Jimmie Johnson: 5-Time Champ Must Win Daytona 500 for Success in 2012

Five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson will need a strong start and a win at the 2012 Daytona 500 if he is to right the ship after being dethroned for the first time last November by Tony Stewart.

Johnson will start eighth in "The Great American Race," and look to pick up where he left off during Thursday's Gatorade Duel when he finished third in the second of two post-qualifying races at Daytona International Speedway.

Wins were hard to come by for Johnson and the Lowe's team last season. 2011 was the first time in Johnson's 10 full seasons in the Sprint Cup that he failed to win at least three races. The result was a sixth-place finish in the Cup Chase standings, which was also the worst finish in 10 full seasons for Johnson.

Johnson's 13th-place average start last season was also the worst since his first full Cup season back in 2002, when his average starting spot was 14th. As already mentioned, Johnson will start toward the front in the top 10, so poor starting position should not be too big a factor.

A strong top-five or top-10 finish is one thing, but getting to victory lane will be another story, as Johnson's last February victory at Daytona Beach came in 2006, the same year he would claim his first points championship.

Johnson and the No. 48 team need a spark, and there is no greater way to start a season and ignite a spark than to outlast a vicious field of 42 at the Daytona 500.

Few things have changed for the 36-year-old veteran of NASCAR, the same old voice will be in his head during this race and all season long, that of his crew chief Chad Knaus.

The paint scheme on the No. 48 Chevrolet will look identical to that which he won five Cup titles in and of course his Hendrick Motorsports connections will benefit him throughout in the form of dependable teammate drafting hook-ups and an elite engine primed to go the distance.

The only thing that has changed is the mystique of Johnson. He proved beatable last season, and now he must shut the door on the competition at Daytona if he is to make his way back to the top in 2012.