Jimmy Johnson Last Quotations

I was slowly catching Matt before that last caution. I thought long and hard about what I would do if I was protecting the lead. I knew I wanted to be on the outside. I faked kind of to the bottom and he kind of bought it.

Last year was tough at the end. This year we want to make sure that we're mentally able to make it through all 36 races and especially in the final 10, regardless if we're on top of the world or if we're going through a tough time.

Momentum and leading the points would be the same thing, ... Last year, we were near the top and lost the momentum. We didn't lead the points going into (the playoff), and the reason was that we weren't where we needed to be. We were doing everything we could, but we really hit our stride four or five races in.

From the first lap, the car was right on the money, and off we went. We had great stops, and it was really what we needed after last week.

We're on a great roll here with another 1.5-mile track coming up. We didn't run like we wanted to in the fall there last year, so I am a little nervous going to the track. But I believe we understand what took place last time. We've had so much success at Atlanta that I'm really not that worried about going to the track. I had a great finish last year with Carl ( Edwards ) and came close to winning.

He was way, way out of it and won a whole bunch of races at the end and came real close, right down to the last lap at Homestead, and anything is still possible.

Like I said, we're only off a bit, ... But it's so hard to break through that last bit. The No. 24 team has always been really good at it with all the championships and race wins he's had.

Last year, everybody felt that the champion was going to be a team that made it clean through the final 10,

I think last year at times it was really frustrating and people could see that. But we were frustrated because we weren't getting the results that we wanted. I'll always respect Chad for his dedication and that frustration that came up. He just wanted to win and be up front and win the championship.

I think last year we were all nervous about it and worrying about the cars in the final 10 and how vulnerable they are and how much is on the line,

We know that you've got to collect points, ... Kurt (Busch) last year was very consistent and collected the most points. That's everyone's baseline. You go into the final 10, if somebody is on a tear and wins a bunch, everybody is going to have to adjust their game. But going into any series, you want to cover your bases and be solid. . . We'll go to Loudon and get our feet wet. We can spend our first two or three races just feeling things out to see where we need to be.

When it runs out, you may have a stutter that will last three seconds and then it's empty. When it's over, it's over.

That's the last thing in the world I wanted to do,

We have to find some speed and turn things around. Thankfully, we had a strong start to the season, so this last month we really didn't have to race our way in. But we've got to find it in a hurry.

We didn't get off to a good start last year and still almost won it, so we know what can happen.

We didn't get off to a good start last year and we almost won it, ... We'll just have to work hard and see what happens.

The last couple of races, we haven't finished like we've wanted to, ... But we had a great run at Michigan and a strong run at Fontana. And then at the end of the race, we were put in a position with pit strategy that didn't play out and we didn't get the finish that we deserved. We've got the speed, but we're just a tick off.

It's not over until the last race at Homestead. But it's going to be tough. It's been tough.

There's been a lot of hating on the 48 team over the last year. I kind of look at is jealousy and (Newman) doesn't have a crew chief in there working hard enough to get the job done.

We lost last year by eight points, and we had some troubles at the start of the Chase, ... This year, hopefully, we'll make the right decisions and not have any weird things happen to us, and I won't make any mistakes on the racetrack and stay clean throughout.

I feel bad. I don't know what else to say, ... I started a wreck and took out a lot of good cars. And I've apologized to everyone and called everyone. That was the last thing I intended to do and I feel horrible for it. So I'm taking the responsibility.

For somebody who says it doesn't bother him, evidently it has. Indirectly, I guess, something's gotten to him, ... That's his deal and he's spending some time thinking about it. Last week, the reason we went out to follow him in practice was out of respect for him. He had the best car and we wanted to see how we stood up next to him. And we passed him.