Johnson not getting carried away

Johnson has moved from fourth to second in the points standings after his win at Richmond on Sunday, but claims his first target for now is making the Chase for the Championship and being prepared for it.

"Our biggest job right now is to stay focused and keep advancing our equipment," Johnson said. "We're off to a great start but when you get into the Chase it's its own animal so right now we have to keep our goals in check and that's making the Chase and then racing for a championship.

"The way this works out this year, when you go into the Chase it doesn't matter who's leading, it's all on victories. We just need to keep focused on the Chase - one, transferring into the Chase and two, being ready for those 10 races when they get there."

Despite Johnson's Hendrick Motorsports team winning all of the Car of Tomorrow races of the year so far, he believes it is still too early to say they will have the edge during the Chase, which will feature the new car in five of the last ten races.

"I'm excited that we're going to have a good mix of those races," he added. "But it's so far from now there's no telling what technology is going to come along, what the cars are going to be wanting, tires, there's a lot of variables that can change between now and then."

Johnson also refuses to believe his team will have a domination similar to the one Ferrari has enjoyed in Formula One in recent years, stating their victories this season have been hard fought, even between him and his teammates.

"We're doing our jobs and I think we put on good races and we've been racing hard for these victories even amongst our teams," he said. "I don't think you've seen like you would in F1 where the red car is winning all the time and there's team owners and things like that.

"We're really racing for these victories and that's why NASCAR is such a great sport."