No. 48 driver says he did all he could to catch the 88 at Talladega
CONCORD, N.C. – Asked to pick a winner for this year’s Sprint All-Star race, Jimmie Johnson was quick with his response.
“Since I let Junior win last week,” the six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion joked Tuesday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, site of this year’s non-points race.
Former All-Star race winners Michael Waltrip and Rusty Wallace, crew chief Chad Knaus, Charlotte Motor Speedway president Marcus Smith and Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer, joined Johnson at CMS for the press event. Each spent time on stage surrounded by $1 million, the winner’s take for this year’s race.
Johnson has heard the comments this week and seen the chatter on social media. He didn’t pull out and try to pass Dale Earnhardt Jr. at the end of Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, some have said, because his teammate pushed him to a win years ago.
It was a favor returned.
Or was it?
Johnson has two victories and a spot in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup in his pocket. Until Sunday, Earnhardt had been winless through this year’s first nine races.
Make no mistake, Johnson said. Those facts had nothing to do with Sunday’s outcome.
"Absolutely not. That’s the most ridiculous thing ever," he said.
"If I didn’t win, absolutely I’’d want it to be the 88 or the 24 (of teammate Jeff Gordon) or the 5 (of teammate Kasey Kahne)."
The four are teammates at Hendrick Motorsports. Johnson’s cars are prepped in the same shop as Earnhardt’s. Kahne and Gordon’s cars reside in another building. The teams share information and resources. But when a win is on the line?
"On that side I’m stoked for him and stoked for the shop," Johnson said. "But man I was doing everything within my power to set up a pass for the win. I didn’t know that he had debris on the grille … that’s only going to speed his car up. Then we had such a small group of guys in line there just wasn’t any energy. I drug the brake a few times and backed up to the cars behind me; I just got this small run off of their push. Junior was easily able to defend that."
There was no three- or four-wide, last lap battle for the lead after the leaders took the white flag in Sunday’s race. Instead, for much of the final lap, most stayed in line, waiting until the finish line and checkered flag was in sight before attempting to make a pass.
By then, it was too late.
Running second to Earnhardt, Johnson’s strategy was to wait only until the field came off the fourth turn. Previous lessons taught him as much.
"I have pulled out in second going down the back straightaway and I’ve finished 15th. Every time. Or worse" he said.
"So I’m like ‘OK, I’m going to be patient; this is Talladega, the finish line is further around the race track than Daytona so you need to wait longer … everybody stayed in line and I tried … and man I didn’t even get to his bumper with the energy that happened behind me.
"I gave it my all but it just wasn’t in the cards. He did a great job, too, of controlling the race and taking to the top like that. If enough guys got frustrated … if enough cars went to the bottom, the bottom is a lot faster. But everybody’s afraid to pull out of line because their spot would get filled.
"Junior played it perfectly. Having that small six- or seven-car breakaway played into his hands as well."
WATCH: Johnson’s postrace comments | Junior on the fans, his dad, the win
Sunday’s race featured just 27 lead changes, far fewer than what fans have come to expect at the 2.66-mile track. The last time a Sprint Cup race there had fewer was in 2002 when the top spot was swapped only 26 times.
Johnson said he thinks it’s what restrictor-plate racing has become in recent years. What was thought to be a rarity now appears to be a trend.
"Inside the car at Daytona and Talladega, there’s so much frustration created by the restrictor plate,” he said. "I’ve really put the uneventful finish in the hands of restrictor plate racing. It’s a necessary evil, we need it on the cars but it promotes a certain style of racing.
"If the leader decides to go up top and there isn’t a long enough line that’s willing to go to the bottom and find their way to the front and be committed to it, it’s going to finish like that. There’s no way around it; we’ve seen it a couple of times now. I blame it on plate racing."
The idea that it was a payback of some sort might have a certain charm he said, but that wasn’t the case.
"That’s what Junior Nation thinks," he said, grinning. "If it makes them happy, that’s cool. I’m afraid to have them on my side because they’ve hated me forever, so I don’t know if I really want all this."
