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BRANT JAMESThe pressure of living up to a stellar rookie season have taught him to take NASCAR's uncertainties in stride.
Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson had the whole thing figured out.
Coming off a season in which Johnson stunned NASCAR by competing for the Winston Cup points title as a rookie, crew chief and driver sat down one morning and plotted realistic goals, possible accomplishments and some pipe dreams.
Nothing, they now know, ever goes by script.
"Oddly enough, we didn't accomplish as many of the goals as we set out to," Knaus said. "But we accomplished things we didn't think we would do. So it balanced out a little bit.
"We thought we'd win a restrictor-plate race, but we weren't able to do that since the last one was Talladega last Sunday. But we never in a million years thought that we would sweep Loudon. So we've really had a pretty decent year."
Decent, but different. Johnson left Kansas Speedway last fall as the first rookie in the modern era to lead the Winston Cup points standings, but under the kind of pressure he had never experienced.
"Last year at this point, with the pressure of my rookie season and competing for the championship, there was a lot going on," Johnson said. "I was really burned out and beaten down. I learned a lot of lessons from that. I learned what to worry about and when to worry about things. If you pay attention to every detail, you're going to burn out.
"This year has been a much more relaxed year. We still have the competitiveness that we had last year but we've learned how to spread it out a little better. I anticipate the screw-ups that take place and understand things more."
This year, the 28-year-old Californian has three wins, eight top-5s and is fourth in points. No matter what he does today in the Banquet 400, he won't catch Matt Kenseth - for now. Johnson enters the race trailing Kenseth by 476 points.
One of his few major mistakes came last week when he was bumped off the lead and out of the race at Talladega. Run up upon by eventual-winner Michael Waltrip in Turn 2 with 44 laps left, Johnson spun out and returned to the field but later retired with engine problems. His 34th-place finish put him behind Dale Earnhardt Jr., who started the accident that knocked him from the race."We've had a lot of unfortunate luck," Knaus said. "And we've had some engine malfunctions that have cost us a lot of points. We really thought we were going to be able to bid for the championship."
That still may be an impossibility, but Kenseth crashed during practice Friday and had to take a provisional for the second straight week after failing to qualify on time. It was enough to spark hope, at least, especially after Johnson smashed Earnhardt Jr.'s year-old track qualifying record with a 180.373-mph effort around the 1.5-mile tri-oval. Johnson will start at the back after switching cars.
"I think it's taken an interesting turn right now," Johnson said. "(Kenseth) is maybe running into a bad-luck stretch. ... It's going to be a wild seven races to the end."
Knaus is confident he and Johnson will have positive memories and higher goals when they write their wish list for 2004.
"Now is the point where we're going to see if our plan worked," Knaus said. "I think it did."