• Video: Johnson talks about winning at the Brickyard

INDIANAPOLIS -- With only one victory in the fold for two-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson and only two on the whole for his Hendrick Motorsports operation this season, Rick Hendrick decided to bring in a motivational speaker at the shop last week.

Enter Jerry Moore, head football coach of three-time defending small-college national champion Appalachian State, architect of the slaying of Michigan in one of that sport's all-time greatest upsets just last season. Moore insisted how "it's all about desire and dedication, who wants it more," according to Hendrick.

Then Hendrick pulled a little surprise on Chad Knaus, Johnson's crew chief.

"I called Chad out in front of Coach Moore. I said, 'Chad are you going to win this championship for us like Appalachian?'" Hendrick said.

Knaus stepped forward and gave his response, pledging, "I'm going to do my best."

Moore was not impressed. He looked at Knaus and said, "That might not be good enough."

Knaus knew how to give a ribbing as well as receive one. He looked Moore in the eye and issued a warning of his own.

"You better be glad I'm not coaching football in that league of yours," he said.

Champion driver

Moore would have been proud of the way Knaus and Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet team handled ample adversity Sunday during the caution-filled Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. With NASCAR-mandated competition cautions coming every 10 laps as Goodyear tires blew apart with alarming violence and frequency, Johnson laid back when he could and cautiously led the way when he figured he had no other choice.

In short, Johnson drove like a champion. That hasn't always been the case this season.

Earlier in the year, it seemed Johnson's entire team was uncharacteristically missing the mark more often than not as he struggled to mirror the stunning success of last season -- when he won a series-high 10 Sprint Cup races. But once the team seemed to start getting its act together, Johnson uncharacteristically made some costly driving mistakes of his own.

Leading at Chicagoland in the very last race prior to Sunday's event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Johnson let Kyle Busch get to his outside on the final restart and lost the lead less than two laps from the checkered flag. He finished second to Busch, but blamed himself for not claiming the victory instead.

Johnson admitted that was on his mind at the end of Sunday's race before an estimated crowd of 240,000. He did not want to let his team down again -- especially after his pit crew took him from third to first on the final pit stop with eight laps left to go.

“

... in technical situations, I think there are only a handful of teams and drivers that kind of rise to the top. ... I feel like I am that guy and we are that team."

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JIMMIE JOHNSON

This time, Johnson held off all challenges from eventual second-place finisher Carl Edwards down the stretch.

"It worked out," he said.

If there had been a hint that it might not, Johnson knew exactly what he planned to do.

"We weren't going to bring racecars back, the way it boiled down in my mind, on this last restart between Carl and I," he said, laughing.

Looking ahead

The rest of the race may have been a fiasco because of a tire situation that never should have occurred, but the fact is that the best car on the day probably won. Johnson led a race-high 71 laps, and obviously could not have done it without some heavy-handed assistance from the cagey Knaus.

Last year they were the team that proved all too often unbeatable as Johnson cruised to a second consecutive championship. This year, they often looked all too human.

Sunday may have been an indication that some of the not-so-old but quickly forgotten magic may be ready to return to the No. 48 team. Don't look now, Kyle Busch, but another championship contender might suddenly be lurking again in your rearview mirror.

"I think when I look at it from a driver's standpoint, at tracks that are unforgiving, re-paved, you see a majority of the field is fast and can get it done," Johnson said. "I mean, everybody's courageous and brave, committed to going fast.

"But when you get to technical tracks, find yourself in technical situations, I think there are only a handful of teams and drivers that kind of rise to the top. I wanted to be that guy. I feel like I am that guy and we are that team."

Johnson's second win at the famed Brickyard in three years vaulted him one spot forward in the point standings to fourth, only 44 behind Jeff Burton in third and just 62 behind Dale Earnhardt Jr., Johnson's Hendrick Motorports teammate who sits in second behind runaway leader Busch.

Next up for the Sprint Cup gang is Pocono, which is similar to Indianapolis in many ways (but hopefully not in the way Goodyear's tires disintegrated at Indy after eight to 10 hot laps). If Johnson and Knaus start heating up like the month of August, they could very well make Coach Moore extremely proud by the time Moore's own season opens.

Coach might even end up inviting Knaus up for a motivational speech of his own.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.

Also:
• Out of final pit stop first, Johnson wins Brickyard 'competition'
• Johnson commends NASCAR, Goodyear for cautious approach