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In Concord, Lowe's 'gamble' rules

May 26, 2006 12:50 am

It's taken less than five years for Jimmie Johnson to complete the transformation from nervous rookie to de facto owner of Lowe's Motor Speedway.

His victory in Saturday's Nextel All-Star Challenge gave Johnson wins in seven of his last 10 starts on the 1.5-mile track in Concord, N.C. He's won the last four points races there and five of the last six, including an unprecedented three consecutive Coca-Cola 600 titles.

Still, for a variety of reasons, Johnson remembers the October 2001 Lowe's race weekend like it was yesterday.

Then a Busch Series regular, Johnson already had landed a Cup ride with Hendrick Motorsports for 2002. In preparation for his promotion, Hendrick arranged for Johnson to start three Cup races late in the '01 season.

Johnson's Cup debut was slated for Lowe's Motor Speedway, a track that sits only a couple miles from Hendrick's palatial race shop. If that wasn't enough pressure, Johnson wasn't assured a spot on the 43-car starting grid; he had to post a qualifying lap or face the humiliation of watching the race on television.

"Stressed out, nervous, every emotion you could imagine," Johnson recalled during Tuesday's weekly NASCAR teleconference.

Johnson held it together long enough to qualify 15th for the UAW-GM 500. Later that evening, however, he dealt with a different emotion: grief.

Johnson's closest friend, Blaise Alexander, crashed and died during an ARCA race at Lowe's.

Two days later, Johnson also wrecked and wound up with a 39th-place finish.

"That was a tough, tough weekend," Johnson said.

He couldn't have known it at the time, but it was the defining weekend in his racing career.

Lowe's, which had experienced little success as sponsor of Robby Gordon's No. 31 car, was in negotiations with Hendrick to take over primary sponsorship on the fledgling No. 48 team. But before they would commit millions of dollars, officials from the retail giant had some questions about their talented-but-young new driver.

"At the last meeting we had, the chairman of Lowe's looked at Jimmie in the eyes and said, 'Can you win?' And I think my heart stopped because I was waiting for Jimmie's answer," team owner Rick Hendrick said yesterday. "Jimmie said, 'I definitely can win.'"

Lowe's gamble has paid off quite handsomely, thank you.

Since taking over the No. 48 Monte Carlo, Johnson has finished fifth or better in Nextel Cup points in each of his four full-time seasons. He's been fifth twice and second two more times.

Now 30, Johnson thinks this could be the year he finally fills in the lone remaining hole on his NASCAR resume by winning the series championship.

"I believe so in my heart. I really do," he said. "It is no different really than the last two years that I have been out here competing, I just feel like we have always been there and as you all know, we always do so well until August and that is the big challenge for us this year is to make sure we can keep that momentum.

"We are making every adjustment to our race team through the approach that we have toward the end of the season. We are looking at everything and trying to do everything we can to put together out best 10 races at the end. We will try again as hard as we can this year and hopefully we can do it."

Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus, believes the disappointments of the past were valuable learning experiences for the 48 team.

"Although we have been in championship battles I don't know that we were ready as a team, nor was Jimmie ready as a driver to pull it all off," Knaus said. "Now I think our team has matured enough, and Jimmie has matured enough, to actually go out there and do it."

Whether or not Johnson finally breaks through and wins his first Cup title, he remains the unquestioned favorite every time the circuit comes to Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Johnson has eight top-10 finishes in nine career points races at Lowe's. He's led 860 laps there, more than any other track.

With a win Sunday, Johnson will become the first driver in NASCAR history to win five consecutive points races at a track longer than a mile.

"Jimmie really has a knack for getting everything out of the car here," teammate Jeff Gordon said. "You never really know why a driver and a team just 'click' at a place, but they have really hit on something here."

Why? Even Johnson struggled to explain his unprecedented success at Charlotte.

But with his primary sponsor also holding naming rights to the track, he and Knaus aren't about to fix something that obviously is far from broken.

"For us to be able to come here and carry the flag for Hendrick Motorsports and for all those people, for the employee owners at Lowe's and all the friends and families is very important to us," Knaus said. "All those people are bringing their families here, that is important. So when we come here and run well, it makes everyone happy and leave here with a smile on their face."

To reach JIM McCONNELL: 540/374-5444
Email: jmcconnell@freelancestar.com