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| 6 finishes of 9th or better (top) vs. 6 finishes of 18th or worse (bottom). Take your pick. |
Jimmie Johnson has a record-tying 4 wins alongside with his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon. He has led 302 laps to go along with the 4 victories & 6 top-tens. Strangely, he can also be considered a liability there with 6 finishes of 18th or worse in those 12 starts, as well. Pretty weird for an all-out exceptional driver like Johnson, but these results DID happen. Whether it was a tire problem or an engine failure, he has been unfortunate, as well. In order to bring his results into further context, I decided to dissect the seven races that he didn't win ('02, '03, '04, '05, '07, '10, '11 & '13).
2002: (Started 37th, Finished 9th)
A hard-fought 9th place finish started with a drive from the back of the field for the driver of the 48, who managed to avoid all of the incidents throughout the day and used clever pit strategy to ascend through the field. It was a quiet top-10 finish for the rookie.
2003: (Started 9th, Finished 18th)
Jimmie spent most of his day inside the top 10 until a long pit stop put him in the 13th position with little time to get back to the rest of the top cars. A restart with 16 laps saw a multi-car accident down the backstretch between turns 3 and 4. Jimmie Johnson was among those involved in the incident; and, while he did drive away unscathed, he ended the day with a disappointing 18th place finish.
2004: (Started 9th, Finished 38th)
Spent the first 30 laps inside the top 10 until the 48 spun coming off of turn 3. Got as high as 22nd after the spin before the engine expired on lap 89.
2005: (Started 42nd, Finished 38th; Driver Rating: 58.8)
In its inaugural year, sites like racing-reference.info implemented a driver rating system, which tabulates how a driver is running throughout a race. Sort of like how Quarterbacks are scored for interceptions, touchdowns, passing yards, etc. Drivers are scored on green flag passes, quality passes inside the top 15, laps spent in the top 15, laps led and so on. Jimmie Johnson, for example, was scored with the driver rating of 58.8. The average equivalent would be above a 70.0 driver rating. Starting in the back because of a bad time trial speed, JJ slowly made his way towards the top-15 only to spin out off of turn 2 on lap 79 and then, proceeded to restart his march towards the front again. Jimmie's team decided later in the race to bargain for track position as he restarted 7th on lap 121 and managed to stay within the top-15, until, a hard crash off of turn 4 ended his day on lap 144.
2007: (Started 19th, Finished 39th; Driver Rating: 66.1)
The winner of the 2006 Brickyard 400 was caught in a multi-car accident on lap 47 after running as high as 4th early in the running. As the carnage ceased, Jimmie went to pit road to fix some of the damage from the accident and fell a lap down, due to the extensive repairs. When the race was restarted on lap 60, JJ was in a position for the "free pass" (when the first driver is a lap down, he or she receives that lap back) then, alas, the left front tire gave way,
sending him into the wall on lap 62, effectively ending his day.
2010: (Started 2nd, Finished 22nd; Driver Rating: 75.9)
After winning back-to-back Brickyards in 2008 & 2009, respectively, the 48 team pretty much missed the setup two-thirds of the race after racing among the leaders early on. Despite starting on the outside pole, Jimmie Johnson's crew kept adjusting the car to improve the handling throughout the event to no avail. Things got so bad that the crew opened the hood to tinker with the steering of the car. He fell a lap down because of this and needed the aid of a "wave around" (Once the leaders pit, cars laps down must stay out to regain a lap, but you can't pit until the restart) to catch up to the competition, but was mired back in traffic only pick up 22nd.
2011: (Started 3rd, Finished 19th; Driver Rating: 99.9)
Probably the best showing by the driver despite not winning in this installment. Johnson and a lot of other contenders were mired back in traffic due to the final laps being determined by fuel mileage. Jimmie spent most of the day in the top 10 and looked to reclaim Indy supremacy until a final pit stop put him far behind the rest of the cars who could stretch their fuel load more so then guys like Jimmie. He ended the day 19th, despite an average position of 10th throughout the day.
2013: (Started 2nd, Finished 2nd; Driver Rating: 138.3)
Looking to become the first-ever 5-time Brickyard, Jimmie was perhaps on his way towards another back-to-back feat. Leading a race-high 73 laps, the only things against JJ was Ryan Newman & lots of pit strategies for track position. With 30 laps to go, Johnson's bid for a 5-peat was slowed by a pit stop, ceding the lead to Ryan Newman, who eventually won the event.
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