Power Rankings: Johnson's luck has taken wrong turn

Updated Aug. 23

Has Lady Luck turned its back on Jimmie Johnson?

Jimmie Johnson hasn't had as much to smile about this season compared to past seasons. (Getty Images)

After four-time defending Sprint Cup series champion Jimmie Johnson held off Kevin Harvick in the second race of the season, Harvick lamented that Johnson must have a golden horseshoe stuck up his rear end (to put it in a more family friendly manner).

When Johnson went on to claim two of the next three races as well, Harvick's proclamation didn't seem all that far-fetched.

But the mythical "golden horseshoe" has been MIA the past couple of months. Maybe the 48 team locked it up until the Chase starts. Or perhaps he was abducted and had it surgically removed. Whatever the case may be, "luck" has been unkind to the 48 team in recent weeks.

Johnson has nine finishes outside the top 20 this season, five of those coming in the past seven races. The thing about it is, he's not running poorly. Oh, sure, there have been a few occasions where the 48 team has been off its game -- the Brickyard 400 springs to mind -- but for the most part, Johnson has competed well. It's finishing the deal that has become problematic.

He has led 90 or more laps three times during the past seven races, but his best finish during the stretch is 10th.

Pit miscues, part failures, wrecks -- all things Johnson and the 48 team have managed to avoid more often than not during their run of success -- are becoming alarmingly more frequent.

Saturday night at Bristol, Johnson led 175 laps, but was knocked from contention on a restart on Lap 260, when contact with Juan Pablo Montoya sent him into the wall. The accident sent him to the garage for repairs and he wound up 35th, dropping four spots to ninth in the standings, 444 points behind Harvick.

But is this regular season really much different than others during his championship run? In 2007, he was 523 points out after 24 races. In 2008, he was 418 points back. Last year, 220 behind. And we all know how things turned out once the Chase began.

"What I keep telling myself is that those 10 races in the Chase, it is its own world," said Johnson, who, despite his current deficit, will start the Chase no worse than 20 points back. "The people act and react differently under pressure, including us, and for the last four years we have done a great job in that environment.

"I'm not where I want to be, I think we need to be faster on the mile-and-a-half and two-mile tracks, but I also know that we respond well to pressure and that we have good tracks in the Chase for us. We also have some time, although we don't get to test on those mile-and-a-half tracks, but we have some time to find what we need. I think we've done that over the last few years. We've entered the Chase hot, we've entered it cold, and either way we've found a way to come out on top. It gives us confidence knowing that we have it in us."

Power Rankings after Bristol: