With a win at Richmond International Raceway last weekend, Jimmie Johnson secured a third-place seed in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, which begins this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He is 40 points behind leader Kyle Busch and 10 behind Carl Edwards.

This year marks the fifth consecutive season Johnson has qualified for the Chase, making him and Matt Kenseth the only two drivers who have been in the field each year since its inception.

Johnson is officially competing for his third consecutive Sprint Cup Series Championship. The only other driver in NASCAR's history to accomplish that feat is Cale Yarborough.

JIMMIE JOHNSON QUOTES

Even though you're 40 points behind the leader in the seeding, you've got the momentum with two consecutive victories. Does that make you the pre-Chase favorite, and do you feel like the pre-Chase favorite as it stands right now?

"I'm trying to show up at next week's race scared, worried about 11 other guys, and worry about doing my part. And the thing is I have confidence in what my abilities are and what my team is capable of and the packages we have put together in the last five or six months -- short track, big track, all of it.

"So you know, there's a lot of cars ... you just never know what's going to happen. So I want to show up next week worried about all 11 of them and just do my job."

You alluded in victory lane that you can make history and get three championships; what do you think about that and what would that mean to you?

"I do think about it, but Homestead is so far away and it's been so far away. We've had a lot of work to do as a race team to catch these guys. So now it's becoming more of a reality. Still, the less I can think about it, the better I'm going to be. The less I can think about all of the stuff that's coming up in the next 10 races, the better I'm going to be, and just fall back into the confidence that I have in my race team and my abilities and the confidence that we are bringing to the track and give 100 percent.

"With the way the pack is running, especially the 99 and the 18, you can't show up and run at 80 percent and just hope that a top-10 is going to get the job done. You have to show up and bring your 'A' Game each week. I feel confident that we are there now and that we can run with these guys."

RACE NOTES

New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Johnson has made 13 Cup Series starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, posting two wins, three top-five finishes and eight top-10s.

He has completed 98.2% (3,732 of 3,799) of competition laps at the 1.058-mile oval and has led 85.

Team Lowe's Racing has an average start and finish of 9.4 and 10.5.

Chassis

Chassis No. 461 will be the primary for Sunday's event. Johnson drove it to victory lane twice last fall, at Martinsville and Phoenix.

Johnson piloted the backup chassis, No. 424, to a ninth-place finish at Loudon in June.

CAREER NOTES

Wins

Johnson has 37 wins in his Sprint Cup Series career.

Johnson's most recent victory at Richmond International Raceway (Sept. 7, 2008) moved him to 16th on NASCAR's all-time wins list. He also has the third-highest win total among active drivers, behind Jeff Gordon (81) and Bill Elliott (44).

Johnson has won at least three Cup races a season since he posted his first victory in 2002. He is the only driver in the modern era to win at least three races in each of his first seven full-time seasons.

Johnson has won Sprint Cup Series races at all but seven (Bristol, Michigan, Infineon, Chicago, Watkins Glen, Kansas, Homestead) of the 22 tracks in which the series competes.

Johnson's 10 wins in 2007 was the highest number recorded in a single season since Jeff Gordon posted 13 victories in 1998.

The four consecutive wins scored by the No. 48 team in the 2007 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup ties a modern-era NASCAR record.

Poles

Johnson has collected 17 poles in his Sprint Cup career.

The championship driver has earned at least one pole a year since his first full-time season in 2002. He has had a career-high four in 2002, 2007 and 2008.

Johnson's most recent pole position was in the Aug. 31 event at Auto Club Speedway.

Miscellaneous

Johnson has finished in the top five in the Sprint Cup Series point standings each year since his first full season in 2002.

This is Johnson's fifth consecutive year in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

In 245 Sprint Cup Series starts, Johnson has posted 95 top-five finishes and 148 top-10s.

He has a top-five finish at every track on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series circuit.

Johnson has led a total of 6,482 laps (of 70,279) in his Sprint Cup career, covering 94,270 miles.

He has finished on the lead lap 187 times.

TELEVISION SCHEDULE (All times Eastern)

New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Friday, Sept. 12

Sprint Cup practice, noon, ESPN2

Sprint Cup qualifying, 3 p.m., ESPN2

Saturday, Sept. 13

Sprint Cup practice, 9 a.m., ESPN2

Sprint Cup happy hour, 11:30 a.m. (tape delayed, 6 p.m. ET, ESPN2)

Sunday, Sept. 14

Sprint Cup pre-race, 1 p.m., ABC

Sprint Cup race, 2 p.m., ABC

PRIMARY CAR: CHASSIS NO. 461 HISTORY

BACKUP CAR: CHASSIS NO. 424 HISTORY

JOHNSON'S NEW HAMPSHIRE HISTORY

JOHNSON'S 2008 SPRINT CUP STATISTICS

JOHNSON'S YEAR-BY-YEAR CUP STATISTICS

* to date

NO. 48 AT-TRACK CREW LIST