Jimmie Johnson visualizes laps before sleeping

Jeff Gluck | USA TODAY Sports

CHARLOTTE -- Jimmie Johnson likes to fall asleep while driving.

OK, so Johnson isn't actually behind the wheel when he starts snoozing. But every night when he climbs into bed and goes to sleep, Johnson pictures himself making laps at whichever track is next on the Sprint Cup Series schedule.

With a seven-point lead over Matt Kenseth with two races remaining in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the five-time champion has been picturing Phoenix International Raceway's 1-mile oval instead of counting sheep this week.

"I've run a lot of laps for Phoenix so far in my mind," he told reporters Tuesday during an appearance at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. "Some of those (preparation) things will never change. They're just the way I'm wired and the way I feel good about preparing for each race."

Johnson's high school swimming coach encouraged him and his teammates to visualize their laps in the pool before each meet, which included counting the number of strokes from one end to the other. When it comes to turning laps on the track, Johnson adopted that approach for NASCAR – and to great success.

Why mess with what works? Since he entered NASCAR's top level full-time in 2002, Johnson has won 66 races – a whopping 30 more victories than the next-closest driver, Tony Stewart, in that span.

Visualization is particularly useful when it comes to getting up to speed quickly, Johnson said. When drivers show up for practice two days before a race, their first lap is often the fastest.

"You can't show up and be like, 'Oh yeah, that's right -- that's what you do here (to get around the track),' " Johnson said. "You dig through your notes and start running laps so when you show up, you remember."

During the week, Johnson meets with his team for a debrief of the most recent race and a refresher on what's next. The detailed notes taken by the team include what Johnson could do better to get on and off pit road, what line he ran last time and what changes to the car made it faster during the race.

Johnson takes that information and puts it in his mental computer, then starts running laps.

One thing the visualization doesn't include?

Anything like hitting the wall – which Johnson did last year at Phoenix after blowing a tire. The incident cost him the championship lead after he entered the race leading by seven points – the same lead he has this season.

Brad Keselowski won the title instead.

"You don't want anything negative in there," Johnson said of the visualization. "Honestly, sometimes I'll visualize where a problem area would be. And if I don't make the corner as clean as I want, I'll start over at the start/finish line until I can work my way around and complete a clean lap."

Johnson's techniques haven't changed over the years because he remains as motivated as ever. After overcoming what he called a "steep learning curve" while transitioning from off-road dirt racing to stock cars, everything finally clicked when he got to the Cup Series in only his fifth year of racing on asphalt.

The prior adversity, he said, "really helped me get ready for now and helped me appreciate and respect the opportunity I've been given."

"I'm not racing just to do this one thing and move on," he said. "I'm racing because I love the sport and it's what I want to do.

"Man, I worked so hard to finally be good at something that I'm not going to stop anytime soon. I finally got here. I'm not going to stop."