Jimmie Johnson screams on the radio, “You got to be kidding me” as he wins the NASCAR Banking 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Johnson started on the pole and landed in victory lane where Crew Chief Chad Knaus said to Johnson that it was a perfect weekend for the team. Johnson and the team set another record, no driver has won three of the first five Chase races. This sets Johnson with a 90 points lead over teammate Mark Martin.
The only night race of The Chase, proved to be a major turning point for several of the top twelve drivers. Drivers on the upswing, Johnson, teammate Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch. On the outs, Juan Pablo Montoya, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin.
In the cold, cold air of Concord, North Carolina track, Rick Hendrick teammates Johnson and Martin led our 43 drivers to begin an adventure of 334 laps on the track which would give up the shared trademark sponsor name of Johnson at the end of the season.
Martin would gain five bonus points on Johnson on lap one, only to be answered 5 laps later when Johnson took the lead for the next 30 laps. Martin would not lead again for the event. Martin kept himself in the top 10 for the first 100 laps, surviving three cautions that fell on the race within those laps.
Martin however ran into trouble on a restart after the fourth caution for a Kyle Busch solo spin on lap 121. Martin rear ended Juan Pablo Montoya, causing damage to the front end of the #5 Chevrolet as well as damage to the right rear of Montoya’s machine. Martin would fall out of the fight for the top positions as the team worked to correct the nose damage. Martin finished his day 17th for the efforts.
Johnson found himself leading the event 5 times for a total of 92 laps, netting the additional 5 bonus points for leading the most laps of the night.
The Lowe’s team led by Knaus would nail several pit stops to keep Johnson in front of Kasey Kahne, Hamlin and Gordon during key points of the race. One of those being a lap 290 incident after Max Papis blew his engine, where the team was able to get Johnson out inches in front of Kahne and Gordon for the last stop of the night.
Johnson would survive and additional three restarts where he proved he and his car were dominate to pull away from the field by more than 2 seconds. The closing laps of the event Johnson had clean air in front with no threat from behind as Matt Kenseth, Kahne and Gordon would battle each other for 2nd place.
Johnson crossed the finish line 2.3 seconds in front of Kenseth. Johnson set a new record with the three wins in the first five races of a Chase season. This could be the stepping stone for him to capture his fourth Championship, which in itself would be a record four in a row winning streak. Something that no other NASCAR driver has claimed.
Gordon started the event 9th. He would remain in the top ten for a majority of the race as well as leading 64 laps, which would be one of his better races of the Chase season. Gordon finished his day 4th, climbing two positions on the ladder, 135 points out from the lead.
Kurt Busch would have an unremarkable day, but did lead for 2 laps to capture 5 bonus points to move himself to 5th in the overall standings.
The cold air turned colder for Montoya where after the contact with Martin, would struggle with an ill handling car with too much damage on it, causing the former F-1 star to spin out twice on the track. The team would have added difficulties after working in the Earnhardt-Ganassi machine with a fabricated right rear fender that would fly off of the car several laps later.
Montoya’s day would finish on track, four laps down, crossing the line 35th. He would lose three positions in the standings 195 points out. A difference that he may not be able to come back from.
Edwards’ day started in the back of the pack, 28th. The day would get worse after being involved in a collision, sending him to the garage. Edwards would re-emerge in the event, only to see his engine expire sending the team home with a 39th place finish. This would drop Edwards to 10 in the Chase virtually sealing his fate of a title shot, down 341 points.
Hamlin’s day did provide him a glimpse of a good finish by leading 54 laps for the evening. Those hopes were erased though after his engine expired during a caution period on lap 193. This would drop Hamlin 2 positions like Edwards, dropping him below Edwards to 11th in the standings 372 points from Johnson.
Martin would remain second in standings, but the gap between Johnson and himself would grow to a challenging 90 points.
To read the full expanded, lap-by-lap race recap, click on the link below
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/articles/Story.asp?S=3861018090230
