Disappointing Night in Charlotte for Team Lowe’s Racing
Jimmie Johnson finished 37th in Sunday’s 600-mile Sprint Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Johnson started the Memorial Day weekend event fifth and slowly worked his way to the front of the field during the first quarter of the 400-lap competition.
The Lowe’s Chevrolet took the lead for the first time on Lap 94 and went on to lead 36 laps before a Lap 166 incident halted his progress.
As Johnson rounded the 1.5-mile track, the back end of the No. 48 machine got loose and Johnson smacked the wall coming out of Turn 4. The caution flag waved and Johnson came down pit road for repairs to the right rear of his Chevrolet.
After several trips down the pit lane, Johnson found himself in 25th place and battling for position to stay on the lead lap.
But as Johnson circled the asphalt oval trying to regain track position, he found himself loose once again and lost control of the Lowe’s Chevy on the backstretch, making contact with the outside and inside walls, sustaining heavy damage and coming to rest on the grass.
Johnson made his mandatory trip to the infield care center while the 48 machine was towed to the garage by a wrecker.
While many assumed the night was over for the Lowe’s team, the crew went to work, replacing the front end of the Lowe’s Impala and sending Johnson back to the track on Lap 307 to gain as many points as possible.
Johnson maintained the minimum speed necessary and completed the remaining 93 laps, finishing 37th, 36 laps down.
“That first (incident) was just a racing deal,” said Johnson. “I got in the fence and did some damage and we were trying to recover from that and I was trying to run from the leader, trying to be respectful of the leader, and I had the leader on my tail. We made some big adjustments to the car and basically adjusted it to free it up there and I just spun out off of (Turn) 2.”
“We’re just racing,” added Johnson. “We’ve had some bad luck and made some mistakes. I’ll be back next week.”
Kurt Busch, who won last weekend’s All-Star event at Charlotte Motor Speedway, took home the victory. Jamie McMurray, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin and David Reutimann followed Kurt Busch to the finish line.
Lowe’s Racing Finishes 13th in All-Star Extravaganza
Jimmie Johnson commanded the NASCAR Sprint Cup All-Star Challenge Saturday night, leading a race high 56 laps and dominating two of the four total segments.
Johnson started the 100-lap exhibition race seventh after rain washed out qualifying and the field was set by order of the qualifying draw.
He quickly showed the strength of the Lowe’s Chevrolet by climbing through the field dominating the second and third segments of the four-segment event.
He led the 21-car field down pit road following Segment 3 where teams took a 10 minute break to make changes to the car and get prepared for a final 10-lap dash to the finish. Following the break, the cars made one pace lap around the 1.5-mile speedway before returning to pit road for mandatory 4-tire pit stop. Johnson returned to the track third.
“I was pinned down on the inside on that final restart. Really, the restart before that when we were leading and came off pit road third,” said Johnson. “Man, being at the head of the pack was so important and especially the outside lane for the first lap or two. I didn’t have that luxury; I was pinned on the inside and still had a great car. I just couldn’t get going on those first two laps kind of.”
Only green flag laps counted in the 10-lap segment, leaving plenty of time for action in the Saturday night extravaganza.
As Johnson raced around the oval trying to reclaim the top spot, teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were aggressively battling for real estate ahead of him. While Johnson cautiously tried to avoid any ensuing incidents, Kurt Busch snuck by him and moved to the lead.
“I knew mentally to be prepared that anything can happen at the end of this thing and I knew how important it was to restart in control of the field. I knew I lost that control when I came off pit road in third. I was needing a mistake and I almost had one when the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) and the No. 11 (Hamlin) got together. But I was so occupied watching them and got out of the gas, I wasn’t sure where they were going to go, then the No. 2 (Kurt Busch) came blowing by on the inside. That was my opportunity there and I was just maybe a little too cautious wondering where they were going to end up.”
On the second-to-last restart of the race, Kurt Busch picked the outside lane and took the green flag with Johnson beside him.
Busch pulled away again, but before the cars got back to the finish line, Johnson spun across the infield grass to put the race under yellow for the sixth time.
“That last time, knew we were coming to the white. Knew I had to clear the No. 11 (Hamlin) on the outside of me so I just kept my foot in it and I could feel them outside of me kind of pulling the back end of my car around but I said the hell with it, it’s the All Star race. Kept my foot to the floor and hoped that I made it off the turn and I didn’t. It turned around on me.”
Johnson didn’t make contact with anything, but came down pit road where the team cleaned the grass off the grill of the Lowe’s Chevy. He returned to the track as the last car on the lead lap, avoided trouble and brought home a 13th-place result.
Kurt Busch went on to win the event, followed by Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Hamlin and Tony Stewart.
Pit Road Penalty Relegates No. 48 to 16th-Place Finish
For the third time in a row at Dover International Speedway, Jimmie Johnson led over half the laps in the Sprint Cup Series event. But while the first two trips ended in Victory Lane, this one ended in disappointment after a late-race penalty on pit road forced Johnson to a 16th-place result.
Johnson started the 400-lap race from the fifth spot and took command early, grabbing the lead for the first time on Lap 24 and leading a total of 225 laps, the most of any driver.
Johnson spent much of his afternoon battling with eventual race winner Kyle Busch but was the class of the field and looked to be closing in on his seventh Dover win.
As teams made their final green-flag pit stops of the afternoon with fewer than 40 laps remaining, Johnson and Busch entered pit road together, in first and second places.
Following a speedy pit stop by the Lowe’s crew, Johnson exited his pit and pulled alongside Busch, barely edging past him to retake the lead off pit road. But as Johnson came up to speed on the one-mile concrete oval, NASCAR communicated to the team that the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet had surpassed pit road speed upon exit and Johnson was forced to return to the pit lane for a pass-through penalty.
“I had been leaving the pit box really good each time and there are some cues there from the spotter and we need to be able to calculate where we need to check up to be doing the right thing,” explained Johnson. “And evidently I just got out of the pits much better than I did any other time. As I got to my mark I heard my spotter and saw my lights and I was conservative because I didn’t want to make any mistakes in the end and I saw Kyle was going to beat me so I just kind of gave up that final segment off pit road and I got nailed.”
The penalty resulted in Johnson losing a lap to the leaders and he was never able to make up the lost positions.
“When I look back at the last few races I know the results aren’t what we want,” said Johnson. “But we were competitive at some of the tracks and we had bad luck at some of the tracks, and today we lead a lot of laps and ran up front so it’s a long season and there are tracks that are good for race teams and there are tracks that are bad for race teams and we knew coming here this would be good and next week at Charlotte is going to be another good one for the 48 team and hopefully we don’t leave a trophy behind there.”
Johnson’s 16th-place finish moved him to fourth in the driver point standings, now 131 points behind leader Kevin Harvick.
Frustrating Night at Darlington for Lowe’s Team
Johnson started the 367-lap competition 22nd and fell victim to two minor incidents early in the race before A.J. Allmendinger’s car slammed into the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet on Lap 180, totaling both machines and ending the night early for the Lowe’s team.
“I have to see where he even came from,” said Johnson. “All I know is last minute I saw a green bumper and it was a hard hit. Unfortunately, we had all kinds of issues tonight. Got caught up in all kinds of little small things, but still had a very fast race car and I think we could have salvaged a top-10, top-five finish today. It is too bad. Just wrong place, wrong time I guess.”
Johnson’s Lowe’s Chevrolet earned its ‘Darlington Stripe’ early when he made contact with the outside wall. On Lap 83, Johnson and Martin Truex Jr. tangled while trying to avoid a loose Greg Biffle.
Johnson visited pit lane several times throughout the night for repairs and was hoping to salvage a solid finish when he and Allmendinger made contact.
“We had a tough night and a bunch of small issues but we were still fighting through all that and there on the lead lap,” added Johnson. “Hopefully we were going to have a top-10 finish but we got slammed over there in (Turns) three and four.”
Johnson was able to maintain the second spot in the driver point standings, now 110 points behind current leader Kevin Harvick. Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth are 3rd-5th.
Johnson Fights for Top-10 Finish in Richmond
Jimmie Johnson and Team Lowe’s Racing fought a tough battle Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway, but ultimately came away with a 10th-place result.
Johnson started the race third but was challenged quickly by a loose condition in the Kobalt Tools Chevrolet during the first 50 circuits of the 400-lap race.
Crew chief Chad Knaus and the Lowe’s team worked diligently in the pits to make changes to the car but soon Johnson reported a tight feeling, one he would struggle with throughout the night.
Johnson shuffled his way throughout the top 10 for the majority of the event and was running fifth when the race restarted on Lap 177 following the third caution.
Johnson quickly reported the Kobalt machine to be tighter than the previous run and fell back in the pack during an ensuing 191-lap green flag period. But by the time green-flag pit stops rolled around on Lap 267, Johnson was running fourth, but still fighting a “tight-in-the-center” feeling.
A yellow flag eventually waved on Lap 378 and Johnson restarted 10th after coming down pit road for changes. Just three laps later another caution took place and the No. 48 Chevy returned to its pit to continue adjustments.
The Lowe’s Chevrolet restarted 13th on Lap 386 but had driven to ninth by the time the final caution came out on Lap 390.
When the final green-flag waved on Lap 396, Johnson took off, battling traffic and looking to maintain a top-10 position with four laps remaining. But as he and Clint Bowyer’s No. 33 car fought their way around the .75-mile track for the final time, they made contact, resulting in both cars spinning as they crossed the line.
“I guess a little bit of both to be honest with you,” offered Johnson when asked if he was frustrated or glad to have a top-10 result. “Tough night to earn points tonight where we had competitive speed, not dominant speed where we could run with leaders. There at the end, we had guys on tires and I wasn’t on tires and we were just fighting really hard for that spot. Clint (Bowyer) got inside of me off of four and I could hear him in the gas and I wasn’t going to let off. We touched tires and around we went and luckily, I don’t think anyone hit anything hard. Exciting finish for the fans.”
Johnson dropped to second in the driver point standings, 10 points behind current leader Kevin Harvick.
For the second race in a row, the Sprint Cup Series will be under the lights next weekend when they visit Darlington Raceway for a Saturday night event. The race will be broadcast live on FOX beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET.
