Jun 7, 2002 3 min read

LONG POND, Pa. (AP) – Jimmie Johnson didn’t want to sound like a rookie popping off. “We’ll be a contender,” he said when asked if he expects to win Sunday at Pocono Raceway.

After winning five days ago in his first Winston Cup start at difficult Dover International Speedway, little seems beyond Johnson’s grasp as he drives through what could be the greatest rookie season in stock-car history.

In the last month, Johnson has posted victories at Dover and at California Speedway. He also had great cars in Richmond, Va., and Concord, N.C., but made costly mistakes.

“I blew it,” he said. “I can’t blame anybody but myself. I wrecked in one and flew through the pits in the other, so it’s just as easy to lose them as it is to win them.”

Still, Johnson has led the most laps for the most miles, has the most poles and is tied for the most wins among all Winston Cup drivers this season.

Not bad for a rookie with a rookie car owner – four-time series champion and teammate Jeff Gordon – and a rookie crew chief.

Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus began the season with modest goals. They wanted to finish in the top 15 in points, an excellent showing for a first-year team.

Now, that seems inevitable. Johnson is second in the series standings, 136 points behind leader Sterling Marlin entering the Pocono 500.

“We didn’t even expect to be running in the top five until the second half of season,” Knaus said. “We’ve already had a better season than some people have had careers.”

With 23 of 36 races remaining, Johnson needs only one victory to match Tony’s Stewart rookie record of three in 1999. Stewart finished fourth in points that season to establish the benchmark for a first-year driver.

“I’m amazed that it’s come this early,” Johnson said. “I’ve won three poles and two races. I’ve been driving my butt off.”

But Johnson’s success goes beyond the races or poles he has won. His finishes on NASCAR’s three toughest tracks – Dover, Darlington Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway – have been stunning.

He was sixth in Darlington, so tough that it began a tradition of first-time starters carrying yellow tape on their rear bumpers so the veterans know who to avoid. He was seventh in Bristol, where crash-bang is the order of business.

Johnson has completed all 1,193 laps on those tracks. Now, he comes to Pocono. Unlike Dover, the triangle on the mountaintop is one of the tracks on which the 26-year-old Californian has tested.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” Johnson said. “We were really fast.”

But how well will he race?

Johnson, a Busch Series graduate, has no way of knowing, because Pocono is a track on which that circuit does not compete.

He also believes his performance is certain to decline at some point this season.

“There will be a time when the going will be rough,” he said. “If we stay within our means, continue to learn and don’t try to do too much, I’m confident that we’ll continue to be successful.”

Among those Johnson will have to beat Sunday are three-time Pocono winners Gordon and Bobby Labonte. Rusty Wallace and Bill Elliott are the leaders among active drivers with four victories apiece on the 21/2-mile track.

But Johnson’s toughest competition might come from defending race champion Ricky Rudd, who won at Pocono for the first time last June.

“That was about the perfect weekend,” Rudd said. “We were fastest in practice, we won the pole, then went on and won the race.”