In a word, hardly…in each of the last four season-openers, Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Chevrolet) has begun his title defense with a stinker. Weird, but true. And apparently, not at all season-threatening. Johnson’s Daytona 500 clunkers haven’t seemed to phase him all that much.

In 2007, Johnson finished 39th in the 500. In 2008, he finished 27th. Last year, he was 31st. Now, once again, he finished outside the top 25, ending Sunday’s race 35th. But Johnson’s early-season Rx has been Auto Club Speedway, where he has followed up a bad Daytona 500 with a top-10 finish — or better.

Johnson has finished in the top five in two of the last three February ACS races, and has been the class of the field at Fontana practically every race since 2007. In the last six ACS races, Johnson has three wins, a Driver Rating of 134.7, an Average Run- ning Position of 3.4, 619 Laps Led and 347 Fast- est Laps Run. He has led at least 31 laps in every race since 2007.

Actually, in one race, dominance morphed into perfection. In the summer race of 2008, Johnson scored a perfect Driver Rating of 150, posting an Average Running Position of 1.2 and leading 228 of the 250 laps. It was Johnson’s first perfect Driver Rating since the Loop Data statistic’s inception in 2005. He has since scored another one, at the May Dover race last season.