new year and we know during the offseason, teams were working hard to get their cars right,” Johnson said.
“We saw Roush really coming on strong at the end of the year. I would be foolish to pound on my chest and say we’re going to continue where we left off, because I really think the competition is closing up.”
Already the results of that work have been seen. Carl Edwards won Monday’s race in Fontana, the third victory for Roush Fenway Racing in the new car design.
Johnson foresaw as much earlier this season after the conclusion of a two-day test at Las Vegas, where Edwards was particularly strong.
“Those Roush cars have been good, especially Carl. He’s been real fast, not only for one lap but over the course of the run he’s been really impressive and I think the best car so far,” Johnson said at the time.
The use of the new car on a recently redone track will present new challenges for Johnson’s team as they attempt to continue their dominance in Sin City.
“It’s still a race car on the track,” he said. “The challenging thing for us is our hands are tied. There are only so many areas you can work in. In the past, there were five ways to figure out how to make your car do whatever you needed it to do better.
“Now, with the aerodynamic rules we have – the common body – and the chassis the way it is, with the limited (spring) travel, we’re all boxed in.
“When you’re working on them every day and trying to find speed, that’s the challenging part.”
