Johnson chases history

Jimmie Johnson is trying to become the second driver to win three straight NASCAR titles.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — He won 10 races last season and his second consecutive NASCAR championship, yet Jimmie Johnson isn’t the marquee driver on his own team.

He’s not even No. 2.

But that’s not important to Johnson, who isn’t after attention or fame. No, the two-time defending champion is chasing history, trying to become only the second driver to win three straight titles. His pursuit begins in today’s season-opening Daytona 500, scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m.

From the pole.

Take that, everybody.

Not since Cale Yarborough did it from 1976 to 1978 has a driver won three consecutive championships, but Johnson has people believing.

“There are certain sports teams, whether it’s football or baseball, they get on a run and they get momentum,” said Ray Evernham, who failed in his bid to win three straight titles as Jeff Gordon’s crew chief during the 1990s.

“You’ve got to have a good plan, good talent, and you’ve also got to have the right breaks. But I believe if anybody can do it right now it’s that 48 car. It certainly seems like they are starting off right where they left off.”

When Johnson posted the fastest time during qualifying last week, it seemed as if the air had been knocked out of the garage.

Everybody came to Daytona knowing Johnson, the 2006 winner here, would be strong. They had hoped offseason gains would have closed the gap a bit, but Johnson’s dominance made it clear his team would make a strong run for its third straight title.

“I feel very good about where we are, and I know what we’ve done in the offseason has only made us stronger,” Johnson said. “But I still think we have a lot of room for improvement.”

That’s bad news for the rest of the industry, which has grown weary of watching Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports team dominate week in and week out for much of the past five seasons.

But Johnson will have strong competition from within Hendrick Motorsports, which now includes Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Earnhardt has stolen the show at Daytona, winning the exhibition Budweiser Shootout last week in his Hendrick Motorsports debut, then the first of two qualifying races Thursday. It established him as the favorite to win the Daytona 500, a victory that would snap a winless streak that is closing in on two years.

“I feel like we got a shot, you know what I mean?” said Earnhardt, trying to become the first to win the Shootout, a qualifying race and the 500 in the same year.

He’ll have plenty of help with all four Hendrick cars in the top nine of the race. But they’ll be surrounded by three Joe Gibbs Racing entries, setting up what’s expected to be a showdown between NASCAR’s top two teams.

Although anything can happen at Daytona, where the use of horsepower-sapping restrictor plates means the cars run in large packs and drivers can shoot to the front of the field in a matter of seconds, early indications point to a Hendrick or Gibbs victory.