Team Lowe’s Picks Up Fourth Consecutive Championship
Jimmie Johnson clinched his fourth consecutive Sprint Cup Series Championship by finishing fifth in Sunday’s event at Homestead-Miami Speedway, becoming the first driver in NASCAR’s 60-year history to accomplish the feat.
“I am just blown away by the things we’ve been able to accomplish over the last eight years in the sport,” said Johnson following the race. “Obviously the last four years have been just unbelievable. To love the sport like I do and respect it like I do, and the history, the pioneers of this sport from Bill France, Sr., to the Petty family, you go through many eras up to Mr. Hendrick and what he’s done over the last 25, to look at all of that and to have done something that’s never been done in the sport before is so, so amazing and something I am so proud of.
“I’ve always set my marks high and really wanted to try to set high marks and all those kinds of things, but I had no clue this stuff would happen,” continued Johnson. “(I’m) just so honored, so happy, so fortunate.
Crew Chief Chad Knaus extended his crew chief record for consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championships to four. In 2008, Knaus set the record with three consecutive Cups.
“I’m really excited,” said Knaus. “Man, what a fantastic job by this team this year. I can’t say enough about the way that the guys worked. They really focused on what we needed to do to get into the Chase, get ourselves in position to be able to go out there and try to battle for this championship. I couldn’t be prouder of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. To have three cars in the top 5, that’s pretty amazing.
“I think that with Lowe’s and Hendrick Motorsports behind us, I think we can go into the next few years comfortable and aggressive and be able to get after it. We’re very fortunate to have Lowe’s and sign those guys back up. Jimmie just signed back with HMS for a few more years, and that’s a great thing. I think we’ve got some good stuff coming in the future. I’m really, really excited about it. Our team is stronger than it’s ever been. It’s a bit of a dream.”
Heading into the 267-lap race, Team Lowe’s Racing led second-place Mark Martin by 108 points and had to finish 25th or better to clinch. Johnson started the race first, ran in the top 10 throughout the event and led two times for 28 laps on the way to his 16th top-10 finish of 2009.
Martin took the checkered flag 12th and finished 141 points behind Johnson in the final point standings.
Johnson has 18 Chase wins in 60 Chase races, a winning percentage of 30%. The next highest number of Chase wins by a driver is six. In this season’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Johnson collected four wins, seven top fives, nine top-10s and had an average finish of 6.8. Johnson finished the 2009 season with seven wins, 16 top fives and 24 top 10s.
“It is unbelievable,” said Johnson. “Four championships in eight years. 47 wins. Everything this team has done is truly amazing. I know that the fans and everybody respects what this race team has done. I can’t wait where this race team ends up. We’ve got a lot of racing ahead of us. I know that we are solidly in the record books. But I know we have a lot more to accomplish.”
Johnson, Team Lowe’s, Earn 47th-Career Win in Phoenix
Jimmie Johnson earned his 47th-career victory on Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway, extending his lead in the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship to 108 points over second-place Mark Martin.
Johnson dominated the 312-lap race Sunday, leading 238 laps to win for the fourth time in the last five races at Phoenix. It was his seventh victory of the season, and fourth since this year’s start of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.
“First of all I have to thank this race team for having the strength and mental attitude and everything that they do to bounce back last week, to show up and put a butt-kickin’ on everybody today,” said Johnson. “Very proud of Chad and the guys. Great stops, great car. At the start of the race we were a little loose but still running second and third.
“When we put new tires on, the car came to life and then we had a couple of small adjustments that really, really helped it. I could get out to a nice comfortable lead and ride and protect what I had and work my way through traffic. Not with ease, but better than the other guys. We had a great finish.”
Johnson now needs to finish 25th or better next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway to grab a spot in NASCAR’s record books, becoming the first driver to ever win four consecutive championships.
“That’s a great position to be in,” said Johnson. “We finished 38th last week so I can’t put my guard down. Anything and everything that could go wrong last week did. Going into this next week we just need to show up and race smart and do our thing.”
Martin is the only driver still in mathematical contention to catch Johnson. Once Johnson starts the race at Homestead, Jeff Gordon will no longer be able to catch him.
“Obviously one more race to go,” explained Johnson. “We saw in Texas anything can happen so we don’t need to get too excited about things. One-o-something is better than 73. I’m very excited about it and I hope all the employee owners at Lowe’s are excited. We’ll see what we can do.”
Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin, Mark Martin, and Martin Truex Jr. followed the Lowe’s Chevy to the finish line.
Johnson now leads Martin (-108), Jeff Gordon (-169), Busch (-211) and Tony Stewart (-285) in the Championship standings with one race remaining.
The Sprint Cup Series will visit its last stop on the circuit next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The event will be broadcast live Nov. 22 on ABC beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Rough days ends with 38th-place finish in Texas
Jimmie Johnson started 12th in Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway but was involved in a Lap 3 accident and credited with a 38th-place result. He is now 73 points ahead of Mark Martin in the point standings.
“It was definitely not the day we wanted,” said Johnson. “We did not want to lose points like that. Luckily we had a big margin. We’re going to two great tracks for us here and we’ll just keep racing. We’ve been saying all along that anything can happen, I just wish the Sam (Hornish) could have waited a little while longer before he hit something. Instead, he lost it and hit me and off we went.”
When Johnson took the green flag, he quickly began moving through the field and passed a couple of cars in the first two laps. But as the Lowe’s Chevy went three-wide and moved to the outside of Sam Hornish on Lap 3 to take a top 10 position, Hornish’s car was tapped by David Reutimann who was on the inside.
That forced Hornish to become loose and he made contact with the left side of Johnson’s machine, sending him scurrying up the track. Johnson managed to avoid contact with the outside wall, but crossed back down the 1.5-mile oval and slammed into the inside retaining wall on the backstretch.
Crew chief Chad Knaus called Johnson to the garage area where the team went to work on the No. 48 Impala SS, including replacing the front and rear suspension as well as the drive shaft.
Johnson spent an hour and eight minutes in the garage before returning to the track, over 100 laps down.
“I just played back through the crash (while sitting in the garage) and what happened and if I could have done anything differently,” explained Johnson. “I could have maybe given him more room, but I would have had a more direct angle at the wall and would have hit the outside wall.
“So, when I think back, I was just hoping he’d get out and hoping there would be some cautions and we could make up some spots and the first report Chad (Knaus) gave me wasn’t good. He thought we were going to have to put the car on the truck because it was so torn up. So, as time went on I could see their spirits lift and I knew we could at least get back out on track. I started to focus on things I needed to.”
Johnson went on to pick up six spots in the remaining laps, finishing 38th.
“It’s just one of those things,” added Johnson. “There’s not a lot we can do about it. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The guys did a great job to get this car back out on track to pick up some more spots. And we’ll go to Phoenix and race.
“We’ve got two great race tracks for us (coming up, Phoenix and Homestead). We didn’t want this by any means but we’re still in a great position and we’ll go to Phoenix and race.”
Kurt Busch went on to win the 334-lap event, moving to fourth place in the point standings.
Johnson now leads Martin (-73), Jeff Gordon (-112), Busch (-171) and Tony Stewart (-178) in the Championship standings with two races remaining.
Team Lowe’s Finishes 6th at Talladega; Extends Points Lead
Jimmie Johnson once again extended his lead in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship by finishing sixth at Talladega Superspeedway.
Johnson started the race from the pole position after qualifying was canceled for weather and the field was set by driver points.
Shortly after the race began, Johnson found himself riding in the back of the pack after green-flag pit stops put him off sequence with the leaders. He remained there for most of the race until fewer than 20 laps remained, when he began to make a charge toward the front.
He barely avoided a late-race crash on Lap 184 of 188 that took out five cars and left the No. 39 machine of Ryan Newman resting on its roof as emergency workers cut him out. He had no injuries.
Crew chief Chad Knaus sensed a lengthy delay and called the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevy down pit road for fuel. When cars ahead of Johnson began to run out of gas because of the red-flag period, Johnson moved up on the track, restarting 11th when the green-flag waved.
The field was forced to a green-white-checker restart when a 13-car accident took place on the final lap, leaving Johnson with a sixth-place result.
“I feel good about things,” said Johnson. “I am very, very happy. I hate to see so many (torn) up cars and the big wreck that took place, but for us what really made the difference, obviously we were conservative all day long. But (crew chief) Chad’s (Knaus) decision to take fuel; there were just a few of us that took fuel, and we had the wreck and the red flag. At that point guys just started running out of fuel.
“The caution came back out and waved off the restart a few times,” added Johnson. “Then more guys ran out and hit pit road. And we went from 25th up to, I think, 11th before we took the green. We had some good moves I made through that opening lap to get up to speed and all that kind of thing. I was far enough ahead to not be caught up in the (final) wreck – because at least the car on the outside of me and right behind me was cleaned out.”
Jamie McMurray went on to be the unlikely winner, followed by Kasey Kahne, Joey Logano, Greg Biffle and Jeff Burton.
Johnson now leads Mark Martin (-184), Jeff Gordon (-192), Juan Pablo Montoya (-239) and Tony Stewart (-279) in the Championship standings with three races remaining.
“I’m not going to let up and lose focus of the job I need to do and allow the championship to be in the forefront of my mind until it’s mathematically locked out” said Johnson. “I can lose 165 points next week if I miss a shift and blow the engine at the start of the Texas race and Mark (Martin) has a perfect day.”
“So with all that in mind, yes, I am feeling much better about things,” Johnson continued. “I was so concerned about this race. I thought I was going to lose points with about three or four to go. So to have it turn around and lead with points over the guys, I didn’t expect it. Very, very good situation we’re in. But I just can’t stop doing what I do… Racing will reach up and bite you at any point and anything can happen.”
The next stop on the Sprint Cup Series schedule will be Texas Motor Speedway.
