It’s time to put a nice little bow on the events of Fontana from this past weekend.
Superman…I mean Kal-El…I mean Clark Kent…I mean Jimmie Johnson was up front when it counted at the end of the race to score his 77th career victory in the Sprint Cup Series. With it, he moved past the late Dale Earnhardt and took sole possession of seventh-place on NASCAR’s all-time wins list. He’s now six wins from tying Cale Yarborough for sixth, seven from tying Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip for fourth and 16 from tying his mentor Jeff Gordon for third.
If there was still any shred of doubt that Johnson is not a first-ballot bound NASCAR Hall of Famer, it’s gone now. There is nothing that will stop him from going down as one of the greatest in NASCAR history.
Kevin Harvick once again led the most laps in a race only to come up short. Despite leading 142 of the 205 laps, the driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet couldn’t hold off Superman in overtime and had to settle for runner-up. This is the 14th time Harvick and Johnson have finished first and second together. Of those, Harvick came up short in nine.
If he continues to run like this, he’ll win more than three races this season and show why he’s still a threat to win the title.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. continues to show his muscle this season with a fifth-place finish in his No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Granted, it came as a result of the overtime finish. But he had been running in the top-15 to top-10 for most of the afternoon. I don’t think Stenhouse is to the point that he’ll be a threat to win just yet, but he’s getting there.
After starting from the rear, AJ Allmendinger and his 80 pounds of hair gel rallied back to finish eighth. His day wasn’t really anything spectacular but he was toward the front when it counted. He leaves Fontana 19th in points,87 back of Harvick.
I’ll end by talking about the XFINITY Series race.
The finish was spectacular, but the race overall was serviceable. It wasn’t the best of all time, but it’ll keep me satisfied until they return at Texas.
That about sums up the events of this past weekend. NASCAR is taking its first off-week this Easter weekend. In two weeks, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series kick off what I like to call the “Short Track Gauntlet.” Three of the next four races will be at the three short tracks and we start at the Virginia paperclip of Martinsville Speedway. I’m on assignment that weekend so I’ll be bringing you all the NASCAR news on location in Ridgeway, Va.
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