Team Takes Points Lead with 9th-Place Martinsville Finish
Jimmie Johnson earned his 16th top-10 finish in 17 starts at Martinsville Speedway with a ninth-place result in Monday’s rain-delayed race.
The result propelled Team Lowe’s Racing to first place in the point standings, 14 ahead of second-place Greg Biffle.
Johnson started the event from the third spot after rain washed out Friday’s qualifying session and the field was set by driver points. When the green flag waved, Johnson began battling a loose Lowe’s Chevrolet, but it quickly took a turn and became tight, a condition he would fight throughout the race.
As the laps ticked off, Johnson maintained top-five position on the track as the Lowe’s crew went to work during pit stops. They continued to work on the free condition but Johnson remained tight throughout the race, falling as low as 13th.
Team Lowe’s Racing was running eighth and looked to be closing in on a top-10 finish when Jeff Burton brought out the yellow flag with seven laps remaining. Crew chief Chad Knaus opted not to pit and Johnson lined up sixth, on the outside of row three, when the race restarted.
Johnson wasn’t able move down the track to the inside line and lost several positions before a final caution flag waved with two laps to go.
With a green-white-checkered finish looming, Johnson lined up 11th and set his sights on a top-10 finish. When the race resumed, Johnson battled his way around the track for two frantic laps.
“It was chaos,” said Johnson. “It is amazing the way these bumpers line up. Somebody four cars back can start pushing the guy four cars ahead if he just gets in there and stays in the gas. Looked like someone started pushing the No. 17 (Kenseth) the way that whole thing looked in front of me. I saw the No. 24 (Gordon) leave the bottom and we go in the next turn and the No. 17 was off the bottom. It looked pretty crazy from where I was sitting.”
Johnson escaped unscathed and crossed the finish line ninth.
“We were trying some stuff through the company, especially on the 48 car today,” explained Johnson. “We thought we would get it sorted out in practice and just came up a little short. Didn’t get enough time with our new ideas. Good race experience with it today and we know what we were trying here today will help us at other tracks down the road. In some respects you wish you could just come back with the same stuff all the time and have it work but this garage area doesn’t sit still. With the fast start we have had we wanted to be smart and try some things out. Ninth today was about it for us.”
The finish propelled Johnson to first place in the driver point standings, 14 points ahead of Greg Biffle and 16 ahead of Matt Kenseth .
Teams will enjoy an off weekend before heading west to Phoenix International Raceway for the next Sprint Cup Series event.
The April 10 event will be broadcast live on FOX beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET.
