COMMENTARY: Johnson's Martinsville Performance A Cause For Concern

For Jimmie Johnson, Martinsville Speedway has traditionally been the Land of Milk and Honey.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver leads all active drivers with nine career victories at the historic Virginia half-mile, and has been a dominant force there for as long as most fans can remember.

Sunday, however, the seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion was a non-factor from start to finish, lapped three times under green-flag conditions before claiming a troubling, 24^th-place finish.

Johnson and his Kevin Meendering-led team gave cause for optimism earlier in the weekend, pacing an early practice round. But that fast lap came during a mock qualifying run – when most teams were already in race mode – skewing the speed charts in favor of the No. 48 Chevrolet. Johnson qualified only 12^th-best Saturday, and when the green flag flew in Sunday’s STP 500, he and the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet began a slow and steady fade to the back of the pack.

Johnson was lapped by leader Brad Keselowski in the race’s second stage, and lost two more circuits in the final round. He regained one of those lost circuits by taking a wave around in the late going, but no amount of pit-road gerrymandering could overcome a shockingly ill-handling race car. Johnson spent the final 200 laps being passed by cars he has never raced before, and an average 2019 finish of 16.8 is cause for genuine concern.

His 24^th-place finish extended a Martinsville slump that has seen him finish outside the Top-10 in eight of his last 10 starts. By comparison, the California native had just three finishes worse than 10^th in 25 previous Martinsville races. He has not claimed a Martinsville Speedway grandfather clock since the fall of 2016, and has not finished better than 12^th at the Virginia short track since then.

Johnson’s struggles have not been confined to Martinsville, either.

For Johnson, the drought continues.

He has not won a MENCS race since the AAA 400 Drive For Autism at Dover on June 4, 12017; a span of 65 consecutive races. Some of that drought rightfully lies at the feet of a new Chevrolet Camaro that has not rolled out as competitively as expected, and Hendrick Motorsports has also struggled to overcome the recent retirements of Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., as well as the departure of veteran Kasey Kahne at the end of the 2017 campaign.

Chase Elliott’s runner-up showing Sunday was Hendrick’s first Top-5 finish since Kansas last October; a span of 10 races. And while HMS is clearly struggling to regain its championship form, Team Jimmie has lagged behind both its Hendrick and Chevrolet brethren.

Alex Bowman spent considerable time in the Top-10 Sunday, before settling for 14^th at the drop of the checkered flag. Chevy pilots Austin Dillon, Kurt Busch and Ty Dillon all ran in the Top-10 as well, before finishing 11^th, 12^th and 13^th respectively. Johnson left the Old Dominion 15th in the championship standings, and his performance at a track he has traditionally dominated will do little to calm a justifiably jittery fan base.

Just three weeks ago, Johnson spoke optimistically after an eighth-place finish at ISM Raceway in Phoenix, saying, “We showed that if we have a mistake-free race, we can run in the Top-5 and Top-10. (With) how last year went, that’s a step in the right direction.

“Clearly, we’re putting a lot of time and work and effort to get better,” he said. “So, it’s nice to have those better runs. But it’s not where we want to be. It’s not where I want to be, or Mr. Hendrick or Kevin or this whole team. We’re trying to celebrate the small victories, but at the same time, if you look at the speed that the No. 18 had on the field and his ability to pass, we want that. And we’re not going to stop until we get that.”

Johnson also spoke candidly about the recent evolution of the sport and how things have changed since he first joined Hendrick Motorsports in 2001.

“I showed-up at Hendrick with cars and set-ups that just did everything you wanted them to,” he recalled. “Rules packages have changed quite a bit since then and we’ve lost our advantage. When I look at our problems in the last couple of years… aero is a big piece of it. Times change. We’ve got to re-think things and re-build things.

“We’ve put a lot of effort in and it’s just frustrating to not get the results as quick as we want, but we’ll head (to Martinsville) optimistic once again, with a lot of new stuff on the cars and see if it works.”

These are trying times for fans of the seven-time NASCAR champion, with no assurance that things will get better soon, or ever. At age 43, Johnson faces inevitable questions about whether his skill set has begun to diminish, and while he is unquestionably in the best physical condition of his career, there is more to racing than aerobic fitness and a low body fat percentage.

Father Time is undefeated, and Johnson fans can only hope that all those Martinsville grandfather clocks are not preparing to chime the stroke of midnight.