No repeat in Coca-Cola 600 for Jimmie Johnson
CONCORD, N.C. -- Jimmie Johnson said he knew he was in trouble "as soon as I turned off the corner" during Sunday’s running of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
"I knew it was going around and I fought it as long as I could," the Hendrick Motorsports driver said.
His crew worked quickly to replace the damaged front end as Johnson fielded questions in the garage. It wasn’t where the six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion expected to be. In three of the four races contested this year on 1.5-mile tracks, Johnson’s taken the checkered flag before anyone else.
Not this time.
Johnson lost the back end of the white-and-blue No. 48 coming out of the fourth turn, nearly reined it back in but then hit the inside wall near the pit entrance with the front end of the car.
It was the second spin for the No 48 team in the series’ longest race -- he brought out the second caution of the race on lap 90 when he spun in Turn 4. It was a no harm, no foul spin, one that sent him to the rear of the field, but with more than 300 laps remaining, getting back to the front of the pack wasn’t out of the question.
And that was exactly the case. With darkness settling in, Johnson said his car was “slowly coming to me.”
“That’s how we went from … the tail end of the longest line to fifth,” Johnson, a seven-time winner at CMS, said. “We just drove through there.
“The car was coming around. I was trying to set the 88 (of teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.) up in (Turns) 3 and 4; rolled in behind a lapped car and I’d just kind of got lulled into a comfort zone thinking I could roll in behind someone and be fine because I’d made a couple of moves like that earlier.”
The team, led by crew chief Chad Knaus, came in with an aggressive attitude, according to Johnson. Aggressive mindset and setup. Take chances, he said.
“We just don’t have anything to lose,” Johnson said.
“Unfortunately it didn’t get long enough into the race for the aggressive set up to come into play. Another 30-40 laps we’d have had the car right where we wanted it, I just didn’t make it there.
“I could have driven a little easier and tried not to work so hard through traffic but we said we were going to come in and swing for the fences and we did and hit the fence.”
Johnson eventually made it back onto the track, down by nearly 30 laps with 70 laps remaining to finish 40th.