It has been a very, very long time since Jimmie Johnson visited Victory Lane in the Cup Series.
It’s been two seasons and three races since Johnson won at Dover International Speedway in June 2017.
But it’s been even longer since Johnson enjoyed a victory at Chicagoland Speedway. In fact, Johnson’s lone win on the 1.5-mile track came in its inaugural Xfinity race in 2001. It is his only win in the Xfinity Series.
Yes, Johnson, the seven-time champion and 83-time Cup winner has not won at Chicago in NASCAR’s premier series.
It is one of three active Cup tracks he has multiple starts at that he has yet to win on, including Watkins Glen and Kentucky.
But there’s multiple reasons being winless at Chicago probably rubs Johnson the wrong way and why ending his winless streak would be made sweeter.
For one, he’s pretty good there.
Johnson has made 17 Cup starts at Chicagoland since 2002. He has led a track-record 695 laps. The next highest total for a winless driver at Chicagoland is Kurt Busch with 124 laps led.
Johnson’s total is the eight highest among Cup drivers who have the most laps led at a track without a win. At least Johnson doesn’t have to worry about being winless at Martinsville after leading 1,986 laps, as is the case with Bobby Allison.
Johnson has been close to winning in Chicago. He has earned three runner-up results there with the most recent coming in 2012 after he led 172 laps from the pole.
His most recent solid outing there came in 2016 when he started eighth and led 118 laps before he finished 12th.
Should Johnson break through Sunday, it would mark the longest winless streak that was snapped in Chicago.
The longest snapped streak belongs to David Reutimann, who ended a 42-race winless streak in 2010.
Why should Johnson feel confident about his prospects this weekend?
While he’s finished 12th or worse in the last three races, he enters the weekend with the longest active streak of top 10s on 1.5-mile tracks with three. That’s one more than Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott and Chris Buescher.
He was sixth in the Coca-Cola 600 two weeks after he finished eighth at Kansas Speedway. The streak began at Texas Motor Speedway in March, where he started from the pole, led 60 laps and finished second in Stage 1 before eventually placing fifth.
