Johnson takes Sixth title; Hamlin wins race

Posted on November 17, 2013 by

Johnson finishes 19 points ahead of Kenseth; Hamlin scores first victory of 2013

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HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Denny Hamlin found redemption for a lost season, and Jimmie Johnson advanced to the threshold of legend.

Sidelined for four races with a broken back earlier in the season, Hamlin took the checkered flag in Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, as Johnson claimed his sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship with a ninth-place finish.

Johnson finished the season 19 points ahead of polesitter and race runner-up Matt Kenseth, who held off a furious charge by third-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the closing laps. With six NASCAR Sprint Cup titles, Johnson is one behind all-time leaders Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.

The title was a record 11th for team owner Rick Hendrick.

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"I don’t even know where to start," Johnson said after the race. "I’m at a loss for words, but I’m so proud and so thankful for this opportunity at Hendrick Motorsports. I’m thankful that Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick gave me this opportunity back in 2002.

"This sport is about people, and our people at Hendrick Motorsports — especially on this 48 car — rose up and got the job done. I’m so thankful to be able to drive for this race team and so honored and so excited to have a ‘six-pack.’ "

Hamlin won for the first time this season, the second time at Homestead and the 23rd time in his career. The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has won at least one race in each of his eight full seasons in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

As elated as he was with the victory, Hamlin took time to acknowledge the excellence of Johnson and his No. 48 team. Johnson’s average finish in the 10 Chase races was 5.1.

"I think they do a great job of being consistent," Hamlin said. "Really, I’d say with everyone else in the Chase, you can almost count on them having one bad race. The 48, they just never have that one bad race. I don’t know how to explain it, but they just don’t make any mistakes. You have to beat him on performance. To do that, that’s really hard.

"Unfortunately, we’re racing during the Jimmie Johnson Era. We’re just unlucky in that sense. I think being out there and racing with him, I can say that I think he’s the best that there ever was."

Martin Truex Jr. completed his tenure at Michael Waltrip Racing with a fourth-place run, one spot ahead of teammate Clint Bowyer. Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Johnson and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top 10.

Johnson’s path to the title was far from easy. Moments after a restart on Lap 194, Paul Menard rammed the back of Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet as the outside line checked up. The impact jerked Johnson’s car sideways, but the five-time champion was able to regain control and keep the car off the outside wall.

His momentum sapped, however, Johnson plummeted to 23rd in the running order, the precise finishing position he needed to secure his sixth championship. Over the next nine laps, Johnson recovered to 16th and drove the No. 48 out of the danger zone.

From that point on, he advanced as high as sixth before finishing ninth, and the sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup title was his.

"I had contact from behind that pushed me into the 20 (Kenseth), and both of us were out of control and sliding toward the outside fence at that point," Johnson said. "I didn’t know what to think. That got us mired back in traffic and made the last 50 laps kind of interesting.

"We still had an awesome race car and got the job done."

MORE:

READ: Jimmie Johnson
wins 2013 Sprint Cup Series title

READ: HOF-worthy career
in the books, Martin bows out

READ: Finale represents
end of a chapter for some

READ: Kenseth won’t dwell
on coming up short

Posted on November 17, 2013 by Holly Cain

Johnson hasn’t lost a championship when holding points lead entering Homestead

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HOMESTEAD, Fla. — For the eighth time in the last 10 years, Jimmie Johnson has arrived in South Florida with a shot to leave with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship. 

Should he take advantage of the 28-point cushion he has on the field entering Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET, ESPN), it would be Johnson’s sixth championship. He "only" needs to finish 23rd or better to hoist the hardware. 

Only one time in the 10-year history of NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup has the points leader entering the final race not emerged champion. In 2010, Denny Hamlin held a 15-point advantage over Johnson at the green flag, but that didn’t prove enough as Johnson finished runner-up in the race and made history as the first driver to win five consecutive Cup championships. 

In the seven previous races where a title was on the line for him Johnson has an average finish of 10.9. But take out a 36th-place finish in 2012 when he trailed eventual champion Brad Keselowski entering the race and Johnson’s average finish is 6.7.

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Some years he’s had to race hard to wrangle a title, others he could be more conservative and steady — just good enough to hold on and prevail. 

No other driver has been in this position as often as Johnson and he and his team are well aware different scenarios mean different expectations and strategies.

 "Over the years nothing has been consistent and the same, and I think that is what I’m carrying in here," Johnson said. "Even though we have a nice points lead, you can’t count on anything going like it did the last year. Other years you have to come in and stay in the present and run the 400 miles. It’s not a lay‑up, you can’t just think things are going to go as they always have.

 "I’ve lost it from making mistakes, I’ve lost one blowing a tire down here, we’ve had a carburetor failure down here, and then we’ve had a lot of good ones. We’ve come from behind, we’ve been able to manage, so anything can happen is really the lesson."
 
But, Johnson conceded, "Definitely in the position I want to be in. Defending is the place of control of the points lead. We can control our own destiny. It does come with a price. There’s a lot of pressure on myself and the team to get things done."

 Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus admitted this week that sometimes having a large points lead creates more headaches with the increased expectations.
 
"I wouldn’t say there’s more pressure, but you’ll look like a bigger fool if you lose it," Knaus said. "I think that we want to ‑‑ we just want to go down there and perform.

 "There’s a lot of pressure, no doubt about it, but that’s what we love. I live for these last 10 weeks, and once we get through these next 10 weeks I can’t wait to get through the next 26 so I can get to these 10 weeks next year. This is what we live for. This is what we enjoy. We like the pressure."

Johnson’s closest challengers, Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick, meanwhile say the pressure is completely off of them. Kenseth, a seven-time race winner this season, trails Johnson by 28 points. Harvick is 34 back. 

"I think for us, we’ve had so many strange things happen throughout my career at the last minute, you at least have to play everything out," Harvick said. "Just the type of team we are, we race up until the last lap. You just never know what’s going to happen.

 "Realistically the only things we can control are what we do. It’s definitely a really, really long shot. But we’ll control the things that are in our control and see how it all falls."

It is a long shot, but not impossible. Twice in 2013, Kenseth has made up more than 28 points in a race on Johnson. In August at Bristol, Kenseth won and earned the maximum 48 points while Johnson was caught up in a multi-car wreck and finished 36th. Two weeks later at Richmond, Kenseth finished sixth to Johnson’s 40th-place effort, after blowing a right front tire.

There was also a runner-up finish in August at Michigan that helped Harvick make up 37 points on Johnson.

Plus, Johnson’s seventh-place starting position in the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet is the lowest of the three championship contenders. Kenseth won the pole and Harvick will start sixth. 

Still, Johnson is in a favorable position as it’s worth noting he has never lost the championship when he led the standings entering the Homestead race. As far as he’s concerned his strategy is as straight forward and similar as his challengers.

 "I think the safest place on the race track is up front, and if I look back to our Texas performance, we found a way to race smart, stay out of trouble and still get the race won," Johnson said. "I would love to win the race and win the championship, but we’ll just have to see how things develop in the race and where we are relative to the 20 (Kenseth).

 "The big prize at the end of the day is what we’re focused on, it’s not so much that individual win, but we need to go down there and be prepared and treat Friday and Saturday like we need to win the race so we can make the car as comfortable and as fast as possible to give us all our options on Sunday.

 "I’m excited to have this opportunity. Again, we’re in the position that we want to be in, that I’m sure any driver would want to be in."

MORE:

READ: Jimmie Johnson
wins 2013 Sprint Cup Series title

READ: HOF-worthy career
in the books, Martin bows out

READ: Finale represents
end of a chapter for some

READ: Kenseth won’t dwell
on coming up short

Posted on November 17, 2013 by Staff Report

Moments that changed the course of the final race in the 2013 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup

DENNY HAMLIN GETS WIN TO EXTEND STREAK

Denny Hamlin found redemption for a lost season.

Sidelined for four races with a broken back earlier in the season, Hamlin took the checkered flag in Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, as Jimmie Johnson claimed his sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship with a ninth-place finish.

JIMMIE JOHNSON FINISHES NINTH FOR SIXTH TITLE

Johnson finished the season 19 points ahead of polesitter and race runner-up Matt Kenseth, who held off a furious charge from third-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the closing laps. With six NASCAR Sprint Cup titles, Johnson is one behind career leaders Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.

From that point on, he advanced as high as sixth in the running order before finishing ninth, and the sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup title was his.

TIRE BLOWS UP FOR FINAL CAUTION, SETS STAGE FOR RACE’S END

After contact with Johnson on the Lap 194 restart, Menard’s tire blew off, resulting in a fire on pit road with plenty of smoke and the ninth and final caution of the race that led the final restart.

Thankfully, everyone near the car was OK, Menard’s crew chief, Slugger Labbe, reported over the radio.

Menard came in to pit on Lap 230 with his right rear tire blown and sparks were flying from under his car.

When he reached his pit stall, his wheel blew up and there was fire on the right side of his car and smoke everywhere.

Menard told ESPN about the incident that "I didn’t really know it until there was a spark."

Menard and his No. 27 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet were out of the race following the incident.

NASCAR Wire Service contributed to this report.

Posted on November 17, 2013 by Staff Report

Incident occurs late in finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway

Following an on-track incident that saw sparks shoot out of Paul Menard’s No. 27 Chevrolet, things got even hotter once the Richard Childress Racing driver went to pit road.

As flames danced out from under his car, a rear tire blew off, resulting in a defeaning boom and plenty of smoke. It was a scary moment in the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

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The driver’s trouble began on a restart on Lap 194. When the outside line stalled, Menard rammed 2013 Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson and Menard was also hit from behind and suffered damage to the rear of his No. 27 Chevrolet.

"On that restart, everybody kind of checked up, and we got some right rear damage and had a flat tire," Menard said afterwards. "I guess a bunch of rubber got wrapped up underneath around the axle. Came in a couple of times trying to fix the damage and try to get the rubber off. We didn’t get it all, and I guess it just caught fire.

"I didn’t really know it until there was a little bit of a spark coming in the car and landed on the window net; thought that was kind of weird. About a lap later they said I was on fire; I lost my brakes, then the damn wheel blew right off."

Menard was out of the race following the incident. He finished in 39th place, completing 229 laps.

MORE:

READ: Jimmie Johnson
wins 2013 Sprint Cup Series title

READ: HOF-worthy career
in the books, Martin bows out

READ: Finale represents
end of a chapter for some

READ: Kenseth won’t dwell
on coming up short

Posted on November 17, 2013 by Staff Report

Roush Fenway Racing driver already looking forward to 2014

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has been rewarded for a solid rookie season in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series with the Sunoco Rookie of the Year award.

Stenhouse, 26, moved up this season to the sport’s premier circuit following back-to-back titles in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

Stenhouse was happy earn the honor and is ready to accomplish more in the Sprint Cup Series.

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"It means a lot, looking at all the other names that have won this award," Stenhouse said. "It definitely wasn’t the season that we wanted, but we slowly but surely got a little bit better throughout the season. I was proud of what we did, of getting better, qualifying better, having runs up front, leading laps throughout this year. I thought we had a chance at winning some races there, at least being in contention. I was proud of those moments."

Stenhouse came on in the second half of the season, posting his three top-10 finishes in the final 11 races of the season. His third-place finish in the October race at Talladega Superspeedway is his best result to date.

Stenhouse also scored his first Coors Light Pole Award in the second half of the season, capturing the pole at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

In his first full season in the Sprint Cup Series, Stenhouse finished all 36 races and finished 19th in points.

"All in all, it was a huge learning experience," Stenhouse said of his rookie season. "Thankful we made it through; it’s behind us now. We can move on to next year, look on improving every spot at every track that we can in the final points standings."

Stenhouse’s girlfriend and fellow Cup Series competitor, Danica Patrick, was also in the running for Sunoco Rookie of the Year.

Stenhouse said he and Patrick joked a bit about the competition for top rookie honors at times, but that both were focused on their racing performance.

"We both wanted to finish as best we could every week," Stenhouse said.

MORE:

READ: Jimmie Johnson
wins 2013 Sprint Cup Series title

READ: HOF-worthy career
in the books, Martin bows out

READ: Finale represents
end of a chapter for some

READ: Kenseth won’t dwell
on coming up short

Posted on November 17, 2013 by Zack Albert

Mark Martin wraps up his Sprint Cup Series career with a 19th-place finish at Homestead

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — "Fire in the hole!"

With that command from his crew, Mark Martin flipped the switch to fire the engine on one final Sunday drive, making the 882nd and final start in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tenure.

He quickly radioed back: "You guys are awesome. Let’s just do what you do tonight."

With that, Martin embarked on a potential last hurrah in what’s sure to be a slam-dunk Hall of Fame career. It clearly didn’t go as well as he’d hoped — he finished 19th after starting 22nd in the season-ending Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, moving up and spending the better part of the day on the fringes of the top 10 before fading hard on the final green-flag run.

He’s hesitated to use the word "retirement" as the season has wound down, but if this was his swan song, the 54-year-old driver made it clear he was going out on his own terms. So frustrated with his car’s handling in the late going, he exited the car Sunday evening and left the track without comment.

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His final ledger — which spans a successful, impressive 31 years — will boast stats that place him among the sport’s all-time greats: 40 victories in NASCAR’s premier series, 49 wins in what is now the NASCAR Nationwide Series, and seven wins in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

The glaring omissions in his portfolio are two prizes he came oh-so-close to claiming. Martin finished second in the Sprint Cup standings on five occasions, with his most recent near-miss for an elusive championship in 2009.

He also never made it to Victory Lane in the Daytona 500, his most memorable flirtation with NASCAR’s crown jewel race coming in 2007, when he finished just two-hundredths of a second behind race winner Kevin Harvick in second place. He made one last run at The Great American Race this season, finishing third behind Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Martin had already scaled back his driving duties in recent seasons, leaving Hendrick Motorsports after a full 2011 campaign to race part-time for Michael Waltrip Racing, splitting time with Brian Vickers the last two years.

When driver/owner Tony Stewart was sidelined for the rest of the year after breaking his leg in August in a sprint car crash, Martin stepped in as a super sub, filling in driving the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet for most of the remaining races. He’ll stay with Stewart-Haas in 2014 in an undefined role, saying the previous week at Phoenix International Raceway that he was opening a new chapter in his life with racing.

On the driving side, Martin’s podium finish in the Daytona opener wound up being his only top-five finish of the season. He added a pole position the following weekend at Phoenix, but despite ranking sixth in the standings after three races, Martin adhered to his part-time schedule, sitting out while Vickers split time in the No. 55 MWR Toyota.

Though his time subbing for Stewart netted just one top-10 finish, Martin’s radio crackled one final time after taking the checkered flag Sunday night at Homestead with expressions of gratitude from both sides.

"Thank you for everything that you’ve done for us in this sport, Mark Martin."

And later: "Thank you buddy; you’re my hero."

Martin’s reply: "Thanks, man — I appreciate it. Good job. You really helped me today."

MORE:

READ: Jimmie Johnson
wins 2013 Sprint Cup Series title

READ: HOF-worthy career
in the books, Martin bows out

READ: Finale represents
end of a chapter for some

READ: Kenseth won’t dwell
on coming up short

Posted on November 17, 2013 by Nascar

Truex scores fourth-place finish in final race for Michael Waltrip Racing

RELATED: Race results | Championship hub | Chase coverage
FINAL STANDINGS: Drivers | Owners | Manufacturers

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – The results were varied, but each had one thing in common – it was their final start with their respective teams.

Martin Truex Jr. wrapped up his final effort at Michael Waltrip Racing with a fourth-place finish in Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Kevin Harvick finished 10th in the No. 29 for Richard Childress Racing; Ryan Newman (Stewart-Haas Racing) was 17th; Juan Pablo Montoya (Earnhardt Ganassi Racing) was 18th and Mark Martin (SHR) 19th.

Kurt Busch, exiting Furniture Row and headed to SHR, was 21st; Jeff Burton (RCR) 23rd; Ken Schrader (FAS Lane) 34th; and Dave Blaney (Tommy Baldwin Racing) 38th.

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Truex Jr., headed to Furniture Row, scored his best finish since a third at Atlanta earlier this season. Finishing 16th in the standings in his final season as driver of the No. 56 NAPA-sponsored Toyota, Truex Jr. saw his season turned upside down when MWR was penalized for actions in this year’s race at Richmond, which was the final race before the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup began.

One of the 12 Chase drivers when the Richmond race ended, penalties meted out eventually resulted in the Mayetta, N.J., native missing what was eventually a 13-driver Chase field.

Sunday’s result was a pleasant ending to a trying Chase.

"Obviously we didn’t have the speed most of the race and really worked hard on the car to get the balance right, get the handling right," Truex Jr. said.

"I wish we could have gotten it figured out a little bit earlier, but proud of my guys and kind of the end of great year run for us. I just can’t thank all these guys enough … everybody that made it possible the last four years."

While Truex, Harvick, Newman and Busch will continue to compete full time, the others will either scale back (as in the case of Burton), or stop competing in Cup. Montoya is moving to IndyCar while Martin and Schrader have ended memorable Cup careers. Blaney’s future is uncertain, the announcement coming earlier in the weekend that he won’t be back with Tommy Baldwin Racing next year.

Burton, who has yet to announce his ’14 plans, was one of a handful of drivers that fell off the lead lap early when pitting only to see the caution come out shortly afterward.

"We were running 14th there, we put a set of tires on and got so freaking loose that we literally ate all the rubber of the right rear tire," Burton said of his team’s early struggles.

"When we pitted, we put a big adjustment in it and then it plowed. So that set of tires had something about it. We adjusted for that and that got us behind. Then we had to try to get a (free pass) … ended up getting back on the lead lap in good shape."

But as the race wore on, he said, "we were just stupid tight."

Busch, in his first, and only, full season with Furniture Row Racing, had a major impact, putting the Colorado-based single-car team in the Chase against tall odds. But the team managed only three top-five finishes in the Chase, finishing 10th in the final standings.

"This was not the way we wanted to end the season," the 2004 Cup champion said. "We gave it our best effort, but we just didn’t have the handling to run up front.

"I really wanted to give these … guys a strong finish. I am disappointed right now, but tomorrow I am going to look back … and be very proud of what we were able to accomplish."