It is hard to even say this but Jimmie Johnson wasn’t quite as dominant in 2010 as he was in his previous championship years.
In the end though Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus were able to set aside all distractions and come from behind at Homestead Miami Speedway to win his fifth straight NASCAR Sprint Cup title.
His 2010 was up and down at best. He had stretches where he would dominate and then go through stretches where he barely finished races.
He had six wins, 17 top fives and 23 top 10 finishes.
We saw some weaknesses in this team that we haven’t seen in years past on this team.
One of them was the pit crew. They struggled throughout 2010 but it wasn’t until Texas and teammate Jeff Gordon had wrecked.
The switch was made and Gordon’s crew became the Johnsons’ crew. The switch raised some eyes brows as it was mid race.
In the end Johnson won the title but there were still issues to be fixed in the off season especially the pit crew.
Knaus held a open tryout for a pit crew and the successful turnout was very encouraging for Knaus. The key for Knaus and Johnson was can they handle the pressure and the actual job?
"We can teach people to do pit stops," Knaus said. "It's how they handle the pressure and how they do things and how they have the athletic ability to sustain over the course of 39 events -- it's really difficult. So we had a lot of different things. We had emotional quotient tests, we had some physical aptitude tests, [and] we did do some pit stops. And that's how we made our decisions. Our decisions weren't made just off of what they could do over the wall and changing tires on the car."
In the end though the newly formed 88/48 shop would go with a starting six and really take the pit crew as a race to race decision.
In 2011, Johnson and his team need to find a way to put the speed back in their race cars. They struggled with getting Johnson comfortable in the car.
They couldn’t make the right adjustment or the best setup and at times they were out ran.
The competition has caught up to Johnson and the rest of the 48 team. They have found ways to beat them but in the end Johnson came out on top.
This team is the best team at minimizing their mistakes. Whether it is sliding through the pit stall or a wreck; they find a way to bounce back.
This team will make the Chase this season. There are still a lot of questions on this team and this pit crew uncertainty could come back and haunt them.
That being said he is the defending five time champion and adversity has never slowed this team down it has only added fuel to the fire.
photo: hendrickmotorsports.com
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