Team Extends Points Lead at Martinsville
Jimmie Johnson extended his lead in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship to 118 points over Mark Martin by finishing second in Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series event at Martinsville Speedway.
Johnson started the 500-lap event 15th and quickly showed the field how good the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet was by cruising into the lead in under 60 laps.
The runner-up finish is Johnson’s ninth top-five result in his last nine starts at the half-mile track. It is also his 15th top-10 in 16 career starts there.
After taking the lead for the first time on Lap 59, Johnson went on to lead five more times for a total of 164 laps. But when Denny Hamlin passed the Lowe’s Chevy on a long green-flag run late in the race (Lap 363), Johnson was never able to regain the top spot.
He concentrated on a hard-charging Juan Pablo Montoya and teammate Jeff Gordon in a series of late-race restarts to hold on to the runner-up finish.
“Yeah, it went well for us,” said Johnson. “At times had a really fast car and the best car. The last run or two at the end the 11 had their stuff right. I was just a little too loose to do anything with him. Over the long haul we were probably the second best car the last two or three stops and finished where we should have, so I’m happy with that.
“I was nervous with those restarts at the end,” continued Johnson. “I hoped that I might have a chance to get by Denny, but at the same time being stuck in that outside lane there was so much too lose, I was really nervous about just getting to the bottom and protecting the position I was in. All in all, a good day. I wish we could have won, but we just didn’t have anything for the 11 on that last run.”
Hamlin led the final 139 laps for the win. Montoya, Kyle Busch and Gordon rounded out the top five.
Johnson now leads Martin (-118), Gordon (-150), Tony Stewart (-192) and Montoya (-200) in the Championship standings with four races remaining.
The Sprint Cup Series circuit will now travel to Talladega Superspeedway for the next event on the schedule.
Team Lowe’s Racing has Perfect Weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway
Jimmie Johnson and Team Lowe’s Racing pulled off the perfect weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, leading all three practice sessions, earning the pole position Thursday evening (by posting the fastest qualifying lap of any Sprint Cup race this season) and leading 92 of 334 laps on the way to Victory Lane in Saturday night’s Sprint Cup Series event.
This is Johnson’s sixth win at the hometown track and his first since 2005. He has extended his Championship lead to 90 points over Mark Martin.
“It is a big boost,” said Johnson, the first driver to ever win three of the first five races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. “We’ve taken a lot of pride in the years to run well here in everyone’s backyard. The fact that Lowe’s is our sponsor and the track sponsor has always been something cool to win and celebrate and spend that moment with the Lowe’s executives in victory lane has been special, and to do it here for the last race that the track is sponsored by Lowe’s is cool. Glad to be back.”
When the green flag waved high above the 1.5-mile track, Johnson shuffled his way around the top 10. He remained there for most of the event, but eventually found himself upfront.
The No. 48 Lowe’s Impala led the race five times for a total of 92 laps (more than any other car), including the final 14, where Johnson pulled away from Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne for his 46th career win.
“We really struggled trying to get things right,” explained Johnson. “Trying to get the balance right on the short-run, the long-run. I thought the No. 9 (Kasey Kahne) had this thing in the bag. On that last pit stop on when it came to the restarts we had what we needed for five or six quick laps. This thing was fast. It worked.
“The perfect weekend which is what Chad (Knaus) always wanted to do. Win every practice, qualifying and the race and we got it.”
Kenseth, Kahne, Gordon and Joey Lagano followed Johnson to the finish line.
Johnson now leads Martin (-90), Gordon (-135), Tony Stewart (-155) and Kurt Busch -177 in the Championship standings.
Next weekend’s event at Martinsville Speedway will be the sixth of 10 races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Johnson has won five of the last six races at the half-mile Virginia track, including last fall’s event.
First-place finish at California leads Team Lowe’s to Top of the Chase
Jimmie Johnson held on during a frantic finish to Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway to earn his fifth win of the season. He now leads the standings in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
Johnson started the race third and maintained top 10 position throughout the day. He battled Juan Pablo Montoya for the lead early in the race and swapped the top position with teammate Jeff Gordon several times in the closing laps.
“It is such a long race and so much takes place,” said Johnson, who led 126 of 250 laps on the way to his 45th career win. “Just a solid day all along. I’m so proud of this Lowe’s team. I’m so thankful to Lowe’s for allowing me to put the (Jimmie Johnson) foundation on the side of the car. Man what an awesome car and what an awesome day. Those cautions at the end really had me nervous. I just didn’t know what to do on the restarts.”
While there were only three cautions in the first half of the event, the yellow flag waved five times in the final 65 laps, including an eight-car accident that brought out the red flag with six laps remaining.
When the race restarted for the final time, there were three laps to go. Johnson lined up on the inside of Gordon and led the field to the green flag.
After several tight double-file restarts, Johnson had no problem the final time, cruising away from Gordon and Montoya and crossing the finish line 1.603 seconds ahead of Gordon.
“The restarts were really tough because it’s such a long straightaway and the draft is so important that the guy who is in the second row really controls who ends up with the lead going into Turn 1,” explained Johnson. “So I was doing it wrong for a while and finally on that last restart I got it right and we had such a good car that I felt like if somebody did pass me I could get back by him in a couple of laps. So with the green-white-checkered at the end I had to get it right and luckily I did.”
Johnson is now in first place in the standings, 12 points ahead of Mark Martin.
“That’s awesome,” said Johnson. “That’s what we wanted. Keep chipping away at it but obviously there’s a lot of racing left. We’re in good shape. My home state, Jimmie Johnson Foundation on the side of the car, fans are going crazy, I can’t thank them enough. I’m just really, really happy.”
The next stop on the Sprint Cup Series circuit is Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Johnson and Team Lowe’s, Finish Ninth at Kansas
Jimmie Johnson finished ninth in Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series event at Kansas Speedway. He remains second in the driver standings, now 18 points behind leader Mark Martin.
After starting from the 11th spot, Johnson moved quickly into the top 10 and the Lowe’s team made minor adjustments throughout the day to help tune in the Kobalt Tools Chevrolet. On Lap 62 Johnson took the lead for the first time and led for a total of 53 laps, consistently battling Greg Biffle for first place.
Around the halfway point of the race, Johnson brought the 48 Chevy down pit road for four tires, while many of the leaders only took two. It sent Johnson back to the track in 11th spot, putting him in dirty air and making it tough to pass.
“We had such a good car we felt like four was really the way to go,” said Johnson. “We certainly lost some track position and were in dirty air. I don’t know, something happened. We were so fast the run before. I had come through traffic a couple of other times. Then the car was really tough to drive, edgy and all over the place so I’m not sure what happened. We’ll have to get home and look at the car and see what is going on there. It could have just been the track position. So many guys took two and we took four.”
He continued to battle for top-ten position throughout the event but was never able to make a charge and finished ninth.
“There at the end, we were just trying to get some track position back and I just didn’t have the speed that I had the start of the race and had lost a couple of more spots,” explained Johnson. “At the end of the day, we finished ninth and that isn’t too bad. We hate to see guys we are racing in points ahead of us but that’s the way it goes.”
Tony Stewart picked up his first win of the Chase by beating Jeff Gordon to the finish line. Biffle, Juan Pablo Montoya and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five.
Next weekend’s race at Auto Club Speedway (Fontana, Calif.) will be the fourth of 10 races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Johnson is the defending race winner of that event.
