Johnson rallies to third after adventurous night

CONCORD, N.C. -- Tony Stewart said he was glad the fastest car finally won a Winston Cup race. Of course he was glad: he won the UAW-GM Quality 500.

But did the second-fastest car finish second?

UAW-GM QUALITY 500  •  Lap by Lap  •  Results  •  Standings

Jimmie Johnson probably had the second-best car Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway, but a mistake on pit road and some ill-timed strategy left Johnson fighting just to get back to third.

Johnson put up quite a fight, moving on Stewart and runner-up Ryan Newman in the closing laps, but the checkered flag waved before Johnson could get any more.

Newman played the strategy game again, pitting as soon as he knew he could make it the rest of the way on fuel. Stewart and Johnson did it the "old-fashioned" way, pitting at the end of a fuel run.

VIDEO CLIPS Stewart runs down Newman for his second win of 2003 Play video Sadler, Busch head to the garage in separate incidents Play video Mike Skinner and Elliott Sadler make contact on lap 160 Play video Kurt Busch brings out the first caution on lap 86 Play video Jimmie Johnson looks strong in the early laps Play video Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon are honored Play video

Stewart passed Newman with seven laps to go. Johnson wasn't as lucky.

"Our engineers and crew chiefs are paying close attention to what those guys are doing, and we never would have thought that playing that strategy here of all places would have worked, but it almost did," Johnson said. "I'm happy to see that it turned out the way it did, but I really wish it was the Lowe's car winning here at Lowe's Motor Speedway, but we finished third, and we got beat by some strategy on the 12 car's behalf."

Johnson's team tried some strategy, too, earlier in the race. Not long after the race restarted on lap 165, another yellow flag waved. Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus decided to pit again -- giving up second place -- but they were alone on pit road.

"We pitted, thinking a lot of other people we going to pit, but nobody else did," Johnson said.

Oops.

But that wasn't the only mistake. As his crew stood on the pit wall to begin servicing the No. 48 Chevrolet, Johnson drove on past.

"I just thought I'd make an extra lap," Johnson said.

Well, he did, but that wasn't the intention.

"I came to pit road, and I was looking in the mirror to see if anyone else was coming, and there wasn't a soul behind me," Johnson said. "I was so busy looking in the mirror and at my speedometer, then I hear Chad say, 'Hey, man, where you going?'

"I looked out the window, and I was driving right on by the pit. Luckily, no one else was coming to pit road. But at the same time we were hoping that a lot of people were going to pit. That was where our strategy went wrong, and why we finished third."

Johnson restarted 17th, but with 162 laps to go, he had time to make up some positions. So he went on the attack.

"We had about 130 laps to go, and we were able to work our way back to third," Johnson said. "We really thought there were going to be a lot more guys pitting, and we would have been a little farther up, and our strategy really would have worked out, but it didn't work out that way."

Johnson had his eyes on Victory Lane, of course, but there was added incentive, too. He won The Winston and the Coca-Cola 600 here in May, and no driver had ever swept all three races in a single season.

And, of course, he was driving the Lowe's car at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

But there wasn't quite enough time, no matter how good his car was. And it was good. He took the lead for the first time on lap 18 and ended up leading three times for 103 laps.

"I was very confident," Johnson said. "From the moment we unloaded the car here for the weekend, it was on the money. The way it handled in the race working through traffic -- I passed a lot of race cars here tonight. I really wish we could have made history here tonight."