RELATED: Johnson’s post-race reaction to being eliminated
DOVER, Del. — Once the crowd cleared, Jimmie Johnson walked around to each member of his crew on pit road, giving them a pat on the back and “good job,” following his 41st-place finish in Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway. His dreams of a seventh title in the 2015 season had been washed away, his finish eliminating the No. 48 team from the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup — coincidentally in what was his 500th premier series start.
The result marked Johnson’s worst finish in his career at Dover, a track that he’s dominated in years past, reaching Victory Lane a series-best 10 times.
“It just wasn’t meant to be,” Johnson said on pit road after the race. “It’s unfortunate. I feel for my team, I feel for Hendrick Motorsports, Lowe’s, Chevrolet.”
Trouble began stirring around Lap 104 when Johnson felt something breaking in his car while running 16th.
“It was instantaneous for me,” Johnson recalled. “I was coming down the frontstretch and it just started vibrating, the right rear hub I guess started seizing up because the fluid was out of it. It was just metal on metal shaking.”
A broken rear axle seal was revealed as the culprit of Johnson’s Monster Mile misfortune — a part that Johnson said retails for around $5.
“It’s really horrible, it’s a simple piece,” Johnson said. “We’re always very cautious, these axles come in and out of the car. I think I had one go in practice earlier this year. Maybe five in my whole career have ever gone.”
The faulty part sent Johnson behind the wall for nearly 30 minutes, as every member of the No. 48 team — and even a few No. 88 crew members — feverishly worked to get the car back on track. They returned to the track in last place, 37 laps down.
But as the race continued, Johnson’s daunting task became an uphill battle — a monster that even “Six-Time” couldn’t tame.
“I really didn’t have anything to fight for,” Johnson said. “It was completely out of my control with how many laps we were down. Just a matter of what went on.
“But then 20-30 minutes of being back on the track, I could see the flow of the race. Guys were minding their manners pretty well on the track, a lot of green flag runs, so I kind of felt like we were in big trouble.”
Mechanical issues have been few and far between for the No. 48 team in the past. Johnson’s six championship titles prove that, his cars under guidance of crew chief Chad Knaus and his notoriously meticulous nature. But as Johnson showed today, even something as simple as an axle failure can happen to anyone.
“As I worry about things, I worry about a flat, I worry about a pit call, I worry about hard racing, something going on — I don’t worry about an axle seal failing,” Johnson said. “It’s just not on your radar.
“You just take things for granted. There’s so many parts and pieces on these cars and you take for granted what they all do.”
No. 4 crew chief Rodney Childers, who won Sunday’s race at Dover with driver Kevin Harvick, attested to that after the race.
“Honestly, it’s one of the things that is the scariest of everything that race teams deal with,” Childers said in the post-race press conference. “… You think that race teams worry about engine trouble or things like that. But these axle seal problems, they happen all the time, and a lot of times you don’t hear about them.”
With a win at Dover, Childers and Harvick will continue on to the Contender Round in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, vying for a second straight title for the No. 4 team. But while the hunt for a seventh championship title is over for Johnson this season, the chance remains for his Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who advanced to the next round.
And Johnson’s own desire to win races remains furiously intact.
“We had a very, very fast race car today, the past three or four weeks we’ve had very competitive cars,” Johnson said. “We want to win races, that’s what the rest of the season is for us.
“Help our teammates advance, help our teammates win the championship.”
