Johnson feels ready to win title

The 30-year-old has finished in the top five of the points standings for all four of his full seasons in the sport, however, he has missed on the title in the final race for the past two seasons.

Johnson says he had a key discussion with crew chief Chad Knaus in the close season, and now they believe they are mentally equipped for his team to peak at the right time this season. He currently holds a 93-point lead over reigning champion Tony Stewart.

"The things that I do on the track is not put us in a risky situation, have the knowledge of the tracks, have the experience on them to know what set-up I need and what fuel I need for that race track," Johnson said.

"That stuff all helps. But at the same time the crew, my relationship with Chad, the engineering staff, everyone, there's more and more time.

"We're all maturing, we're all more comfortable in our positions, more comfortable in pressured situations.  That's really what you need to be a champion."

Johnson believes the experience he gained from his failure to win the 2005 title, when at the final round he continued to lap off the pace until he crashed due to a punctured tyre, has helped him this season.

"The tyre wasn't going down in Homestead," he added. "I did have a tyre failure.  I knew that the car was way off.  I was a few seconds off the pace.  Something with the outside of the tyre was wrong, then it finally exploded.  That's why I had a hard time understanding what it was.

"In the back of my mind I thought I broke an axle.  I knew coming to pit road for a broken axle was going to be a very lengthy stop.  We were just trying to hang on, talking on the radio.  The tyre actually going into turn three exploded. You could see on TV where it blew out.  It wasn't down before that.

"Looking back, I wish I just had come to pit road right away, changed tires and gone out.  But I didn't think that was the issue.  You learn from your mistakes and you learn how to sense different things, the importance of them, if you really need to get to pit road and fix that or not by experience and making some mistakes.

"Every once in a while you sense something, and you get to pit road, you're fine.  I really think experience plays into a large part of it."