 | | A two-tire call late in Saturday's UAW-GM Quality 500 may have helped Jimmie Johnson get to Victory Lane. Credit: CIA Stock Photo |
By Ryan Smithson, NASCAR.COM
October 17, 2005
04:45 PM EDT (20:45 GMT)
Pit story of the race All the talk about tires overshadowed a brilliant move by Chad Knaus that got his driver the win. Knaus called for just two tires on the final round of stops, and Johnson -- who had been as low as 27th on Lap 280 -- restarted third on Lap 313. Johnson then got around Ricky Rudd and Joe Nemechek.  |
| UAW-GM Quality 500 |
| Official Results |
| Pos. |
Driver |
Pts/Bonus |
| 1. |
J. Johnson |
185/5 |
| 2. |
Ku. Busch |
175/5 |
| 3. |
G. Biffle |
170/5 |
| 4. |
J. Nemechek |
165/5 |
| 5. |
M. Martin |
155/0 |
|
|
| Inside the Chase |
| Point standings after Charlotte |
| Pos. |
Driver |
Points |
Behind |
| 1. |
T. Stewart |
5,777 |
-- |
| 2. |
J. Johnson |
5,777 |
-- |
| 3. |
G. Biffle |
5,766 |
-11 |
| 4. |
R. Newman |
5,760 |
-17 |
| 5. |
M. Martin |
5,726 |
-51 |
| 6. |
C. Edwards |
5,723 |
-54 |
| 7. |
R. Wallace |
5,685 |
-92 |
| 8. |
J. Mayfield |
5,662 |
-115 |
| 9. |
M. Kenseth |
5,653 |
-124 |
| 10. |
Ku. Busch |
5,635 |
-142 |
|
 |
Rudd had also taken two tires, and the move helped him restart with the lead on Lap 313. Rudd and Johnson touched on the restart, and while Johnson went on to win, the fight was taken out of Rudd's Ford, and he wound up ninth. The No. 48 Chevrolet was not immune to the tire issues, but Johnson said his team made some heavy adjustments to take pressure off the right side of the car. The team also had to change a battery in the pits after Johnson's primary battery went sour just 100 laps into the 334-lap race. After Knaus had a chance to look at the battery on pit road, he said it wasn't as bad as he initially thought, but with his driver in the Chase hunt, he couldn't take any chances. Mears wanted to take two tires in the end Casey Mears wanted to emulate Johnson and Rudd by taking two tires on the final stop, but after watching teammates Sterling Marlin and David Stremme struggle with tires, he was overruled. "It was a good day for us; track position was so huge and right out there at the end we were running third, we had a big battle on the pit box on what we were going to do," Mears said. "It was an eight-man decision on top of the box to take two or four, we decided to go with a conservative decision because we already had two cars in the fence that were running up front and doing good because of tire trouble." Quotable "The pit crew was incredible tonight, we gained on almost every stop and towards the end of the race when we really needed a couple of quick stops, the guys came through with flying colors." -- Joe Nemechek, whose team also changed two batteries on pit road "I think at the end we sort of handed the win away when we didn't take two, because we could have gotten out ahead of those guys." -- Casey Mears, who led nine laps and wound up sixth, tops among the Dodge drivers "We had a shot at winning the race. The 48 plain got lucky. He had battery problems and everything else." -- Ryan Newman, who led 42 laps and finished seventh despite a pit penalty for leaving his box with a gas can | 
