Indications of vulnerability for NASCAR's Superman?

LOUDON, N.H. -- On the first day of NASCAR's postseason, Jimmie Johnson wakes up with an ability to bend metal with his mind. He reaches into the closet and pulls out the blue-and-red body suit -- you know, the one with the 'S' on the chest -- that he will wear underneath his driving uniform for the next 10 weeks. His toast and coffee make themselves. He leaps from the roof of his Manhattan apartment building, speeds through the clouds to New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and steps into a No. 48 car that he will pilot via mental telepathy to yet another Sprint Cup crown.

OK, maybe not. But that's the way it's seemed the past three years, as Johnson has dominated the Chase en route to three consecutive championships that have earned the 34-year-old a permanent place in the sport's pantheon.

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Jimmie Johnson talks about the confidence that his team has and his hopes for a fourth consecutive championship.

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He made up a 156-point deficit to win his first. He won four consecutive races to win his second. He built the largest advantage in the Chase's short history to win his third. There's something about this time of the season, when the point margins are narrowed and the pressures are at their highest, that transforms Johnson from a Hendrick Motorsports driver into the son of Jor-El.

And yet, as this year's Chase opens, there's something about Johnson that appears ... well, almost mortal. He didn't win the final two events of the regular season to seize momentum, as he did last year. He didn't lead the series in victories to enter as the No. 1 seed, as he did in 2007.

Now, he hasn't won since Indianapolis, almost two months ago. He's finished in the top 10 just once in his past six starts. He was clearly steamed after his 11th-place performance last weekend at Richmond. Is Johnson, whose quest for an unprecedented fourth consecutive title begins on Sunday, actually vulnerable?

"They seem a little bit off," said Brian Vickers, who enters the Chase in eighth place. "They do, and the question is, are they off, or has everybody else gotten better? Because in either instance they can appear to be off, even if they're the same and everybody else has gotten better.

"I think it's that a lot of teams have gotten better. Maybe they're a little off here and there, but I think that a lot of teams have just gotten better. The dominance that Hendrick had with the [new car] the first couple of years is starting to wane, and people are starting to catch up."

• Chase 4 History: A run for the record books (Continued)