Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, pits during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway on October 21, 2012 in Kansas City, Kansas.
(October 20, 2012 – Source: John Harrelson/Getty Images North America)

(PhatzRadio / USA Today) — CHARLOTTE — Just like his car chief Ron Malec — the man who wielded the magic orange mallet at Kansas Speedway — Jimmie Johnson never broke stride.

As about two dozen elementary schoolchildren pounded hammers — which were supplied by the primary sponsor of Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet, no less — with the vigor of a class of entry-level carpenters auditioning for a Frank Lloyd Wright project, a cacophony echoed through the NASCAR Hall of Fame that induced ear-splitting winces from a crowd of news media trying to interview the five-time champion in an alcove just above the din.

Johnson finally paused briefly to tease the small horde of reporters. “Is that killing you guys?” he asked. “That’s awesome.”

So this must sound pleasingly familiar, right? “Yeah, exactly,” he said with a laugh. “Ron was hitting it a heck of a lot harder than that. He was clobbering the car. I’m like, ‘Dude, you’re going to break something else! Stop hitting it so hard!’”

The repair job that saved the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s bid for a sixth championship was a source of laughter Tuesday, but the mood was quite serious Sunday when Johnson spun after leading 44 laps at Kansas.

With the rear of his car crumpled, his title bid seemed to be crumbling. Instead, Johnson rebounded for a ninth that sent a message to points leader Brad Keselowski and the rest of the Chase for the Sprint Cup field that the No. 48 still has the mojo that carried it to five consecutive titles from 2006 to 2010.

“It was a gut check for sure,” said Johnson, who kept the gap to Keselowski at seven points with four races remaining. “It was a great reflection of where our stress level is. If it were at a higher level, we wouldn’t have had the patience or room to stay calm.”

It wasn’t how his team might have reacted a year ago. After a 2011 Chase imploded in a wave of snippy radio exchanges, Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus vowed to treat each other with more deference this season and work constructively toward solutions when the chips were down.

The new attitude was validated at Kansas. Rather than rashly dispatch his crew to the garage for lengthy repairs after the crash, Knaus kept the driver on track to assess the damage. As Johnson drove by the team’s stall, Malec’s eagle eye spotted that the car’s deck lid mounts remained intact, meaning it could be fixed in the pits without losing a lap.

After several stops, a few strips of heavy-duty bare bond tape and many well-placed whacks by Malec’s hammer, Johnson’s season had been rescued from the brink.

“It would have been very easy to have things ramp up and make poor decisions,” he said. “That’s where we were last year in the Chase. We were hanging on, trying to keep pace, didn’t have it and get frustrated. So when something small would come along, it was easy to overreact and just be pissed. This year it’s far different.”