Johnson breaks winless streak with dominant victory at Charlotte
May 25, 2014
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
CONCORD, N.C.—Jimmie Johnson wasn’t worried—really.
Though
fans and pundits of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing seemed inordinately
concerned about Johnson’s “drought,” the six-time series champion said
repeatedly that a victory
would come.
Sunday
night it did. Driving a No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet that led a
race-high 164 laps, Johnson beat Kevin Harvick to the finish line at
Charlotte Motor Speedway
by 1.272 seconds to win the Coca-Cola 600 for the fourth time.
The
victory was Johnson’s seventh at CMS, breaking a tie with Bobby Allison
for most victories at the 1.5-mile track in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
points races. Johnson’s 67th
career win, eighth most all-time, broke an 11-race winless streak to
start the season, matching the longest such drought of his career.
“It’s
great to win, but believe me—and I promise you—all the hype and all the
concern and worry, that was elsewhere,” Johnson said. “That wasn’t in my
head… We’ve had great
races, and we’ve had opportunities there in front of us and had stuff
taken away.
“And we’ve had bad races. I have to be honest about that, too.”
But Johnson also conceded that the mystique of the 48 might be back.
“Yeah,
they know we’re awake,” he said. “In winning, it doesn’t matter who you
are. The 4 car (Harvick) has had that momentum this year. They’ve been
able to go out and execute
and show a lot of speed and win.
“Hopefully, the 48 is heading that way, and we can get those other people thinking about us.”
Behind
Johnson and Harvick, Matt Kenseth ran third, followed by Carl Edwards
and Sprint All-Star Race winner Jamie McMurray. Brian Vickers, Jeff
Gordon (who drove with an aching
back), Paul Menard, Kyle busch and Brad Keselowski completed the top
10.
Before
he could nail down the win, though, Johnson had to pass Kenseth after a
restart on lap 384 of 400. After taking the green flag, Kenseth opened a
lead of more than one
second before Johnson began to track him down.
Johnson
dispatched Kenseth on Lap 392 and pulled away to a comfortable margin.
Kenseth ceded second place to Harvick before he reached the checkered
flag.
“You
race as hard as you can for these wins,” said Kenseth, who, like
Johnson, entered Sunday night’s race without a victory to his credit
this season. “You hate it when you
can’t hold on and win it. There’s no more I can do about it.
“We were in position. I did everything Icould possibly do and got beat. It’s just the way it goes sometimes.”
From
Harvick’s point of view, the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team lost an
opportunity to win in a car that was at least the equal of Johnson’s.
Harvick brought the No. 4 Chevy
to pit road on Lap 263 for an unscheduled stop to deal with loose
wheels.
“Yeah,
we had a fast car all night,” Harvick said. “Just kind of fumbled again
on pit road. Got behind, got a lap down. We needed a 700-mile race to
get back to where we needed
to be.
“We left two wheels loose and played catch-up the rest of the night. We’ve got to clean pit road up.”
Kurt
Busch’s Indianapolis 500/Coke 600 double ended early when the engine of
the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Chevrolet erupted on Lap 273 to cause the sixth
caution of the evening.
Busch
finished sixth in the Indy 500 earlier in the day but completed just 271
laps (406.5 miles) at Charlotte, leaving his car owner, Tony Stewart,
as the only driver to complete
all 1,100 miles of the same-day double.
“To
feel the stock car right after driving the IndyCar is a day I’ll never
forget,” said Busch, who finished 40th. “I can’t let the mood here, with
the car, dampen what happened
up in Indy today. That was very special.”
Notes:
Jeff Gordon retained the series lead by 11 points over Kenseth… Danica
Patrick started fourth but lost positions with handling issues. She was
the victim of a wreck
on Lap 235, but that wasn’t the worst of her troubles. On Lap 286, the
engine in Patrick’s no. 10 Chevy expired, and she retired in 39th place.
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