The drive to succeed

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Last year, Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet, piloted his way to a number of firsts.

There was his first Daytona 500 win, followed two months later by his first win at Talladega Superspeedway, which was followed some four months later by his first win at the Brickyard 400, which represented the three biggest of his five wins last season and helped produce his first NASCAR Nextel Cup championship.

Now, as he prepares to make his first title defense for Hendrick Motorsports, Johnson will be faced with another first: questions about whether he can repeat not only as Daytona 500 winner, but also Nextel Cup champion.

That reality struck Johnson when he returned here last month for a test session.

"I rolled in thinking, 'I won last time we were here for this race,' and at the same time I thought, 'I'm also the champion coming back,' " said Johnson, who has won more races (23) than any driver in the last five years and last year pocketed $15,875,125 in earnings to bolster his career total to $44,143,676. "So it's been a great emotional ride for myself and the team."

Not even a broken left wrist, which he suffered in December, could dampen Johnson's season.

"Yeah, I'm good," he said. "I'm screwing around at the golf course, having some fun after a long season of racing, just having fun with the boys, and I was up [surfing] on top of the golf cart and came off and popped my wrist in the process."

Instead of dwelling on the injury, Johnson chose to focus on the fact he had enough time to heal before tonight's Budweiser Shootout. So, in that regard, "The timing could not have been better," he said. "I was out having fun, and it got the best of me."

It was, perhaps, a sign Johnson had much to learn about being a NASCAR Nextel Cup champion, or remaining one in a sport where no one has been able to repeat since 1999. In that time, no champion has fared better than fourth the following year (Jeff Gordon in 2002 and Dale Jarrett in 2000), with 2005 champion Tony Stewart failing to make last year's cut for the Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship.

In fact, there have been only nine drivers in NASCAR history who have been able to repeat, Gordon being the last in 1998.

"It's always been tough," Gordon said. "But now with the Chase format, it makes it that much tougher to win the championship -- let alone get back-to-back championships. The chances to battle for another championship are increased because of the new Chase format [which will be expanded to 12 drivers, award 185 points for each victory, and re-seed the field based on the number of regular-season wins], and [the champion is] going to be one of those 12 guys, but then to pull it off is just kind of a crapshoot about who's going to win and who's going to not win in those 10 races."

Winning a championship, let alone repeating, will become exponentially difficult this season with the introduction of the Car of Tomorrow. Of those final 10 Chase races, half will be Car of Tomorrow events.

"I look at it this year with all the changes and the Car of Tomorrow as a good year for the No. 48," Johnson said. "Chad [Knaus, crew chief] and I do a good job of learning things on a fast pace. And with the resources we have at Hendrick, I think we can sort out the Car of Tomorrow in a short period of time and hopefully get things moving in the right direction."

Said Gordon, Johnson's teammate and four-time NASCAR champion, "There are a lot of guys who have won one championship, but very few guys who have won multiple championships. I've always said that Tony Stewart, after winning his first championship, would be tougher.

"Once you've become a multiple champion, you think about things differently," Gordon added, "and you're just so much calmer and relaxed and you understand that you go out and do your job and the team does it s job, it's going to happen. You don't push the issue and try to make it happen. It just happens on its own if you prepare properly."

A runner-up for the championship in 2002 and '03, Johnson was stung by criticism he seemed to be the best driver with the best team yet to win a championship. Last season's title, though, wasn't as much a vindication as it was a validation of Johnson's talent.

"I personally feel there is always pressure to do something," Johnson said. "Nobody puts more pressure on me to perform than myself. I know when I get out of the car if I gave 100 percent. I'm very honest with myself and I know the team is too. Last year we did a really good job and we're really hitting our stride right now. Hopefully, for the next five or six years we can just stay in this rhythm and in this pace and get another championship or two."

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.