DAYTONA BEACH, Fla – Jimmie Johnson appears to be back to his old ways. For the second consecutive week, he put his No. 48 Chevrolet in the top five of the final finishing order in a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race. That’s the first time he’s done so since his back-to-back wins early on in the 2017 season.

Johnson, has also been superb nearly everywhere he’s raced. He’s won seven Cup Series championships, tied most all time. Among his 83 career wins in NASCAR’s premiere series are four Brickyard 400 crowns, four Coca-Cola 600 victories, two Daytona 500 triumphs and two Southern 500 trips to victory lane. To go along with that are four wins in the All-Star race and two in the Clash.

He’s won at Dover 11 times, Martinsville nine times, Charlotte eight and Texas seven times respectively. Among the only few things missing is, the Chicagoland Speedway.

There are only three tracks that Johnson has yet to win at on the Cup Series schedule. One of which is this weekend in the Quaker State 400. Another was a couple of weeks ago in Chicagoland, a race he finished fourth in. The third is in August at Watkins Glen.

Other than winning an eighth Cup Series title, winning on every track on the schedule is high on his priority list.

He actually started off pretty good at Kentucky but has since tapered off. He finished third, sixth, ninth, 10th and ninth respectively in his first five starts. But, over his last three, he’s been 32nd, 40th and 14th respectively. The third place run in the inaugural race is his lone top five in eight tries too.

Now, he’s looking at finishing strong again on the season though. The problem is, he brings a 77 race winless streak into the weekend. That’s the longest of his storied career. He only has five top five finishes in his last 61 starts but two of which have come in the last two weeks too though. After having double digit top five finishes in literally every year of his career, he’s only had four in 2017, two in 2018 and just three again in 2019.

This is a rough patch of his career. Can he make up for it with a win on Saturday night?

He is in a predicament though. Johnson, needs a win but he also needs stage points. If you give up stage points to position yourself for the win and you don’t actually win, you could be in a huge hole.