This is the time of year when Jimmie Johnson usually shines, when the four-time champion gains momentum heading into the Chase For The Sprint Cup.
Not this year. Despite being dubbed by his rivals as the favorite to win a fifth consecutive championship, Johnson is headed in the wrong direction as the Chase nears.

In the last seven weeks, he has fallen from second to ninth in the standings. His 35th-place finish after an accident with Juan Pablo Montoya at Bristol sent him falling four spots.

Since his win at New Hampshire June 27, Johnson’s best finish is tenth and has had five finishes of 20th or worse.

Still, people have been saying for weeks that until someone beats Johnson in the Chase, the Hendrick Motorsports driver has still got to be considered a favorite.

“I am really disappointed because I felt we really had a shot at winning this thing,” Johnson said after the race at Bristol, where he sat on the pole and led 175 laps before the accident.

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CONCORD, N.C. – Kyle Busch was so mad at Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin that he wanted to talk to him right after he crashed out of the Sprint All-Star Race Saturday night.

The only problem was that Hamlin, whom Busch felt forced him into the wall with less than two laps remaining, was still on the track. So Busch drove his wrecked car to Hamlin’s hauler, parked it there, stormed inside and waited for Hamlin to finish the race.

“Somebody better keep me away from Denny Hamlin after this … race,’’ Busch screamed over his in-car radio after a flat tire caused him to crash on lap 98. “I swear to God, I’m going to kill that [expletive]. All his [expletive] fault. I had this race won! It was won!”

Hamlin, who finished fourth, walked into his hauler and talked for about 20 minutes with Busch and team owner Joe Gibbs. Busch left the track without comment, leaving Hamlin and Gibbs to describe what happened.

“That’s Kyle in the moment,” Hamlin said. “He’s said worst things about me, I’m sure, at other times. I told him that my job as the leader is to do everything I can to win that race. This race, in specific, is a much different beast than what a points race is.

“I think he understands that now.”

Gibbs said he wasn’t worried about the harsh words from Busch immediately after the incident.

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MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Denny Hamlin, who has driven with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee since the start of the season, says he doesn’t expect to miss any races after having reconstructive knee surgery scheduled for Monday.

Sitting 19th in the Sprint Cup standings entering the race Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, Hamlin said the knee has buckled at times and he has suffered more damage, including a cracked meniscus, during the first five weeks of the season.

Sprint Cup teams are off next week, and Casey Mears will be the standby driver for the Joe Gibbs Racing team beginning with the April 9-10 race weekend at Phoenix. Drivers must start a race to be credited with the points.

“If I was leading or if I was 30th [in points], it would’ve made no difference,” Hamlin said Saturday morning. “It’s something that has to be done. … I’ve now cracked the meniscus and if that goes, what will happen is the knee will lock up and you have to get it done.

“It’s best for me to limit my time out of the race car by doing it on an off week, just take my lumps that first week and get back in the car as soon as I can.”

There will be no problem racing this weekend at Martinsville, Hamlin said. If the race gets rained out Sunday, the surgery will be done Tuesday. He will have a cadaver graft put in his knee as part of the reconstruction, he said. The surgery will be performed by Dr. Patrick Connor with OrthoCarolina.

Hamlin injured the knee Jan. 22 playing basketball. He had hoped to delay surgery until after the season because of the expected length of the recovery, but “just decided it wasn’t a good idea.

“We were doing some further damage to the knee,” Hamlin said, “and to me it’s not something worth suffering forever and having a permanent limp. It just didn’t make much sense.

“The goal right now is to go get it done early Monday morning and see where we’re at come Phoenix.”

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HAMPTON, Ga. — The president of Toyota Racing Development doesn’t agree with Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin that the Toyota Sprint Cup engine is behind other manufacturers in terms of power and reliability.

“In Denny’s case, at the end of the 2009 season he was being hailed as the heir [to Jimmie Johnson] by the media and he came into the season with extremely high expectations,” Lee White said on Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “He’s had a rough start and he’s disappointed, and he’ll get over it as soon as he moves up front with his 19-year-old teammate.”

White was referring to Joey Logano, who is eighth in points and coming off consecutive top 6 finishes. Hamlin is 22nd and Kyle Busch, the other JGR driver, is 12th.

“When do you see Toyotas up front these days?” Hamlin wrote this past week in a USA Today diary. “Not at all. I think Toyota is behind on their motors. In talking to our motor guy, we’re still trying to figure out what it takes to make a good, reliable engine and make as much power as we did when JGR was running Chevrolets three years ago.”

Logano didn’t share Hamlin’s strong feelings.

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The countdown is on. Saturday night, the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season gets under way with the Budweiser Shootout. A mere eight days later, it will be the Daytona 500 taking center stage, as one driver will put their name in an elite category with names such as Allison, Petty, Yarborough and Earnhardt.

Even with the success of the 2009 campaign for many drivers, leading into this year, questions still remained even after the final checkered flag flew at Homestead.

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