Rare low Charlotte finish deepens Johnson's deficit

CONCORD, N.C. -- The usual post-race routine for Jimmie Johnson at Lowe's Motor Speedway involves stopping on pit road, where NASCAR officials halt the top five finishers in a Nextel Cup event for obligatory interviews on television. That is, if he's not coasting to Victory Lane, and preparing to hoist yet another trophy and spray more champagne.

But not this. Not climbing out of a bruised racecar while fireworks in the distance celebrate another winner, with cameramen and reporters crowding around him, ready to ask what went wrong.

Yet that was the exact scenario the reigning series champion found himself in Saturday night, when his chances of becoming NASCAR's first repeat titlist in nine years took a hit in the Bank of America 500. Racing on his best track, the Hendrick Motorsports driver spun out, had his engine seize up, and recorded an uncharacteristic 14th-place finish at Lowe's (watch video). It was Johnson's first Charlotte finish outside the top 10 since his inaugural Cup start in 2001, and it put him 68 points behind teammate Jeff Gordon with five events remaining.

"That's a bummer in a way," crew chief Chad Knaus said. "It looked like we were going to recover and come out with a top-10. We're not that far behind, and there's still five races left. We've got time to bounce back and win the thing."

Johnson wasn't the only driver bitten by the Beast, the nickname track president H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler bestowed upon a facility that became more treacherous after it was resurfaced two years ago. The speedway's second and fourth corners emerged as sort of a Bermuda Triangle, shredding tires, spinning cars, and snatching chances to win from some drivers who otherwise would have been in the hunt at the end.

Foremost among them was Johnson, who led a race-high 95 laps, and seemed en route to his sixth Charlotte victory before his No. 48 car unexpectedly snapped sideways in Turn 2. Johnson, running 10th at the time after a pit sequence and restart, managed to minimize the physical damage by spinning his Chevrolet to keep it off the inside wall. But the mistake cost him valuable track position, and a series of stops for repairs placed him back in 29th, the final car on the lead lap.

"We deserved to finish in the top five tonight," said Johnson, who came into the event nine points behind Gordon. "We just didn't have a clean night in general. I made a mistake, we made some mistakes that hurt us in track position. But we'll bounce back and come back next weekend."

They nearly bounced back Saturday night. "We've got 100 laps to go," Knaus urged his driver on the radio. "We can still win this thing." Johnson dutifully obeyed, charging back up through the field, and getting up to seventh before NASCAR halted the race for 12 minutes because Jeff Green's car dropped oil on the 1.5-mile track.

The delay did him in. When the field restarted, Johnson's engine didn't. It locked up, and the 48 car went backwards until the driver could get it back up to speed. Johnson could only fight for position as teammates Gordon and Kyle Busch battled up front for the lead.

"There was a problem with the fuel pickup after that last caution, with the cars sitting on the track for so long," said Scott Maxim, engineer for the No. 48 team. "It was sort of a burp in the gas system, if nothing else."

That burp was felt in the standings, where Johnson maintained his second-place position. But now he's only 10 points ahead of Clint Bowyer heading to next week's event at Martinsville, Va., where he was a winner in the spring. Deficits are nothing new to Johnson, who rallied from 146 down after last year's Charlotte race to take the title. But he wasn't staring up at Gordon, who's seemed bulletproof all season.

"We're trying to get every point we can," he said. "I think we led the most laps. We ran up front too much to have a [14th-place] finish or whatever it was. That really wasn't what we expected or wanted. So we're leaving here disappointed, but we had a good performance, so there's some light at the end of the tunnel. But it was just a bummer of a night."

He wasn't alone in that sentiment. Other Turn 2 victims included Ryan Newman, who surged into the lead on the final restart only to blow a tire, and Scott Riggs, running in the top 10 when Juan Montoya blew a tire in front of him and the two cars collided. But the real carnage was across the track in Turn 4, where accidents and spins accounted for eight of the 15 cautions recorded Saturday night.

Including the one that ended Casey Mears' hope of a repeat victory. The Hendrick driver and Coca-Cola 600 winner grazed the Turn 4 wall just enough to cause a fender rub on a tire, one he didn't realize he had until it blew during another trip through the corner.

"The banking coming off of Turn 4 is very inconsistent," said Mears, who finished 21st. "It kind of falls away and just kind of gives you a false read that you've got the back of the car underneath you, and then you make a mistake."

The sensitive asphalt at Lowe's, which is particularly treacherous in daylight or in the early stages of a night race, doesn't help. "Everybody started off pretty free tonight," said rookie David Ragan, derailed by an accident on Lap 21. "To be good at the end of the race, you've got to start these races on the free side. We didn't expect to go out and have a lot of grip the first few laps. Just the normal deal at Charlotte."