CONCORD, N.C. - On a day when 11 of the 12 drivers fighting to remain in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, had some sort of issue, Jimmie Johnson was the only one who completely stayed out of trouble Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Johnson took the lead on lap 175 of the 334 lap race, and went largely unchallenged the rest of the way to score the victory in the rain delayed NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Bank of America 500.
Even after losing the lead on the final pit stop, Johnson powered to the top spot around Matt Kenseth on the final restart to retake the lead and drive away for the win.
It marks the third win of the season for Johnson, and the 78th win of his career.
Johnson said while he wasn’t worried about winning again, he did know it was taking him and his No. 48 team too long to return to victory lane.
“When you drive for Rick Hendrick and have all the great people at Hendrick Motorsports working for you, the great support from Lowe’s and everyone in their stores and Chevrolet…..there are just so many great people behind us and that support us to make this happen. We knew we would get back. Yes, it was slower than we wanted it to be but to be here today and have this victory is great.”
The win also means Johnson doesn’t have to worry about the threat of elimination from the next round of the Chase going into Kansas and Talladega.
“Talladega for sure,” he said. “That is massive. I am so happy about that. So happy to be in victory lane with this guy with Chad Knaus (crew chief), we are a brotherhood on this No. 48 team and just so thankful for the friendship and the hard work. Same thing for everybody at Hendrick Motorsports we are really going to enjoy this.”
While Johnson celebrated in victory lane, his fellow Chase contenders wondered what might have been – chief among them his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Chase Elliott.
The Dawsonville, Georgia speedster dominated the early portions of the race, leading 103 of the first 114 laps. Elliott, along with several other Chase contenders, hit pit road during a cycle of green flag pit stops. That went against Elliott – and in Johnson’s favor – when Joey Logano hit the wall in turn two with a cut tire while leading.
That mired Elliott and several others in traffic, while Johnson – who had not pit during the cycle, won the race off pit road under caution. While Denny Hamlin took the lead on the restart, Johnson would stay near the front of the pack the rest of the race.
Elliott, meanwhile, worked his way back up towards the front after restarting in the ninth position. But while restarting on lap 256 after a caution, it all went south.
The trouble started when Austin Dillon, who had taken two tires under the caution to move to second place, was hit from behind by Martin Truex, Jr. Dillon’s car spun to the inside, making hard contact with the safer barrier.
Behind him, Elliott slowed to try to avoid the accident, but spun off the front bumper of Kyle Busch. Elliott’s No. 24 Chevrolet spun to the outside, making contact with the outside safer barrier before being hit by both Ryan Blaney and Paul Menard.
In all, 12 cars were involved in some way in the melee, resulting in a 10 minute red flag to allow for clean up.
When the dust cleared, Elliott’s day was over, as was fellow Chase driver Dillon, Menard and Greg Biffle.
“I think the No. 78 (Truex) was trying to push him (Dillon) and ended up getting him out of shape, and then I think the 18 (Kyle Busch) didn’t see it and ended up getting into me” Elliott said. “I tried to get off the brakes and get down to keep that from happening, but definitely unfortunate. We had such a good car and I am devastated that we didn’t get the result that the guys deserved. They gave me such a fast 3M Chevy and that is all you can ask for. We just have got to go and do more of that next week.”
“I am fine, it just sucks,” said Dillon. “We will have to work hard the next two weeks to get the points back. I felt like I got to third gear pretty clean and then the next thing – I feel contact and I am spinning through the grass. It’s part of it and we took two tires there and you know the risk when you get into it. You just hope that doesn’t happen obviously. I got to third without spinning the tires, and I felt like we got contacted. We will just go on to next week.”
For his part, Truex, Jr. wanted to apologize to Dillon and his team.
“I know they’re working hard and they certainly didn’t need me to turn them around on that restart,” he said. “I feel terrible about that. I was just trying to help get him going and just pushed way too hard so I just want to apologize to those guys and hopefully I can talk to Austin and make sure he’s okay with everything.”
Elliott and Dillon weren’t the only Chase drivers left shaking their heads after the race. Matt Kenseth had to come back from being sent to the rear on the start for an unapproved adjustment, then was penalized on the first set of pit stops on the day for a crewmember going over the wall too soon.
Kenseth worked his way back into contention, and had the lead on the final restart, but had to settle for second behind Johnson. Despite the setbacks, Kenseth said, it was a good day for the No. 20 Toyota team.
“Yeah, it was a great second,” he said. “I think this is one of the toughest tracks there is on the circuit to pass at. It was better during the day than it is at night and that’s a good thing, because we had to go to the back twice, so we were able to make up some ground and finish okay.”
Kyle Busch’s first problem came on lap 89, when a cut right front tire while he was running fourth sent him to the pits under green. He then came back from four pit road penalties and from his car being damaged in the lap 256 crash to finish in sixth.
Busch said he was a little surprised by the number of incidents on the day.
“Anything can happen – that’s why you’ve got to run these races, so am I surprised? A little bit. Am I shocked? No. We’ve just got to keep doing what we know how to do and luckily we had the opportunities to be able to battle back and work ourselves back in the position to where we can have a good strong finish.”
Brad Keselowski was hit with a pit road penalty on lap 67, but rebounded to finish seventh, while Kurt Busch finished eighth after being penalized for pitting too early on lap 260. Carl Edwards, who was also pinched for pitting too early, finished 12th.
Truex, Jr. appeared to be on his way to another strong finish, but saw it go away when his car stalled while leaving pit road after his final pit stop. He would finish 13th.
Denny Hamlin was running within one second of Johnson, and was hoping to mount a challenge for the lead when his engine detonated with just 26 laps to go, leaving him in 30th place at the end.
Pole sitter Kevin Harvick saw his race go away on lap 154 when an oil pump issue saw him slow on the track and head for pit road. At the same time, fellow Chase driver Joey Logano cut a tire, sending his Ford into the wall and bringing out a caution.
It would be the first of two problems for Logano, who would see his day end with a second crash on lap 116.
In all, five Chase contenders failed to finish the race.
Kasey Kahne would finish in third in the final rundown, with Ryan Newman fourth and Kyle Larson fifth.
Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top ten.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Charlotte Motor Speedway – Concord, NC
Bank of America 500 – October 9, 2016
1. (11) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 334.
2. (17) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 334.
3. (12) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 334.
4. (21) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 334.
5. (25) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 334.
6. (4) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 334.
7. (20) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 334.
8. (23) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 334.
9. (5) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 334.
10. (16) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 334.
11. (13) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 334.
12. (8) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 334.
13. (7) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 334.
14. (22) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 334.
15. (33) Aric Almirola, Ford, 334.
16. (26) Chris Buescher #, Ford, 334.
17. (31) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 334.
18. (27) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 334.
19. (32) Landon Cassill, Ford, 334.
20. (15) Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Ford, 333.
21. (35) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 333.
22. (30) Brian Scott #, Ford, 333.
23. (34) David Ragan, Toyota, 331.
24. (37) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 330.
25. (24) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 329.
26. (38) Jeffrey Earnhardt #, Ford, 328.
27. (36) * Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 327.
28. (39) * Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 321.
29. (40) * Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 320.
30. (9) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, Engine, 308.
31. (18) * Ryan Blaney #, Ford, 307.
32. (19) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, Accident, 258.
33. (3) Chase Elliott #, Chevrolet, Accident, 258.
34. (28) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, Accident, 258.
35. (14) Greg Biffle, Ford, Accident, 257.
36. (10) Joey Logano, Ford, 254.
37. (6) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, Accident, 252.
38. (1) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, Engine, 155.
39. (2) Alex Bowman(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 61.
40. (29) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, Accident, 61.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 134.929 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 42 Mins, 47 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.474 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 8 for 51 laps.
Lead Changes: 17 among 9 drivers.
Lap Leaders: K. Harvick 1-12; C. Elliott # 13-113; J. Logano 114-116; J. Johnson 117-118; D. Hamlin 119; J. Johnson 120-124; D. Hamlin 125-175; J. Johnson 176-213; R. Newman 214; Kyle Busch 215; C. Bowyer 216-217; J. Johnson 218-229; C. Elliott # 230; J. Johnson 231-253; C. Elliott # 254; J. Johnson 255-311; M. Kenseth 312-316; J. Johnson 317-334.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): J. Johnson 7 times for 155 laps; C. Elliott # 3 times for 103 laps; D. Hamlin 2 times for 52 laps; K. Harvick 1 time for 12 laps; M. Kenseth 1 time for 5 laps; J. Logano 1 time for 3 laps; C. Bowyer 1 time for 2 laps; Kyle Busch 1 time for 1 lap; R. Newman 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 16 in Points: J. Johnson – 3,045; M. Kenseth – 3,040; Kyle Busch – 3,036; B. Keselowski – 3,034; Kurt Busch – 3,033; C. Edwards – 3,029; M. Truex Jr – 3,028; D. Hamlin – 3,012; A. Dillon – 3,009; C. Elliott # – 3,009; J. Logano – 3,006; K. Harvick – 3,004; K. Larson – 2,109; T. Stewart – 2,106; J. Mcmurray – 2,084; C. Buescher # – 2,070.
