While he’ll start Sunday’s Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at the 1.0 mile Phoenix International Speedway third on the grid and with a 73-point lead in the Chase for the Sprint Cup over Hendrick Motorsports Teammate Mark Martin, Jimmie Johnson is still reliving the nightmare that was the crash on lap three last Sunday in Texas. Seemingly right on his way to his fourth, and unprecedented fourth NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship, Johnson must now start the Phoenix race – the penultimate race of the 36-race season – in much more of a defensive role than he had wanted to.

"I don't really have an emotion for how last week went," Johnson said. "I mean, obviously it's a negative one. I'm disappointed to lose the points, but we didn't perform poorly. We didn't have a chance to perform good or bad. So I just kind of have this blank spot about how last week went. Unfortunately, we lost 111 points.

"We ran really good here in the spring, overcame a lot of issues to finish well. The fall race has always been good to us. So I'm finding a lot of positive thoughts, a lot of hope in what we have done here in the past at this track and the way the spring race went.

"So I can't wait to get on track so I can start thinking about something else. All I can think about is three laps of Texas right now. That's all I've thought about for the whole week. Ready to get that out of the brain."

Johnson, who has chosen chassis #540 for this race, is spooked about the Phoenix race, a race known for it s close quarters, side-by-side racing.

"I don't think anybody's really safe, especially [given] how you can run side-by-side here in [Turns] 1 and 2, one line is preferred, [in Turns] 3 and 4 another is preferred," said Johnson. "It's going to be tough to get single file.

"So I do have concern and worry about contact or something out of my control taking place again. I think we all fear that. But I find some confidence knowing that everybody's going to deal with that. I don't think lightning can strike two weeks in a row. I'm certainly hoping it doesn't."