Our experts weigh in on four of the biggest questions in NASCAR this week:
Turn 1: Was Martinsville the worst race of Jimmie Johnson's career? What do you think went wrong?
Ricky Craven, ESPN NASCAR analyst: Yes, because it's the most recent among a short list of races where Jimmie Johnson performed as though he were just another driver. Most drivers are remembered for their select great performances -- Trevor Bayne's Daytona 500, Paul Menard's Brickyard win, Casey Mears winning the Coke 600, etc. But the greats win with such frequency that it's the occasional poor performance that stands out. Because of the expectations associated with Johnson at Martinsville, this seemed like the worst overall performance I've seen from the 48. But Jimmie shows greater resilience than any other driver in the series after the few bad runs in his career. It's another reason Texas will be worth watching.
Ryan McGee, ESPN.com: Of his career? No. But the list of weekends when the No. 48 car has just swung and missed like that, particularly at a track he has owned in the past, is a very short one. Prior to 2014, that list was nearly nonexistent. But I can think of a half-dozen times that it's happened over the past 14 months. I still believe that the new rules (less horsepower and downforce) will wind up playing into Johnson's hands. That's the feel that he likes much more than the "snug" cars they had last year. With a Chase berth pretty much locked in, there's plenty of time to catch up.
John Oreovicz, ESPN.com: No. It certainly doesn't rival New Hampshire a couple of years ago, when Johnson seemed to crash as soon as the crew slapped the next set of tires onto the No. 48 car. Best I can tell on Sunday, Johnson wasn't very happy with his car in the second half of the race, and couldn't make up ground already lost to bad luck, bad strategy or bad pit work. Getting swept into a wreck basically turned a 15th-place finish into 35th place, but a bad result like that doesn't matter as much as it used to because Johnson is already locked into the Chase, thanks to his win at Atlanta.
Bob Pockrass, ESPN.com: I wouldn't call it the worst race of his career, but it would rank among them. I'd say his worst was his two wrecks in 12 laps at Loudon last year. He finished 42nd. But what went wrong Sunday at Martinsville? He got nudged by teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the opening lap and then the power steering disappeared on a good but not great car. And then he got caught up in a wreck. Those days don't happen often because usually Johnson is out front, not racing among the troubled.
Marty Smith, ESPN Insider: As I think back over Johnson's career, I feel like his worst race was Homestead in 2005, just before the legendary milk-and-cookies meeting with Chad Knaus and Rick Hendrick. If you've not heard that story, it's a doozy. Johnson and Knaus were done. They'd had enough of each other. The No. 48 team was upside down and inside out, trust was slim, and Johnson had grown weary from trying to play myriad roles to keep it all glued together: moderator, coach, motivator. So after the season, Hendrick called a meeting with Johnson and Knaus, and entered the room with a Mickey Mouse plate full of cookies and some milk -- to insinuate driver and crew chief been acting like children -- and demanded they wake up and realize the special union they were and the legends they could, and would, become. Either hash out your egos right now -- all of it, nothing out-of-bounds -- or we'll sit here all day and have milk and cookies until you guys are ready. Difficult topics were broached, like work ethic and toughness and trust and desire. It was necessary. And it worked -- as shown by the six titles they've won since. In that 2005 Homestead race, the team radio was downright toxic, especially after Johnson blew a right rear tire and handed the championship to Tony Stewart. Martinsville on Sunday was bad, but far from the worst race of his career.
Turn 2: Which organization should have a happy first weekend off? Which organization is most worried about the weeks ahead?
Craven: I would vote for Ganassi -- the issues with Kyle Larson require time. Time to evaluate, time to understand the risks, time to expose him to the environment of competing in some other form of racing to help dismiss any concerns with returning to Cup competition. Drivers as a rule demand control. They thrive on it. Not having complete control of your health, or in this case an understanding of why you fainted, and could it happen again, has the potential of creating unneeded distraction. The extra week will hopefully give Larson and the No. 42 team the time to resolve this.
McGee: Joe Gibbs Racing really, really needed to have the kind of weekend that it did at Martinsville. So did Toyota as a whole. If not for Carl Edwards' flat tire, JGR would have had all four cars in the top 10. Denny Hamlin said it best -- this win and this weekend gives them a cushion and the ability to work on some very large problems between now and the start of the Chase. That head start should help the entire team, not just Hamlin. On the flipside, there is no cushion for Roush Fenway Racing, and I'm betting there will be no spring break, either. There's no way around it. -- they are awful. How off are they? We'll know at Texas. If they are bad there, a place they used to be able to run well almost automatically, then ... yeesh.
Oreovicz: Joe Gibbs Racing can enjoy Easter for a number of reasons. Denny Hamlin's win at Martinsville ended an extended winless streak for the team, and it provided a bit of joy at a somber time in light of J.D. Gibbs' battle with a brain function disorder that is affecting his cognitive ability and speech. It's another week of healing time for Kyle Busch, too. Conversely, Roush Fenway Racing looks no closer to being competitive than it was last year and it appears that rebuilding one of NASCAR's top teams over the past 20 years could be a lengthy process.
Pockrass: Furniture Row Racing has a happy weekend off with top-10 finishes in every race. Team Penske (except its Australia bureau) has a very happy weekend off following a weekend in which it won an IndyCar race and an Xfinity race and came in second in the Cup race, building on a Cup program that has only one finish outside the top 10 in the first six races. The team that's the most worried is Roush Fenway. They've been awful. They debut a new car at Texas, and they had better hope it's an improvement.
Smith: Team Penske should be thrilled. Both drivers have earned victories and earned places in the Chase. Both have been fast and relentless everywhere. Penske has tremendous momentum as an organization right now. On the other hand, Roush should be worried. They're not good. And good is a long road from here.
Turn 3: What should Chase Elliott take away from his Sprint Cup debut?
Craven: All Martinsville did for Chase Elliott was introduce him to 500-lap races, and confirm what he already knew -- that it takes a near-perfect weekend to perform and contend. The same requirements exist at every level Chase has competed. But at the Sprint Cup level, the margins between a good and bad day are the thinnest. He knows qualifying sets the tone for the weekend. He knows he must learn the on-track personality of each driver in the series. He also knows, by virtue of teammate Jimmie Johnson's bad day, that no matter how good a driver you are, you can't overcome a poor-handling car!
McGee: That he has officially gotten the pre-race hype of that first Cup start out of the way. The remaining six will be easier because he can just go to work without the spotlight following him around until Daytona next year. He told me race morning that his goal was to get in as many laps as possible and be running at the end. That's what he did. He finished after getting wrecked, but he still did it.
Oreovicz: That the road to the storybook ending sometimes has bumps and twists, and that great careers often have humble beginnings. Jeff Gordon finished 31st in his Cup Series debut race; Jimmie Johnson was 39th. Even Richard Petty crashed out of his NASCAR debut, classified 17th out of 19 runners. Elliott logged 427 laps of priceless experience in a Cup car in racing conditions, and he'll be much more prepared for his next start in the big league.
Pockrass: That's what races that last 3 hours and 49 minutes feel like. Unfortunately, he spent plenty of time in the garage, so he didn't even really get to feel that. He should take away that as he rode around logging laps after spending significant time in the garage, that his teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. had to do the same thing. Sometimes it happens.
Smith: The reminder that no matter how blessed and fortunate your life is, the top of any profession is humbling. The work is incessant. It never rests and it does not choose arbitrarily. It demands investment and reciprocal respect. That's what's so cool about Elliott. He already knows all of this. He's 19 years old, with a 40-year-old soul. Great kid. Great perspective. Just go look at his post-race tweet. It's all you need to know.
Turn 4: Which substitute driver has done the most for his career over the past few weeks: David Ragan, Brett Moffitt, Chris Buescher or Regan Smith?
Craven: David Ragan and Regan Smith have done a nice job under difficult circumstances, and they've given their teams the reliability they were seeking. So I believe there is a greater curiosity about Brett Moffitt and Chris Buescher as it relates to their potential. Both are young and have avoided competing with the carelessness often associated with a young driver "wanting it right now." In January, I would have said that I can certainly envision these two drivers in the Cup series three years from now. Today I'm even more intrigued by the two.
McGee: You could make an easy argument for all four, especially Smith, who has done what he's done in a couple of different rides and finished 16th at Martinsville with less than 12 hours' official notice. But I think if you polled NASCAR fans six weeks ago with the question "Have you ever heard of Brett Moffitt?" 99 percent of the fans would have answered no. Ask that question today and the majority would say yes. That's what you call "building one's brand."
Oreovicz: Moffitt's eighth-place finish at Atlanta stands out, but his other results haven't come close. Ragan did a nice job to score a top five at Martinsville on a weekend when the Gibbs Toyotas were clearly competitive. Smith has been remarkably consistent, with three 16th-place finishes and a 17th, but more impressive is the way Buescher brought the Front Row car home 20th and 24th in his first two Cup Series starts. Perhaps the most important thing is that none of them has done anything to hurt their chances of landing a better future ride, but I'll give the nod to Buescher.
Pockrass: After Atlanta, Moffitt would be the obvious pick. But now six races in, it appears Buescher is just elevating his status as a wheelman. He finished top 20 in his first start at California and then 24th at Martinsville. He beat both of his Front Row teammates at California, and then beat David Gilliland at Martinsville. That's pretty impressive. Roush might not want him to keep running that Front Row car -- the more Buescher runs and puts up those numbers for an underfunded team, the more another team with deep pockets will want him.
Smith: Moffitt. He blew onto the national stage with an eighth-place run at a difficult Atlanta track. Afterward, those that know him said that we finally knew what they've long known -- the kid has some chops.