Johnson good at being in the right place in the Chase

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- The urge is slight, but still it's there -- the urge to call Jimmie Johnson lucky.

The urge surfaced again as events turned Friday afternoon at Kansas Speedway, on the eve of the third race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, and a short time after Johnson had conducted his media briefing after qualifying second for Sunday's Camping World RV 400.

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It was also a short time after he'd congratulated Juan Montoya on the Colombian's first pole position of the season. But those good feelings became moot when Montoya's qualifying time was disallowed due to improper gas pressure in his No. 42 Dodge's rear shocks.

Johnson suddenly had his seventh top qualifying spot of the year, and the best shot on Sunday to lead Lap 1, thus increasing his league-best bonus point total gained via leading laps. That's an opportune turn of events, considering his two main competitors in the Chase, leader Carl Edwards and third-place Greg Biffle, are only separated by 10 points total.

But if the urge overcame you and you did, in fact, call Johnson "lucky," take it back, because over the last two Chases and two races, Johnson has been uncannily consistent -- which accounts for his two consecutive Cup championships and his current position 10 points behind Edwards.

Make no mistake -- luck had nothing to do with either of those championships. Try out these stats: In the 22 races since the 2006 Chase opener, and counting Kansas' qualifying, Johnson has five wins, 13 top-five and 16 top-10 finishes.

Lest you think he was lucky to get this pole, don't try that, either. Johnson's qualifying stats in the same period are virtually identical, with four poles, 12 top-five and 18 top-10 starting spots.

Thus it's no surprise that Johnson is cool, calm and consistent at Kansas -- to the point of almost being on cruise control. If you're the competition, the scary thing is that, in the past, Johnson has stumbled, relatively speaking, early in the Chase only to come afire later.

In 2006, he had an average finish of 25th in the first four events before rattling off four seconds and a win, which put him in a position to cruise to ninth in the Homestead finale. In 2007, while teammate Jeff Gordon had an extremely good Chase, Johnson was consistently better as he improved his first-four average to 6.5, but then won four of the next five races to put him in position to cruise to seventh at Homestead and claim his second title.

This season, Johnson's average finish after two events is 3.5 and his average start is eighth. That ain't lucky -- that's just plain good. And Johnson's said he's still learning how to do this, even better.

So don't expect a change. (Continued)