Jimmie dominates Martinsville for his eighth win at the track
Apr. 7, 2013
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
MARTINSVILLE, Va.—Jimmie Johnson made eight the easy way.
Leading
346 of 500 laps in Sunday's STP Gas Booster 500 at Martinsville
Speedway, Johnson racked up his eighth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at
the .526-mile short track and
the 62nd win of his career. For the second straight event at
Martinsville, Johnson won from the pole.
Clint Bowyer ran second, followed by Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch.
The
first repeat winner through six 2013 Cup races, Johnson regained the
series lead by six points over sixth-place finisher and defending
champion Brad Keselowski.
If a
victory at a short track can ever be called a walk in the park, Johnson
enjoyed a Sunday stroll from start to finish. At no point in the race
did he run below fifth.
"I
think the fact that we had just such a calm weekend was the biggest
part," Johnson said. "It's easy to start chasing things here and get
yourself off track. We always race
well, and fortunately here you pit a lot and you can make big changes
to your race car to get you in the ballgame.
"We've
won races where we were just terrible to start the race, having no fun.
(Crew chief) Chad (Knaus) is throwing spring rubbers in the car and the
track bar is coming up
or down, wedge in and out, all those huge, huge changes, and we get
ourselves in contention.
"I
don't know where we were - someone said the worst I was on the track
today was fourth [actually, fifth]. We just executed from the first laps
in practice to where we were
at the end of the race, and that was fun. We weren't chasing a setup or
track conditions or a variety of things that we've done in the past."
Danica
Patrick ran 12th in her first visit to Martinsville, her career-best Cup
finish at an open-motor race track. Patrick was the top finisher from
Stewart-Haas Racing.
NASCAR
red-flagged the race on Lap 487, after the brakes failed on Kurt Busch's
No. 78 Chevrolet SS and sent the car hard into the Turn 1 wall. The car
rolled along the fence,
spewing flames from beneath the hood.
Busch
had the presence of mind to trigger his fire extinguisher before the
exited the car and climbed from the driver's-side window apparently none
the worse for the flames.
After
the stoppage, Johnson led the field to a restart on Lap 493 with Bowyer
beside him in the outside lane. But Johnson pulled away over the final
eight laps to beat Bowyer
to the finish line by .628 seconds.
To say
that Hendrick Motorsports in general and Johnson in particular have a
handle on Martinsville is a massive understatement. Johnson gave owner
Rick Hendrick his 20th Martinsville
victory, breaking a tie with Petty Enterprises for most ever at the
paper-clip shaped speedway.
"There's
just certain tracks where the drivers that Hendrick has had over the
past, as well as now—and just our race cars—it just really suits that,"
said Gordon, who had a
strong car on long runs but couldn't keep up with his teammate over the
short haul. "Qualifying up front really can be huge here.
You get
a driver like Jimmie and a team like the 48—or ours as well, or the 15
(Bowyer)—you put them on the pole in that No. 1 pit stall (closest to
the exit from pit road),
and it's going to be really, really hard to beat them."
Bowyer's
winning chances suffered a blow during an 11-car incident on Lap 180.
As caution flew for a crash on the backstretch, Bowyer ran into Jamie
McMurray's Chevrolet, which
had checked up suddenly off Turn 4, and was clobbered from behind by
his Michael Waltrip Racing teammate, Martin Truex Jr.
Bowyer had been strong in practice but qualified 15th and felt the mediocre performance in time trials had hurt him.
"I
qualified bad, got ourselves back there, got it wrecked—got it tore up
on both ends," Bowyer said. "You get up there, and you're door-to-door
with the 48 that's been enjoying
clean sailing all day long, you look at him, and it's ready to go back
to the next short track.
"Mine
is all tore to hell and ready to go put a new body on it. You know what
you're up against. You want to say, 'Bad luck,' and everything else,
but you make a lot of your
own luck. We did a lot of things well this week but missed it in
qualifying and ultimately paid the price."
Patrick,
who started the race at the rear of the field because of an engine
change, restarted 20th from the outside lane on Lap 369 and promptly
dropped five spots as cars
in the inside lane freight-trained her.
But
Patrick patiently and methodically drove back to the 17th position and
was running there when Brian Vickers cut a tire and spun on Lap 448 to
cause the 10th caution of
the afternoon.
The
yellow gave drivers a much-needed opportunity to pit for new tires. Out
first after the stops, Johnson led the field to green on Lap 459 with
Gordon beside him. Yellow
flew again shortly when chain-reaction contact between Vickers, Patrick
and Dale Earnhardt Jr. sent Earnhardt spinning in Turn 4.
Johnson
passed Earnhardt as the driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet tried to re-fire
and right his car, putting Earnhardt a lap down. Earnhardt finished
24th and fell from first
to third in points, 12 behind Johnson, his Hendrick Motorsports
teammate.
Notes:
The 346 laps led are the most for Johnson in a single race in his
career. Johnson also became the seventh driver in Cup history to lead
2,000 or more career laps at
Martinsville. His total now stands at 2,327. ... Despite fighting the
handling of his No. 11 Toyota for much of the afternoon — and despite a
snafu on pit road when he left before his left-front tire was mounted -
Mark Martin salvaged a 10th-place finish subbing
for injured Denny Hamlin.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race - STP Gas Booster 500
Martinsville Speedway
Martinsville, Virginia
Sunday, April 07, 2013
1. (1) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 500, $209471.
2. (15) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 500, $159693.
3. (6) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 500, $146446.
4. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 500, $112385.
5. (11) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 500, $145278.
6. (7) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 500, $141586.
7. (13) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 500, $116915.
8. (2) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 500, $118134.
9. (22) Greg Biffle, Ford, 500, $102070.
10. (35) Mark Martin, Toyota, 500, $104420.
11. (3) Brian Vickers(i), Toyota, 500, $95850.
12. (32) Danica Patrick #, Chevrolet, 500, $83125.
13. (21) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 500, $128711.
14. (8) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 500, $120591.
15. (9) Carl Edwards, Ford, 500, $121500.
16. (41) Casey Mears, Ford, 500, $111133.
17. (26) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 500, $127375.
18. (29) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 500, $92025.
19. (16) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 500, $113716.
20. (34) Aric Almirola, Ford, 500, $121436.
21. (31) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 500, $107133.
22. (18) Regan Smith(i), Chevrolet, 500, $104808.
23. (4) Joey Logano, Ford, 499, $110758.
24. (17) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 498, $96650.
25. (20) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. #, Ford, 498, $127311.
26. (14) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 497, $108789.
27. (37) JJ Yeley, Chevrolet, 497, $81250.
28. (30) David Gilliland, Ford, 496, $92608.
29. (39) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, 495, $90222.
30. (23) David Ragan, Ford, 493, $89950.
31. (10) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 492, $114458.
32. (36) Ken Schrader, Ford, 492, $79650.
33. (33) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 492, $76925.
34. (43) Joe Nemechek(i), Toyota, 491, $76800.
35. (42) Josh Wise(i), Ford, 488, $76750.
36. (24) David Stremme, Toyota, Electrical, 485, $76700.
37. (19) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, Accident, 457, $102961.
38. (40) David Reutimann, Toyota, 457, $71850.
39. (25) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, 436, $75850.
40. (12) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 385, $95925.
41. (28) Scott Speed, Ford, Rear Gear, 64, $59850.
42. (38) Scott Riggs, Ford, Brakes, 47, $55850.
43. (27) Michael McDowell, Ford, Brakes, 26, $52350.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 72.066 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 38 Mins, 58 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.627 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 12 for 85 laps.
Lead Changes: 12 among 5 drivers.
Lap
Leaders: J. Johnson 0; M. Ambrose 1; J. Johnson 2-72; T. Kvapil 73; J.
Johnson 74-90; Kyle Busch 91-102; J. Johnson 103-221; M. Kenseth
222-242; J. Johnson 243; M. Kenseth
244-264; Kyle Busch 265-308; M. Kenseth 309-362; J. Johnson 363-500.
Leaders
Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): J. Johnson 5 times for 346
laps; M. Kenseth 3 times for 96 laps; Kyle Busch 2 times for 56 laps; M.
Ambrose 1 time for 1 lap;
T. Kvapil 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 12
in Points: J. Johnson - 231; Brad Keselowski - 225; D. Earnhardt Jr. -
219; Kyle Busch - 203; K. Kahne - 199; G. Biffle - 199; C. Edwards -
193; C. Bowyer - 179; P.
Menard - 179; M. Kenseth - 172; J. Logano - 167; J. Gordon - 164.
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