CONCORD, N.C. – Following the off-week, Jimmie Johnson is ready to jump back in the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS and get to work.
Fresh off his first win of the season at Texas Motor Speedway, Johnson shared his thoughts going into the race weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“I’m excited to come back and this is one of our most entertaining tracks on the circuit,” Johnson said. “I show up with great optimism. We have been top-three, top-five finishing position quite a few times.”
His first and only win at the track came at the spring race in 2010.
Johnson said he hopes to “use the momentum from two weeks ago from the win in Texas and find just a little bit more speed here and go to Victory Lane once again.”
Gearing up for the battle at Bristol, Johnson has been doing his homework.
“I’m very thorough with my pre-race prep and all the things that I can look at and study,” he noted.
Despite having raced at Bristol 30 times in the NASCAR Cup Series, this is the first-time Johnson and the rest of the drivers will compete at the track with the new stage format.
“The stage racing just changed the flow of a race for sure,” he explained, adding that drivers may have less patience early in the race with points on the line. “Short-track racing will definitely heighten it and I think you will see more of it here because we can lean on one another – same thing at Martinsville.”
Johnson recognizes that the pace is faster and it’s not slowing down anytime soon.
“I don’t see it calming down,” he said. “It’s going to continue to ramp up.”