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.
Team Lowe’s Racing Dominates at Dover
Jimmie Johnson dominated Sunday’s Sprint Cup event at Dover International Speedway, starting from the pole and leading 271 of 400 laps on the way to his 44th-career victory.
When the green-flag waved over the one-mile concrete oval, Johnson immediately reported a much more “stable” Lowe’s Chevrolet from the previous day’s practice. While he had to work with a loose car early in the race, Johnson never fell below 11th and quickly worked his way back to the front.
“Qualifying Friday went really, really well for us,” said Johnson. “Yesterday, we could post a decent lap, and I could slide the car around the corner and run some okay times. But I was a little nervous yesterday after practice, and knew that we needed to build some comfort in the car. If I was in traffic, I was going to really have my hands full.”
“Last night we went through some options and talked about changes,” explained Johnson. “After that Chad worked on a few ideas and talked with Greg Ives and got back with me later in the night. The suggestions he mentioned just kind of hit something in my stomach, and just hit me inside like that is what I need. …So I woke up this morning very optimistic. And by about lap two or three I knew we had a very balanced car, and we’d be competitive all day long, get a solid finish.
“I wasn’t sure it would go as well as it did and lead as many laps and all that kind of thing. But I had a good sign, good indication early that we were going to be competitive.”
Johnson ended up leading the 400-lap race three times for a total of 271 laps, including from Lap 176 to 400.
“You know, obviously it was a great day for us,” said crew chief Chad Knaus. “Jimmie did a fantastic job. He really manned up today. He did a really, really good job of handling the car. The thing that’s always encouraging to me is everybody pictures Jimmie as a calm guy and very fluid with the steering wheel, and very fluid with his inputs. I think he really enjoys coming here because this is a place you have to get up on the wheel, and chew on the steering wheel and be aggressive, and tell the car what to do.”
“It was all Jimmie today,” added Knaus. “Pit crew did a solid job. We did a decent job making adjustments, but it wound up in Jimmie’s hands. He made it fantastic.”
The win moves Johnson to a tie with Bill Elliott for 14th on NASCAR’s All-Time Wins list.
“That’s so cool,” said Johnson. “It really, really is. I can remember growing you and watching Bill in that No. 9 car. And to be able to be that high in the record books and to be with the greats in the sport, it means a lot to me. It’s something that I really never thought would take place, and it’s something I’m experiencing now and the emotions and the thoughts that come with.
“So it’s a great honor. An exciting thing for me is I feel like there is a lot of racing left in me and a lot of competitive racing. I can keep climbing that ladder and be higher up there in the record books.”
Johnson’s five wins at Dover also tie him with David Pearson for victories at the track, behind Richard Petty and Bobby Allison who each have seven. Additionally, he has the most Dover wins of any active driver. Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon have four each.
“We’re just going to have to do what we can,” said Johnson. “There is no free lunch in this sport, and especially racing Mark Martin. You’re going to have to earn every point. And you know, we’ve closed up a little bit on him today. There’s eight more to go.”
“I’m excited to see that we’ve gapped some of the other chase contenders,” continued Johnson. “Might not be exciting for the fans and everybody else, but the bigger gap we can put between us and those guys to single out the cars, the easier my job is. That’s what I hope we can keep doing.”
Martin followed Johnson to the finish line to finish second. Matt Kenseth, Juan Pablo Montoya and Kurt Busch rounded out the top five.
Next weekend’s event at Kansas Speedway will be the third of 10 races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Johnson is the defending race winner of that event.
Johnson, Team Lowe’s Dominate at The Monster Mile
Jimmie Johnson dominated Sunday’s Sprint Cup event at Dover International Speedway, leading 298 of 400 laps on the way to his 42nd career win.
But it was a final 26-lap dash to victory that showed the tenacity of Johnson and the No. 48 Kobalt team.
After leading the event eight times for 295 laps and closing in on the win, a caution flag waved on Lap 365 for debris. Johnson led the field down pit road for four tires and adjustments but a slow pit stop placed him ninth when he returned to the track. Crew chief Chad Knaus assured Johnson that he had a car capable of driving back to the front and off Johnson went.
“Unfortunately we had a little hiccup on the last pit stop,” said Knaus. “We felt like we were going to come down pit road leading and be able to leave third or fourth with four fresh tires (behind those who took two) and make quick work of the guys ahead of us. Unfortunately we came out I think it was eighth or ninth and really had to lean on Jimmie a little bit to carry us out, and he did a great job.”
“We were only beat by two cars that took four tires, so it was a small hiccup,” added Johnson. “There’s some guys that took two tires is really what put us back there.”
Because of the double-file restart, Johnson started on the outside of the ninth row and was forced to power his way through traffic to catch leaders.
On Lap 392, Johnson caught second-place running Greg Biffle and then set his sights on leader Tony Stewart. After a hard-fought four-lap battle for the lead, Johnson got around Stewart on Lap 398, going on to earn his fourth win at The Monster Mile.
“I was just trying to get what I could,” explained Johnson. “I didn’t want to make a mistake like I did in Las Vegas and tear the car up trying to get back to the front. And before I knew it I got by the guys that were on 4 (tires) and was in third place, and kind of stalled out for a lap or two and searched around and found a new line. I ran him down and caught the 16 as he was getting passed by the 14 so that helped me make quick work of him, and then set the 14 up and took a few laps.
“It took a lot of commitment to get to his outside. I wasn’t sure the car was going to stop sliding up the track. I thought it was going to hit the fence. Fortunately it grabbed just in time and changed directions and off I went and got alongside of him.”
Stewart, Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch followed Johnson to the finish line.
“When you can come to the racetrack and have a car that runs as well as what the Kobalt Chevrolet did today, it’s the days that crew chiefs dream of,” said Knaus. “We were real fortunate to be able to lead a lot of laps. We were very fast in practice and qualified respectably.
“The thing I’m probably proudest of is the fact that our car actually responded to the adjustments that we were making to it. We could make very minor adjustments as the track was changing and the track would respond. It was nice. It was really a good day, and obviously Jimmie did a fantastic job there at the end.”
The result moved Johnson up one spot in the driver point standings to third, 64 points behind new leader Stewart. Jeff Gordon fell to second. Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman round out the top five.
Hendrick Motorsports’ Mark Martin finished 10th, Dale Earnhardt Jr. 12th and Jeff Gordon 26th. Gordon was driving a backup car after he wrecked his primary in qualifying. Martin is 12th in the point standings while Earnhardt Jr. is 18th.
