Team Lowe’s Grabs Top-5 Finish in Phoenix

In Saturday night’s race at Phoenix International Raceway, Jimmie Johnson reminded everyone why he had won four of the past five races at the one-mile track by earning his ninth top-five finish in 14 starts. Johnson finished third after a wild race to the finish under a green-white-checker flag.

Johnson started the event from the 16th spot after what he called a loose handling race car in qualifying.  But the championship driver didn’t stay mired in mid pack for long moving the Lowe’s Chevrolet to ninth place by Lap 17.

Johnson’s car would mainly stay tight in the center and get loose off in the first part of the race. Chad Knaus and the 48 crew performed flawless pit stops and made adjustments throughout the early going to correct the condition. By Lap 150 Johnson had passed Juan Pablo Montoya for the lead.

He maintained the top spot for much of the mid part of the race, leading four times for 113 of 375 laps. However, as the sun set Johnson began to lose some of the handling of the car. After radioing in that the back of the car was on top of the track a little too much, Knaus commented that the conditions were cooling off and that was likely the reason for the change in feel.

The crew made slight adjustments to the track bar in the final 100 circuits but Kyle Busch was able to hold off Johnson until the closing laps when a caution caused by the 90 car forced the field into a green-white-checkered finish.

“We had a decent night all night long,” said Johnson. “Worked our way up through the pack.  Got to the lead, held on to the lead for a long time.  As the sun went down and stayed down the temperature kept dropping.  We got a little behind on our adjustments.  Definitely not bad, but the 18 came to life and was the strongest car this last maybe two runs, I guess it was. So we were just chasing him and trying to work on our stuff and make it better.  I was excited to see the caution come out because it was an opportunity to win.”

Knaus radioed to Johnson asking whether he wanted to take four or two tires. Johnson called for four. As he exited the pits, six cars were ahead of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevy, having taken two tires. Johnson restarted seventh and was able to battle his way through traffic to a third-place finish.

“I made the call for four tires,” continued Johnson. “It’s the first time that I can remember in a long time that I actually said what I wanted for a pit stop, with the way Martinsville played out and Bristol and last night’s (Nationwide) race.  I knew with the green white checkered there weren’t a lot of laps, but I felt we might get a caution with everybody racing so hard. So I made the call for four and made the most of it.  We got from seventh to third and just did what we could.  So not a bad night at all.  Excited to see us stretch out the points a little bit and get another top-five finish here.”

Johnson expands his hold on the top spot in the point standings, now 36 points ahead of Matt Kenseth and 92 ahead of Greg Biffle.

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.

Lowe’s Chevrolet Earns Fourth-Straight Top-Five at Phoenix

Jimmie Johnson earned his fourth top-five finish in as many weeks Saturday night by crossing the finish line fourth at Phoenix International Raceway.

He finished third, first and second at Bristol, Martinsville and Texas, respectively.

Johnson started the 312-lap race 10th, but fought a loose race car early. As the evening went on and the sun set over the track, Johnson’s Lowe’s Chevrolet got better and he was able to tick off times close to the leader.

But a lug nut issue on pit road was the setback Johnson didn’t need while seeking a fourth-consecutive win at the one-mile oval.

“We had some issues with lug nuts falling off due to the glue that was used,” explained Johnson. “Every time we would make up a bunch of spots and get up there in the thick of things, we would come down pit road and have a problem with those lug nuts falling off.”

“We drove up to the top-five, top-three a few times, came down pit road and had something going wrong,” added Johnson. “It happened like three times. Track position is so important here. I’d work my way all the way back up there and then it would happen again.”

Johnson fell as far as 26th but managed to drive back to a fourth-place finish, allowing him to remain second in the driver standings, and almost halving his point deficit to leader Jeff Gordon.

“We had a decent car at the start, it maybe faded a little, but after that we were really strong,” said Johnson. “That time we got up to fourth I really think we had a shot at winning if we didn’t have the lug nut issue, but this is racing and everything and anything will happen. Fourth is where we ended up.”

“At the end of the day, it was a good day in the points,” continued Johnson. “We fought hard for it all night. It says a lot to have a great race car like we did and pass that many cars. It is too bad we didn’t get our fourth, but our teammate got a victory.”

Hendrick Motorsports grabbed its sixth straight win at Phoenix International Raceway with Mark Martin picking up the victory. It was Martin’s first win since Kansas in 2005.

Hendrick Motorsports has also won the last three races - Martinsville (Johnson), Texas (Jeff Gordon) and Phoenix (Martin).