Team Lowe’s Finishes 25th at Chicagoland
Jimmie Johnson finished 25th in Saturday night’s Sprint Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.
Johnson started the 267-lap event from the second position and quickly showed the strength of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet by grabbing the lead on the first lap. He went on to lead the first 92 circuits before attempting to pit for a green-flag stop on Lap 93.
As he rounded the 1.5-mile track, Johnson wasn’t able to get slowed down enough to make pit road and was forced to make another lap, losing the lead to Jamie McMurray.
Johnson found himself running third after the green-flag stops, but was still the fastest car on the track as he chased the first and second place cars. Johnson passed Martin Truex Jr. for second and was making the move on leader McMurray on Lap 129 when the yellow flag waved for debris.
McMurray and Johnson led the field to green when the race restarted on Lap 136 but just one lap later Johnson got loose racing with third-place Martin Truex Jr. and his Lowe’s machine spun across the infield grass.
“It was really just a racing thing,” explained Johnson. “He was trying to squeeze his way in between me and the white line. I came up off the white line a little bit and the air flow changed as he got close to me. I could feel it when he got close and it just started my car into a slide and at that point I was just hanging on and it finally turned around on me.”
Johnson was able to avoid contact and brought his Chevrolet down pit road for new tires and to have the grass cleaned off the splitter. He restarted 24th on Lap 140.
Johnson began his climb back through the field and moved into the Top 20 on Lap 169. But as the four-time champion rounded the track on Lap 174 he cut a right-front tire and made contact with the outside wall.
“… After (the spint) we were coming through the field and I felt like we could still salvage a top five or something and I cut a right front tire down and then just got in the wall,” explained Johnson. “I think between sliding through the grass and touching the wall, it messed up the body and the nose started dragging pretty bad for the final run or two.”
Johnson was forced to bring his car down pit road for new tires and lost two laps to the leaders because the race was still under the green flag. He reentered the competition 33rd and spent the remainder of the night battling his way through the field.
“At the beginning of the race we had a great race car and a thought we had a shot at a win tonight. But stuff happens and we’ll just come back in a couple of weeks,” said Johnson.
His 25th-place finish allowed him to remain third in the driver point standings, now 188 points behind leader Kevin Harvick.
