Jimmie Johnson on Pace for His Best Season Ever After 4th Win of 2015 at Dover

Reality has to slap you in the face sometimes to get your attention.

Sunday was that kind of day for me—and I'm betting a lot of others like me.

Sure, Jimmie Johnson came into the FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks having won a record nine races at Dover International Speedway, plus three races thus far this season.

But for the most part, this has been a season where much of the focus by fellow reporters and many NASCAR fans has been on drivers other than Johnson.

We’ve thought about things like Jeff Gordon’s final year in NASCAR; Joey Logano winning the Daytona 500; Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. having 12 top-10 finishes in 13 races (after Dover), including Harvick now having seven runner-up showings; Kurt Busch's legal and domestic woes.

Jimmie Johnson? Well, he’s just kinda been there. Jimmie being Jimmie.

But with the way he won his 10th career race at Dover and his fourth race overall this season, it hit me after the race just how significant Johnson’s season to date has been.

Think of it: In 13 races, he’s won four times. And he’s not even warmed up yet.

At the rate he’s going, J.J. is mathematically on track to win 10 to 12 races this season, which could surpass his all-time single-season high of 10 wins back in 2007, when he would go on to win the second of what would be five consecutive Sprint Cup championships.

Perhaps we’re so used to the kind of excellence we’ve seen from Johnson this year that we take it for granted.

Suddenly, after win No. 4 on Sunday, Johnson—and what he’s done thus far this season—isn’t just larger than life; he could be back to making more history in what has become a legendary NASCAR career.

And with Johnson just 39 years old, it’s a legendary career that is still far from over.

Up until now, it would be a long shot for Johnson to win title No. 7—if not title Nos. 8, 9 or even 10.

But when you win over 30 percent of the first 13 races, that’s not just saying something—it’s saying something big.

In fact, if Johnson can keep up the pace he’s currently running at, 2015 could ultimately become the greatest season he’s ever had.

Sure, he’s had several spectacular seasons en route to some of his six championships. But the Johnson we see today is much more laid-back, confident and motivated than he's ever been at any point in his racing career.

Yes, he may be from Southern California, so being laid-back is a natural resource he was born with. But in interviews, as the attentive observer could attest, Johnson is arguably in the best place he’s ever been in his racing life to date.

And that’s the most dangerous kind of Johnson—someone who makes the hard look easy, who turns the potentially impossible into a walk in the park. And it's someone who is far from being done.

At the rate he’s going, Johnson will hit 100 wins and potentially eight or nine championships in the next three or four years.

That is both exhilarating as well as scary—scary good, that is. And after what he did at Dover, Johnson has everyone scared that he’s only scratched the surface this year.

And the scariest thing of all? There’s still 23 races left!

Follow me on Twitter: @JerryBonkowski.