2003: Field inversion helps Johnson pocket $1M check

After making a rookie mistake the previous year, Jimmie Johnson finally saved his best for last in the 2003 Winston.

Thanks to the fans' decision to invert the first 10 cars from the second segment, Johnson started third in the final 20-lap shootout, passed teammate Jeff Gordon for the lead with 15 laps to go and held off Kurt Busch's charge to take home the $1 million winner's purse.

Johnson

"Last year, we thought we had it after the first two segments, but it didn't work out," Johnson said. "So this year we played our cards right and focused on the big prize and went out and got it."

Johnson won the first two segments in the 2002 edition and obviously had a dominant car. But that also meant that he'd start the final sprint in 10th -- and was unable to gain enough positions to contend for the win.

Armed with that information, Johnson played it cool in the second segment, winding up seventh.

"We made sure we were going to be somewhere where it would help us on the inversion," Johnson said. "We learned that last year."

Restarting directly behind Gordon, the two made quick work of Sterling Marlin at the top of the green. Then it was just a matter of time before the No. 48 Chevrolet made his move to the front.

"You've always got to beat the 48 car when you come to Lowe's Motor Speedway," Busch said. "They're a stout bunch and they've always got their game on."

Busch won the second segment and passed nine cars, but was unable to chase down Johnson in the closing laps.

"I think they should give out money for passing cars and we would have ended up with a lot of cash tonight," Busch said. "We didn't come here to play possum, we wanted to win that second segment. Then I noticed they pulled the 10 pill [on the inversion], which we all knew would happen.

"So then it was 'money on' and I passed a lot of cars and just couldn't get close enough to pass the last one."

Following a strong run in last year's Coca-Cola 600, in which a pit stop mistake cost him a possible victory, track president Humpy Wheeler predicted Johnson would win The Winston.

"Humpy puts a lot of pressure on you when he picks you," crew chief Chad Knaus said. "He came down before the race and reminded us how we had to win, so the pressure was on."

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But Johnson said that only motivated the team to make that prediction a reality.

"We're all here for Humpy, so this is for you Humpy," Johnson said. "To come out and win on our home track and win $1 million is great."

Bobby Labonte, Joe Nemechek and Michael Waltrip rounded out the top five.

As typical of the mid-summer exhibition, there were short tempers. Ryan Newman thought Tony Stewart -- who won the first segment -- had wrecked him in the second segment, and walked up the track with his HANS device in hand. NASCAR officials stopped the field and sent a vehicle to escort the angry Purdue grad back to his hauler.

"I thought Tony hit me and they say he didn't," Newman said. "I was going down the straightaway and it turned around on me, so I don't know what happened. I could have sworn Tony hit me."

Stewart said he never touched Newman's car, and television replays seemed to side with Stewart's story.

"There was about five or six feet between me and Ryan Newman," Stewart said. "He had been trying to wreck himself for about four laps, so he can lay off me."

When the race restarted, however, Stewart made contact with Terry Labonte, setting off a chain-reaction crash. In all, Stewart, Labonte, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Jarrett, Mark Martin and Bill Elliott were eliminated. Elliott was taken to the hospital for a possible fractures in his left foot.

"It was a brand-new car," Earnhardt Jr. said. "You can't complain. When you come in here, you know there's a pretty big chance you're going to tear up a racecar."

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