Coming off two straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship seasons, one could be led to assume that Jimmie Johnson entered the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup series with the certitude of being right up front when the season kicked off with the Daytona 500 back in February. And he was, staring the 50th annual version of America’s Great Race from pole position. But then things, both literally and figuratively, went sideways for the Californian, Johnson placing a distant 27th on the 31-degree Florida high banks. Things took a turn for the positive eight days later at California Speedway when Johnson raced to a very encouraging runner-up finish. Then it all came unglued, Johnson placing 29th, 13th and 18th at the UAW-Dodge 400 (Las Vegas), Kobalt Tools 500 (Atlanta) and 18th at the Food City 500 (Bristol), respectively. Thus when pencil and paper were called for and the mathematics completed, Johnson and his Hedrick Motorsports team found themselves 13th in the current Sprint Cup point standings. All worthy reasons to begin burning the midnight oil back at the Hendrick shop outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. In a concerted effort to get the team back on track, Johnson and crew have initiated a heavy-duty testing schedule that began at Rockingham and will continue next week on the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway.

“Our goal was to go to Kentucky to work on the big track stuff, but the weather messed us up there,” Johnson told SceneDaily.com. “We had the tires and the cars ready, and going to a track, period, we felt would be helpful, so we went [to Rockingham] to work through some things. We don’t race on a track like that and that track’s so old and rough, we’re not sure what’s really going to apply [to other tracks], but we have a good direction.”

Interestingly, Kentucky Speedway is built in the same 1.5-mile configuration that he and his #48 Chevrolet-backed team have been so thoroughly dominant upon throughout the last two years. To that end, the test at Kentucky proves the organization is looking for something it appears to have lost during the winter off-season. “We just came off the off season,” Johnson said. “I know we only have three of these [scheduled off weekends] a year, so it would be great to take advantage of it and do something else, but we haven’t had the runs like we want, so there’s only one way to correct that and that’s to get out there and start testing and get to work. I’m eager to do it.”

“The one component that’s difficult is on the crew guys,” he continued, explaining the team was looking to address troublesome car handling issues. “I feel for them. They’ve been working their tails off, and then the added testing is even more for them. It’s really difficult on them, and I really appreciate their desire and willingness to test and make everything come together.”