Long Pong, Pa. ? Jimmie Johnson didn’t want to sound like a rookie popping off.

“We’ll be a contender,” he said when asked if he expects to win Sunday at Pocono Raceway.

After winning five days ago in his first Winston Cup start at difficult Dover International Speedway, little seems beyond Johnson’s grasp as he drives through what could be the greatest rookie season in stock-car history.

In the last month, Johnson has posted victories at Dover and at California Speedway. He also had great cars in Richmond, Va., and Concord, N.C., but made costly mistakes.

“I blew it,” he said. “I can’t blame anybody but myself. I wrecked in one and flew through the pits in the other, so it’s just as easy to lose them as it is to win them.”

Still, Johnson has led the most laps for the most miles, has the most poles and is tied for the most wins among all Winston Cup drivers this season. Not bad for a rookie with a rookie car owner four-time series champion and teammate Jeff Gordon and a rookie crew chief.

Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus began the season with modest goals. They wanted to finish in the top 15 in points, an excellent showing for a first-year team.

Now, that seems inevitable. Johnson is second in the series standings, 136 points behind leader Sterling Marlin entering the Pocono 500.

“We didn’t even expect to be running in the top five until the second half of season,” Knaus said. “We’ve already had a better season than some people have had careers.”

With 23 of 36 races remaining, Johnson needs only one victory to match Tony’s Stewart rookie record of three in 1999. Stewart finished fourth in points that season to establish the benchmark for a first-year driver.

“I’m amazed that it’s come this early,” Johnson said. “I’ve won three poles and two races. I’ve been driving my butt off.”

Castroneves waits, prepares for Texas

Fort Worth, Texas With his Indianapolis 500 victory on appeal, Helio Castroneves prepares to race at Texas Motor Speedway, where last year he was involved in another controversial ending.

Before owner Roger Penske moved his team to the IRL this season, Castroneves was in the rival CART series, which ended its only appearance at TMS with an unprecedented race-day cancellation in April 2001 because of concerns for driver safety.

“I’ll guess the controversy follows me,” Castroneves said, the always-glowing smile slipping through his words.

Saturday’s Boomtown 500 is the IRL’s first race since Castroneves won his second straight Indianapolis 500 two weeks ago. The IRL ruled he was still ahead of Paul Tracy when a yellow flag came out on the next-to-last lap.

Tracy’s team is appealing the decision. The CART regular, who had rapidly closed in on Castroneves in the final laps at Indy, claimed he completed the pass before the caution came out for a crash.

In Texas, Castroneves will try to keep Scott Sharp from becoming the first IRL driver to win the same race three years in a row. Sharp has won the last two summer races at the 11/2-mile track in exciting fashion.

Villeneuve has struggled at Canadian Grand Prix

Montreal The Canadian Grand Prix hasn’t been very hospitable for native son Jacques Villeneuve.

Since finishing second to Damon Hill in his 1996 debut on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, the track named after his late father, the former Indianapolis 500 winner and CART and Formula One champion has been hard pressed even to finish.

In fact, in his five starts since that runner-up performance, the only time Villeneuve has been running at the end of the race, he finished a distant 10th in 1998.