Pressure mounting for Johnson, McDowell

The newcomer and the veteran are both facing high expectations this season.

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

One driver is 23 and making his first Sprint Cup start. His NASCAR resume is four races in the Nationwide Series and one in the Craftsman Truck Series.

The other driver is the two-time defending Cup champion with 33 career wins.

Other than the fact both are winless in 2008, you wouldn’t think Michael McDowell and Jimmie Johnson had anything in common.

But they do. It’s called expectations. And although each is approaching Sunday’s Goody’s Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway from different galaxies of the NASCAR universe, both are feeling the pressure to perform.

For McDowell, it’s to do well and not fritter away his grand opportunity of replacing the now-retired Dale Jarrett at Michael Waltrip Racing.

McDowell takes over MWR’s No. 00 Toyota as David Reutimann moves over to replace Jarrett in the team’s No. 44 ride. He steps into a car 27th in owner points, which means his team is locked into the top 35 and guaranteed a starting position in Sunday’s race.

“It’s a relief that we are in the race, but we will still put pressure on ourselves to qualify well,” McDowell said. “I do feel really comfortable about qualifying. I had nine poles in the ARCA RE/MAX Series last year, and all the other series I’ve been in I’ve been able to qualify pretty well. We know we’ve got to make all the races and stay inside the top 35.”

McDowell was the top rookie in the ARCA series last year, finishing second in points before making the big leap to the Cup series.

“I can’t believe the time is finally here,” McDowell said. “I know I can’t underestimate how difficult it is going to be. I can act confident and say it’s going to be easy and jump in and do it, but we all know there have been a lot of great drivers that haven’t been able to do it.

“I raced in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and the biggest thing I learned is you have to be patient. We got in a late-race pileup and finished 30th, but I was able to complete 181 laps to gain some experience. This weekend, our goal is to finish every lap and maintain a top 35 points position.”

Unlike McDowell, Johnson’s goal is to win Sunday’s race and turn around his slow start. Johnson’s last three races have ended with finishes of 18th, 30th and 29th. At this point last year, Johnson had two wins on the way to a career-high 10. He was third in the points standings. This year he is a very uncharacteristic 13th. His previous low through five races was eighth in 2003, his second season.

Johnson has been superlative at Martinsville. He has four career wins at the tricky .526-mile paperclip-shaped oval, including the last three races at NASCAR’s oldest venue. His average finish is 6.2, and his 120.8 driver rating is second-best over the past three seasons, behind the 124.5 of Jeff Gordon, a seven-time winner at Martinsville.

It was Gordon who helped Johnson master Martinsville.

“Earlier in my career, I was really focused on set braking points and turning points and references around the track,” Johnson said. “But as I listened to Jeff, I realized it wasn’t so much set reference points. It’s more about a feeling and a rhythm.

“There are certain rhythms at Martinsville that I fortunately found and picked up after my first year of being there. My first race, I did not have the rhythm of the track, and there are a lot of components that go into it.”

Johnson finished 35th in his first race. He has finished no worse than ninth in the 11 races since.

“I still may struggle, even at the start of practice, to find the rhythm, but once the race starts, it always comes back to me now,” Johnson said. “I know what I’m looking for, and I know what that rhythm is for the 500 laps we make there, and I can usually get good performances out of it.”

He’ll need it Sunday.