Team 48 Homestead-Miami Speedway Preview

JIMMIE JOHNSON
CURRENT DRIVER POINT STANDINGS: 1ST LEADING BY 108 POINTS
FINISH IN PHOENIX: 1ST NOVEMBER 2008 FINISH IN HOMESTEAD: 15TH

RACE NOTES
Homestead-Miami Speedway
• Johnson has made eight Sprint Cup Series starts at Homestead-Miami Speedway where he has earned two top-five and five top-10 finishes.
• The 1.5-mile oval is one of only six Sprint Cup tracks on which Johnson hasn’t visited Victory Lane. The others are Bristol, Infineon, Chicago, Watkins Glen and Michigan.
• Johnson has completed 93.3% (1998 of 2141) of competition laps at the track and has led 43.
• He has an average start and finish of 21.6 and 13.6.
Chassis
• Johnson has piloted primary chassis number 553 to Victory Lane twice this season, at Indianapolis in July and California in October.
• Johnson last drove backup chassis number 558 to a win at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in October.

JOHNSON QUOTE
LOOKING AHEAD TO MIAMI, YOU'VE DONE THIS OBVIOUSLY THREE TIMES NOW. WHEN YOU GET TO MIAMI, WHAT'S THE PROCESS? IS THERE A CHECKLIST? KIND OF TALK ABOUT HOW YOU'RE GOING TO APPROACH THAT WEEKEND. WHAT'S THE STRESS LEVEL LIKE, THAT STUFF? “The more we can keep it the same, the better it is. There is a lot of media leading up to the race, of course, a lot of questions that come about, that I don't really think of things in those terms. I find leaving the media briefing, media stuff we do on Wednesday, Thursday, there's a lot of thoughts swirling in the brain that were never there because I really try to keep it simple, keep things the same.

“Hopefully I can leave the media get-together and shake all that stuff out, focus on the race and treat it, you know, like I would a typical race. That's really the goal. Don't end up there all the time. It's not as easy to pull off as it sounds. But that's my goal and I would assume everybody else's goal, to try to keep it the same and try to keep the stress down.”

KNAUS QUOTE
HEADING INTO THIS WEEKEND AT HOMESTEAD MIAMI SPEEDWAY, IT'S THE ONLY TRACK ON THE CHASE SCHEDULE THAT YOU GUYS HAVEN'T WON AT, AND I'M WONDERING IF THE REASON IS MAINLY BECAUSE YOU'RE GOING IN PROTECTING A LEAD, OR IS THERE SOMETHING ELSE ABOUT THAT TRACK THAT YOU GUYS HAVEN'T QUITE FIGURED OUT YET? “Well, I think if you look at it, we've had obviously both scenarios play out there. We've had races that we've had to win to try to win the championship, we've had races that we needed to go in there and just be protective and try to make sure we didn't lose it.

“So I think that we haven't hit on exactly what it is that we need there, although I feel like our package going into Homestead this year is probably the best that we've had yet, so I'm excited about that. I think we can go in there this weekend with the aggressiveness that we need. We sat on the pole there a couple years ago. I think it was 2006. I think we can go down there and battle for the pole and hopefully get ourselves in position to race for the win.

“But you know, we're not going to do anything silly, either, to take ourselves out of contention or out of a place that we can possibly win this thing. So we're just going to have to play it by ear and hopefully we can be in a position to race for it and hopefully win this thing. It would be awesome. But obviously the big prize has to be the thing first and foremost on our minds.”

SPRINT CUP SERIES CAREER NOTES
Career Wins
• Johnson has 47 wins in his Sprint Cup Series career, his most recent coming at Phoenix International Raceway Nov. 15, 2009.
• The El Cajon, Calif.-native is 13th on NASCAR’s all-time wins list.
• He is second in total wins among active drivers, behind Jeff Gordon (82).
• 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 seven full-time seasons.
• Johnson has won Sprint Cup Series races at all but six (Bristol, Michigan, Infineon, Chicago, Watkins Glen, Homestead) of the 22 tracks on which the series competes.
• Johnson is the first driver to win three of the first five races in The Chase.
• 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 NASCAR Sprint Cup ties a modern-era NASCAR record.
Career Poles
• Johnson has collected 22 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 six poles in 2008.
• Johnson’s most recent pole position was at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Oct. 15, 2009.
Career Starts
• Johnson has finished in the top five in the Sprint Cup Series point standings each year since his first full season in 2002.
• Johnson is the only driver to qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup every year since the format was adopted in 2004.
• In 290 Sprint Cup Series starts, Johnson has posted 116 top-five and 179 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 9,653 laps (of 83,543) in his Sprint Cup career, covering over 111,799 miles.
• He has finished on the lead lap 225 times.