Johnson's domination inspires innovation

HAMPTON, Ga.

One organization hired more engineers. Another reshuffled its management team. Drivers are preparing differently. Crew chiefs are gambling more often.

NASCAR is not like what it was before Jimmie Johnson began winning Sprint Cup championships.

His dominance forces teams, drivers and crew chiefs to change their approach or risk falling further behind the four-time series champion. Johnson's success also is leading to changes within the race shop he shares with Jeff Gordon's team at Hendrick Motorsports.

"When you win that much, it ticks everybody else off and they all have to work harder and they all get fired up to go out there and try to knock that guy off," Gordon said of how Johnson's success motivates the rest of the garage.

Gordon has felt similar emotions.

He dominated at Las Vegas a week ago but on the final pit stop, crew chief Steve Letarte decided to change two tires, while Johnson's team changed four. Johnson caught and passed Gordon to collect his sixth win in the last 11 Cup races, dating to Dover last September. Gordon finished third and said it took a couple of days to get over that race.

While some fans fumed at Letarte's decision, ESPN analyst Andy Petree, a former championship crew chief with Dale Earnhardt, said Letarte had little choice.

"They rolled the dice and got two tires because they didn't want to have to pass Jimmie to win," Petree said.

Gordon has said he and his team need to be more aggressive to win, especially after finishing second eight times last year.

"That's something we don't want to have happen again," Gordon said.

Others share Gordon's sentiment. After a season that fell short of expectations for his organization, car owner Jack Roush hired six engineers in the offseason, giving Roush Fenway Racing 36. Roush admits his team was so focused on finding the next technological breakthrough that when it didn't, it fell further behind because it had failed to maintain pace with what other teams, including Johnson's, had done.

Even with Roush's addition, he still trails Hendrick Motorsports, which has 42 employees with at least one engineering degree.

Richard Childress Racing also made changes last year, shuffling its management personnel and their duties last year after that team struggled.

"You've got to make sure that you take care of your house," said Scott Miller, who moved from his role as Jeff Burton's crew chief last fall to director of competition for Richard Childress Racing.

Even so, the goal remains to "just try to be a competitor to (Johnson's team) instead of a follower to what they're doing," Miller said.

Kurt Busch said when someone beats Johnson "that's something special."

To do so challenges drivers in numerous ways. Busch said when he won at Atlanta and Texas last year his car was near perfect. The difficulty is getting it like that every week.

"The challenge to push myself is to find those setups each and every week," Busch said. "The challenge that they present that no other team does is the fact that when it's the final pit stop or when it comes down to the final sequence and you have to have your car even better than perfect, that's when those guys seem to stand above the rest."

While there are many to credit for Johnson's success, not admitting he is the circuit's best driver is wrong, said ESPN's Petree.

"First off in raw talent, he is the best," Petree said. "To make one of these race cars go fast, you have to take every single bit of controls that you have in your hands to get the absolute most out of that race car.

"Jimmie can take that car and take it to that limit absolutely as close as anybody can come and not cross it. He's so accurate in doing so that you can't see that. It's not so obvious that he's doing that and that what makes him so talented."

And so frustrating for other teams to beat no matter what they try.