The bad news for Johnson's rivals? The surging five-time champion thinks his team will prepare an even better Impala for the May 27 crown-jewel race at the 1.5-mile oval.
Because Hendrick Motorsports won't get Johnson's Sprint All-Star-Race-winning No. 48 Chevrolet back from inspection at NASCAR's Research & Development Center until Tuesday afternoon, there probably won't be enough time to turn around the car for Thursday's practice and qualifying sessions for the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte.
The bad news for Johnson's rivals? The surging five-time champion thinks his team will prepare an even better Impala for the May 27 crown-jewel race at the 1.5-mile oval.
"We have a lot of great (cars) at the shop," he said. "Clearly we learned a lot that we can apply to the car we'll bring here."
With his third victory in the all-star event, Johnson stamped himself as a clear-cut favorite to win for the third consecutive week in NASCAR's premier series. He has two Coke 600 victories and six points wins at Charlotte but only one since 2005.
Saturday's triumph showed he seems to have recaptured the magic at the track in his team's backyard. Johnson charged to a first-segment win, wisely conserved his car and tires for three 20-lap segments and led all 10 laps in the last segment with a car that runner-up Brad Keselowski called "lightning quick."
Johnson gained a measure of confidence entering the Cup schedule's longest race, which often puts a premium on playing strategy as perfectly as crew chief Chad Knaus did Saturday.
"I put the weight in the work that took place over the offseason, the equipment that we're bringing to the track now," said Johnson, who gave Hendrick its 200th Cup win a week earlier at Darlington Raceway. "My car drove clearly better than I've had here in a long time. I put all that weight in (Hendrick's) four teams working together, developing a better package."
There also was a positive takeaway for teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose No. 88 Chevys are assembled alongside Johnson's under the same roof at Hendrick. NASCAR's most popular driver won the Sprint Showdown to transfer into the main event. He won the fourth segment and finished fifth, setting up a strong return to the 600 after having a win slip away last year when he ran out of gas while leading on the final lap.
"I think we showed what we are capable of doing here next weekend," Earnhardt said. "We are probably going to bring the same car. We have a couple of ideas on how to make the car even faster, especially for qualifying. I am real pleased with our effort."
Earnhardt was pleased, too, with an aerodynamic rule change that NASCAR made in raising the cars' side skirts, hoping to engender more passing. Though the final 10-lap shootout lacked the fireworks of past all-star events, there was some action up front during the middle segments (while Johnson and other segment winners rode at the back). Keselowski nipped Kasey Kahne by a nose to win the third segment after a side-by-side battle for a few laps.
"We saw some really close racing for the lead," Earnhardt said. "I don't think you can really take that 10-lap segment into account because of how good the No. 48 team is. I just thought it was awesome racing."
Third-place finisher Matt Kenseth said the change didn't affect his Ford's handling but did seem to help when he passed Denny Hamlin to win the second segment. "I don't think it hurts anything to take some air off the cars," he said.
Keselowski, who in the past has lobbied for an aerodynamic overhaul to improve passing, said the tweak was "a penny in a situation where you're looking for a dollar. You like it, but more would be better."
Johnson barely noticed the change but also hardly spent any time in traffic after zooming from sixth to first in the first 15 laps. In four events on 1.5-mile tracks (which comprise half of the 10 Chase for the Sprint Cup races, he hasn't finished lower than third this season.
"Everywhere we've been, we've had a lot of speed," he said. "I feel like we keep ratcheting things up every week."
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