Johnson

As little attention it seemed Jeff Gordon got this Speedweeks, his teammate Jimmie Johnson got even less.

Part of that was because even Gordon thought Johnson's car left something to be desired.

"Jimmie's car is not ..." Gordon cut himself off before saying what almost everyone in the garage already thought.

Jimmie's car is not as fast.

Or was it?

Johnson watched as Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip dominated Speedweeks coverage. He watched as the Richard Childress Racing cars of Jeff Green, Kevin Harvick and Robby Gordon joined them.

He watched as Tony Stewart and even Gordon got a little love in the "who's going to run well" predictions of the media and fans.

Then, he let everybody else watch as he led the Daytona 500 at a stage when everyone seemed to sense it was near the end.

Rain had fallen at the race track all day -- already stopping the race for more than an hour a little past the 60-lap mark. It was on its way, and coming fast, when a caution flag came out at lap 95.

Waltrip was leading the race, with Jeff Gordon and Stewart running up high, too. The three pitted when the caution came out and took two new tires, as well as refueling.

Meanwhile, Johnson's crew chief -- Chad Knaus -- made the gutsy call to only refuel. When all of the pit stops were finished over the next two laps, Johnson's six-second stop earned him a spot at the front of the pack for the restart on lap 106.

And still the rain was coming quick.

"We knew that we were probably going to be racing to halfway or somewhere thereafter," Johnson said. "Chad's idea was to keep putting tires on the car, take the penalty early with track position.

"When it came down to the end, we could be in position to do two tires or no tires, depending on what was going on and how much fuel we needed.

"Chad called an awesome race. It played into our hands. It worked out. We were in the lead."

But being in the lead and in the situation he was in actually did not bode well for the No. 48 Chevy driver, after all.

Johnson was followed by Stewart, Waltrip and Gordon -- in that order -- on the restart. Beside him was Earnhardt Jr., who got to start on the inside of the track because he was one lap down.

Now, Johnson hasn't established himself as a great drafter, yet. Plus, he was restarting at the top of the track when everyone seemed to run best at the bottom.

So when the race restarted, Waltrip found a spot to sneak in right behind his teammate Earnhardt Jr. Johnson might have been able to rival that tandem, but as it turned out it was Gordon's car that couldn't keep up with Johnson's after all.

"It's lonely up there when you look in front of you and there's two DEI cars ..." Johnson said. "I wish that Jeff was able to be up there with me. Unfortunately, things didn't work out for him. I guess he had a scary moment with the 20 (car of Stewart's)."

Without Gordon to help him, nobody else was willing to stick it out. One by one, they dove down into Waltrip's line and left Johnson hung out. He dropped backward through the pack.

"Fair or not fair," Johnson said of everyone leaving him, "I knew what the situation was going to be."

Rather than call it quits, though, Johnson found the back of Kurt Busch's No. 97 Ford and followed it back up to the front. Waltrip won the race, Busch finished second and Johnson, despite getting kicked to the back three laps before the race would be called, finished third.

"You never know what you're going to get at a restrictor-plate race track," Johnson said. "I'm just happy to leave here with my car straight. This was a good run for us."

A run everybody was watching by the end of the day.

Rupen Fofaria covers NASCAR for The Raleigh News & Observer and is also a regular contributor to ESPN.com.