Johnson aims to talk a good game

CONCORD, NC

Watch out, NASCAR competitors.

A relaxed, energized and studious Jimmie Johnson spent the offseason figuring out where things slipped for him in 2011— and trying to find a way to improve team communication and to race as smart as possible in his bid to move back to the top.

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Forget the five-title run that ended last season. Johnson, long a studious driver intent on educating himself on all aspects of each race, should once more be a true threat for the championship. He spent the winter months fortifying his team and storing up any weak points he found in his assessment of last year’s sixth-place run.

No longer weighed down by the pressure of being the defending champion, once more working to hone communication within the team, he seems to have found a way to learn from the season that ended his five-year stranglehold on the title without obsessing over it.

While some drivers recently have struggled to rebound from a runner-up season in the points standings, Johnson found strength in the end of his championship reign — and a renewed focus for 2012.

That intensity is evident throughout the Hendrick Motorsports organization. Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus, is refreshed from a recent vacation and ready to take on the rigors of a new year.

Could the failure to win a sixth consecutive title actually poise Johnson for another set of championships?

It certainly seems possible.

Team owner Rick Hendrick, who said Wednesday he will be disappointed if he does not have all four of his teams in the Chase for the Sprint Cup this season and win the title with one of them, sees a difference in Johnson and Knaus.

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With the pressure of continually defending a title lifted, they seem to have found a new balance and a little breathing room.

“The pressure from winning five of those things, five championships, and repeating, that’s a huge amount of pressure to be able to come back into a year where you don’t have to answer that anymore,” Hendrick said. “I mean, you want to go back and win the championship, but you’re not defending, you don’t have the pressure of defending.

“ . . . I’d much rather see Chad and Jimmie both compete every year: You’ve done the five in a row, now let’s see if you can do another 10 years.”

Jeff Gordon echoed that sentiment. A four-time champion, Gordon sees a difference in Johnson already.

“I think he is able to take a breath for the first time in five years, and that allows you to reset and find that passion that you have and be able to come back stronger,” Gordon said.

Knaus said he feels relaxed and ready to enter the season. Johnson said he sees some errors he made in 2011 that he can correct this season.

But the organization doesn’t talk like one desperately hungry to reclaim lost glory, like one on the edge of anger over what slipped away a few short months ago. Instead, everyone seems quietly focused and intent on regaining that ground this season. There’s no rallying cry — just a quiet confidence that things will go better this time around.

And, as Knaus points out, last season was nothing to scoff at. In fact, it’s the kind of year quite a few teams would embrace. Johnson won twice. He earned 21 top-10 finishes, 14 of them top fives. But he also saw his championship streak come to an end.

Instead of offering excuses or rehashing it, the team simply studied where things seemed to get off track and went about finding ways to avoid repeats.

Certainly it was disappointing to have the title streak come to an end. But that is not how the team will allow itself to be defined entering this year.

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“I think that we’re all culturally trained to go out there and be successful and when we’re not successful, we know we’ve got to do something to react,” Knaus said. “And we’ve made some adjustments to the team, we’ve all made some adjustments as a company to go out there and do what it is that we’re supposed to do. It’s not something that like there’s a sounding bell of rallying the troops."

Johnson admits he has put a lot of thought into last season.

Methodical in his approach to racing, he’s always been known for studying all aspects of the sport.

“Jimmie is always very introspective of how he can get better and how he can help the team and help the performance of the team and very mentally tough,” said Doug Duchardt, Hendrick’s vice president of development. “I think he will dig down and figure out how he can get better and how he can help the team get better. I think that’s his biggest strength.”

Johnson will utilize that in an effort for a better 2012 result, to return to the form that has enabled him to finish outside the top five only once in his 10 years of full-time Cup competition.

The result of that? He’s starting with himself.

“I need to find new ways to do a better job as the driver of the 48 car, and that’s what this offseason was about for me,” Johnson said. “And, really, the first half of the season is going to be about understanding how I can do my job better. . . .

“Through losing the championship last year, I think I can strip some layers down and figure out how to do some things differently.”

Chief among that is keeping communication within the team going in the right direction. It’s easy to keep talk and ideas flowing when one is winning.

When things take a downward turn, it’s a little more difficult. When more setbacks surface, Johnson said, the pressure mounts and things start stacking up for a team.

“I’m a guy that when things get real tough, I get quiet,” he said. "And when the expectations and all the things we wanted to have happen weren’t taking place, I think the communication valve got smaller or shut down. And that’s a problem, that’s what we have to be aware of."

A natural team leader, he’s working to make sure that he keeps the communication going this year, that nothing slips by the wayside or gets overlooked as the season progresses.

So instead of being down about the streak coming to an end, Johnson actually finds relief in the pressure having been lifted and a chance to improve from the lessons learned.

And that should be a warning sign for the rest of the Cup field.

“There can be a lot of good coming from this,” Johnson said.