Johnson vows to attack

Johnson has lost ground to leader Tony Stewart in the past four races after his sensational win in Charlotte put him level on points with the 2002 champion.

The Californian still remains in second going into this weekend's title decider at Homestead in Miami, but now has a 52-point deficit to Stewart, who can win the title by finishing in the top nine.

But Johnson believes that should he get into a championship winning position he shouldn't be cautious with the title in mind.

"You've got to finish the race to get the points, so I think that we're all going to be aggressive," Johnson said. "We all have the same mind-set that if you change what you're doing, that's usually when problems happen.

"I'm sure people have heard different stories about when you're in the lead and you start protecting something, you may make a mistake at that point, just in the race itself.

"I feel that the way we've raced using our heads, taking calculated risks at times has put us in this position and got us second in points and you've got to take the same risks."

Johnson has finished runner-up in the title race for the past two seasons and only lost last year's title to Kurt Busch by eight points, which was only determined on the last lap of the final race at Homestead.

"I said to myself last year that you've got to lose one before you win one," he added. "Last year I left Homestead saying "this is the one I need to lose before I win."

"It's not the same set of circumstances this year and we are not as close as we need to be to really control or have it in our hands to go down and race at Homestead and try to win the championship. But it's a long race, a lot can happen in our sport and we just go out and do all we can.

"I truly believe that leaving here last year after watching Kurt have his problem, the wheel fall off the right front, bringing out the caution, if he would have been over a few more inches and hit the end of the wall, it would have been a different story, if we would have been a few more laps then there wouldn't have been a caution, he would have gone two or three laps.

"It's a tough sport, no doubt about it, and there's no guarantees.  That's why I love the sport and why I wake up everything morning and work so hard, because we've got to fight for every inch, and hopefully one of these days I will be a champion."