Moments that changed the course of the 12th race of the 2014 season
JOHNSON PASSES KENSETH FOR FIRST WIN OF 2014
Clearly tired of questions about his "drought," Jimmie Johnson was all business Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway in a decisive victory in the Coca-Cola 600.
Johnson, who led a race-high 164 laps, won his seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the 1.5-mile track, ending an 11-race winless streak to start the season that matched the longest of his career.
Johnson passed Matt Kenseth in the closing laps and beat Kevin Harvick (who also got past Kenseth) by 1.272 seconds. Kenseth came home third, followed by Carl Edwards and Jamie McMurray.
The victory was Johnson’s seventh at Charlotte and the 67th of his career.
ENGINE ENDS BUSCH'S DOUBLE EARLY
Kurt Busch's Indianapolis 500/Coke 600 double ended early when the engine of the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Chevrolet erupted on Lap 273 to cause the sixth caution of the evening.
Busch finished sixth in the Indy 500 earlier in the day but completed just 271 laps (4-6.5 miles at Charlotte, leaving his car owner, Tony Stewart, as the only driver to complete all 1,100 miles of the same-day double.
"To feel the stock car right after driving the IndyCar is a day I'll never forget," said Busch, who finished 39th. "I can't let the mood here, with the car, dampen what happened up in Indy today. That was very special."
PIT STOPS COSTLY FOR HARVICK
For the second consecutive weekend at Charlotte, Kevin Harvick expressed his displeasure with his pit crew after finishing second and failing to win his third Coca-Cola 600 in the last four years.
"We had a fast car all night," Harvick said. "Just kind of fumbled again on pit road. Got behind, got a lap down. We needed a 700‑mile race to get back to where we needed to be.
"All in all, they're doing a great job of putting cars up on the track, we just have to clean up on pit road."
NASCAR News Wire contributed to this story.