By Mark Aumann, NASCAR.COM
July 26, 2010
10:53 AM EDT

INDIANAPOLIS -- In the 100-year history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, no driver has won three consecutive races in Indy's signature events. And Jimmie Johnson's attempt to become the first to capture three Brickyard 400 trophies in a row met with similar results.

It continues a somewhat odd "all or nothing" trend for Johnson at Indy. He won three times over a four-year span but has also had a four-year stretch where he finished 36th or worse. And his 22nd-place finish Sunday is only slightly worse than his career average finish of 18.3 at the Brickyard.

Still, with a front-row starting spot and being two-time defending race winner, Johnson had a positive outlook for the race.

"We had a good practice session and I slept well last night," Johnson said. "I had high expectations for today so I'm disappointed a little bit. You want to win every race you can, especially the big ones, so I'm disappointed with today, but the track's been real good to us the last four years with three wins."

Early on, Johnson ran a strong second behind pole-sitter Juan Montoya, eventually taking the lead on the first set of pit stops under caution. But when the green flew on Lap 21, Montoya made an outside pass heading into Turn 3 to take the lead, and from that point on, Johnson's car was never the same.

Fighting a tight condition, Johnson steadily slipped back through the field. And by halfway, he was already out of the top 20.

"We just had a really bad understeer problem on corner entry into the center that we couldn't get out of it," Johnson said. "We made some attempts during caution flags and made some big changes on pit road but nothing really woke the car up. So we'll have to dig in and find out what happened."

It wasn't from lack of trying. Eventually, crew chief Chad Knaus had the team replace both front shocks during a debris caution on Lap 118, a lengthy stop that put Johnson one lap down and pretty much ended any hopes of repeating.

"We were just trying to make the car better on the pit stops," Johnson said. "My car was just so tight in, guys were outbraking me to the point where I really couldn't charge the corners. Something was going on with the shock on the front, although we changed both front shocks, thinking that might be it, and it didn't really correct the problem. At Chicago, we had this where at a certain point in the race it went real tight, and today it happened ... after that first caution flag about 10 laps in, after that it just got tight in and I couldn't go anywhere."

Johnson later stayed out under caution to earn the wave-around and get back on the lead lap, but continued to be mired in the back of the pack, even after another extensive visit for service. He wound up finishing just ahead of Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon, who also struggled all day with an ill-handling car.

If there's a theme to the 2010 season, it's that different drivers have had hot and cold streaks. Johnson has five wins this year, but since back-to-back victories at Sonoma and Loudon, the No. 48 Chevrolet has hit a rough patch. He finished 31st at Daytona, 25th at Chicagoland and now 22nd.

"You just never know each week," Johnson said. "[Denny Hamlin's] been on a run at times, we've been on a roll at times, [Kevin Harvick] ... Whoever it is, no one seems to be able to sustain it for a long period of time. The only saving grace I see right now is that no one has been able to link together a long stretch, outside of [Harvick]. He's been awfully tough."

After climbing from his car, Johnson was struggling to come up with some positives to take with him to Pocono.

"The good thing? This race isn't in the Chase," he said. "That's another good thing I can look at, and I'm trying to find some positives here. We'll move on and be stronger."