By Bodog Sports
It’s not that five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points champion Jimmie Johnson is having a bad year. It’s just that the bar has been set so high for J.J. that it hasn’t exactly been a great year. Can Johnson reach Victory Lane for the first time since mid-April at Sunday’s 5-Hour Energy 500 at Pocono? He opened as the second-favorite on Bodog’s auto racing odds at 6/1.
We are 13 events into the season and Johnson is second in the points standings, 40 behind leader Carl Edwards. But Johnson is not flashing the kind of consistency or the raw speed that have been his hallmarks for the past five years. He has just one win this year, coming in the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega on April 17. He hasn’t had a Top-5 finish since then, however.
All that could change at the “Tricky Triangle” known as Pocono. Johnson generally rules on the flat tracks of Pocono, Indianapolis, Phoenix, New Hampshire, Richmond and Martinsville. He’s been running at the end of the last 41 races on these tracks, which dates back to the 2007 Pennsylvania 500. In that span of races he has 12 victories, 25 top-fives and has failed to finish inside the top 15 only four times.
Johnson has made 18 Sprint Cup Series starts at Pocono Raceway, where he has two wins, six top-five and 12 top-10 finishes. He has failed to crack the top 10 only three times since he swept Victory Lane in 2004. Johnson has never failed to be running at the end of a Pocono race and has led 517 career laps at the 2.5-time tri-oval. He has an average finish of 9.6.
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