By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
LOUDON, N.H. -- Never mind that Jimmie Johnson is third in the Sprint Cup standings.
The three-time defending series champion admitted Friday that his No. 48 Chevrolet team has made some uncharacteristic mistakes this season.
"Unlike other years, we've made more mistakes as a team," Johnson said. "Like last week (at Sonoma), I got nailed for speeding on pit road. I've made plenty of mistakes like that this year. I've crashed a couple of cars that I shouldn't have. Pit stops are clearly in our rhythm now, but we've had a couple of hiccups along the way."
Given that Johnson clearly feels there's room for improvement, should Cup points leader Tony Stewart be worried?
In his first year as an owner/driver with Stewart-Haas Racing, Stewart sees it from the opposite perspective.
"I look at it this way," he said. "How scary is it for them that a new team is sitting here leading the points? That's no disrespect to them, but we feel like we've got room to gain each week, too. . .
"Obviously, history shows that you can never count Jimmie and that team out. I'm not sure that it scares all of us -- but it doesn't scare us, because we never underestimated him to begin with."
EDWARDS: WHAT MATTERS IS MAKING THE CHASE
Surprisingly, given his performance in 2008, Carl Edwards hasn't won a race this year. What concerns him far more than his failure to find victory lane, however, is ensuring that he claims one of the 12 positions in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
Edwards currently is fifth in the Cup standings, but he's only 137 points ahead of 13th-place Kasey Kahne. Accordingly, his mindset has more to do with staying in the Chase field and not with his 30-point deficit to series victory leaders Kyle Busch and Mark Martin, who have accumulated 10 bonus points for each of their three wins.
"If I knew that I was in the Chase, and if I was leading the points right now, I'd be worried about that," said Edwards, who won a series-high nine races last year. "But those 30 points, that's the furthest thing from my mind right now.
"I mean, we could go out and win a couple and even that up and get it real close, but the key right now is not losing those 100 points you can lose in a wreck or having some sort of trouble."
KURT BUSCH PLANS AHEAD
Anticipating the qualifying rainout that set the field for Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 according to owner points, Kurt Busch made a qualifying run in Friday's practice to establish a baseline at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Why? Because the Cup series will return to the Magic Mile in September for the first race in the Chase.
"Today, we knew that it was going to rain this afternoon and it might wash out qualifying," Busch said. "I thought that it was important for us to at least get one qualifying run in. That way, when we come back here in September, we know where that's going to shake out for us.
"You always have to plan ahead when it's a Chase race."
NATIONWIDE SERIES GOES DOUBLE-FILE
NASCAR's Nationwide Series will go to double-file "shootout style" restarts next Friday night at Daytona International Speedway.
Under that format, lead-lap cars start side-by-side at the front of the field. NASCAR introduced the double-file restarts in the Cup series at Pocono earlier this month.
NASCAR is reviewing the methodology of incorporating double-file restarts into the Camping World Truck Series. Such a move is complicated by a rule in that series that allows teams to take on tires or fuel but not both -- during a single pit stop.