Notebook: Johnson takes responsibility for big wreck

Notebook: Johnson takes responsibility for big wreck


LONG POND, Pa.—Sunday’s Pennsylvania 500 isn’t likely to thaw the icy relationship between four-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and 2004 Cup champ Kurt Busch.
On Lap 165, Johnson’s attempt to bump-draft Busch on the Long Pond straightaway went awry, and Busch turned into the outside wall before slinging back across the track and through the infield grass. Elliott Sadler’s Ford was collateral damage in the incident, and Sadler took a brutal hit when his car plowed into the inner guardrail and the berm behind it.
“I came up to bump-draft him and push him along down the back straightaway,” Johnson said. “So, we did make some contact. He was already wobbling, and I bumped him, and then it (Busch’s No. 2 Dodge) was wobbling some more, then eventually it did a lazy turn to the right and into the wall.
“I certainly feel bad. I’m glad the No. 19 (Sadler) is OK. I understand he took a heck of a hit. Last thing I wanted to do was cause a wreck or crash the No. 2 or anything like that. I feel bad about that, but we were all just racing real hard down the back.”
Understandably, Busch, who finished 33rd, took a dim view of the incident.
“I got wrecked on the straightaway,” he said. “Jimmie Johnson drove straight through us.
Johnson wasn’t surprised by Busch’s assessment.
“Kurt isn’t very fond of me,” Johnson said. “He never has been. I think when he has a chance to take a shot at me, he’ll probably do so. But certainly nothing intentional, and if he’d like to talk about it, I’m more than willing to talk about it.”

Strong pit work helps Stewart
Polesitter Tony Stewart didn’t get his first win of the season Sunday, but fast work on the part of his pit crew helped him surge to a runner-up finish in the closing laps.
Stewart was the first car with four new tires off pit road after a stop under caution on Lap 167. After 13 laps under yellow, punctuated by a 17-minute rain delay, Stewart restarted 11th behind 10 cars that had taken either two tires, fuel only, or—in the case of Sam Hornish Jr.—hadn’t come to pit road at all.
In the final 21 green-flag laps, Stewart charged to the second spot as Greg Biffle ran away with the race.
“I thought we were going to be in bad shape when we had to come in for the four there at the end,” Stewart said. “But our guys did a great job of getting us out first car on four tires out of the pits, and that got us the opportunity to get by some of the guys that took two tires or no tires there at the beginning of the run.
“From there, we were just able to race hard with (third-place finisher) Carl Edwards and the 77 (Hornish) and (Kevin) Harvick (fourth). It was a fun day.”

Short strokes
It’s no secret that Richard Childress Racing won’t be fielding cars in the Nationwide Series next year. In fact, RCR has been helping to support Morgan Shepherd’s racing program with its Nationwide equipment. RCR general manager Mike Dillon said Sunday at Pocono that future Nationwide efforts would be run through Kevin Harvick Inc. … Tom Westman, season 10 winner of CBS’ “Survivor” reality show, spent Sunday as an honorary crewman for Clint Bowyer’s No. 33 Chevrolet. Westman, a 20-year veteran of the New York City Fire Department currently employed as an account executive at The Hartford (Bowyer’s sponsor for the race), appeared in support of the Hartford 200 program.

By Reid Spencer

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(August 1, 2010)