Johnson's Dover hopes crushed with black flag

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Holly Cain

Pass-through penalty sends Five-Time from first to lap down

DOVER, Del. — Jimmie Johnson was still visibly frustrated after climbing out of his car in the Dover International Speedway garage after being black-flagged for jumping the final restart of Sunday’s FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks.

VIDEO: Watch the restart

Instead of battling for the win, he ended up 17th after serving a drive-through penalty in the waning laps. And the five-time Sprint Cup Series champion said he absolutely planned on having a discussion with NASCAR about the situation.

Running alongside then-race leader Juan Pablo Montoya on a restart with 19 laps remaining, Johnson’s Chevy lunged forward in front of the field as the green flag waved and Montoya’s Chevy lagged.

"There’s always a judgment call in pro sports, it doesn’t matter what the sport is. Our sport doesn’t have many opportunities for that, but today we did."

— Jimmie Johnson

“Whatever happened, he just did not go,’’ Johnson explained after the race. “At a certain point I didn’t know if he was even under power.

“I wish I had handled it differently. But (If I hadn’t gone) I would have been passed by at least the 42 (Montoya) if not two or three others. Once you get up to speed and the pack gets rolling it’s real hard to give it back and have it be fair for everyone.

“The issue he had was so big I didn’t know if he lost power or what. Eventually I had to get going and was called on it. I’d just be wasting air talking about it. There’s always a judgment call in pro sports, it doesn’t matter what the sport is. Our sport doesn’t have many opportunities for that, but today we did.’’

NASCAR Vice President for Competition Robin Pemberton stood by the decision to penalize Johnson and said he’d welcome any conversation the champ wanted to pursue.

“That was an easy call, a very easy call,’’ Pemberton said. “He (Johnson) beat the 42 even out of the box from what we could see on the film. And we give them an opportunity to give it back.’’

When told what Johnson said about Montoya not being at speed and that he waited as long as he could, Pemberton said simply, “I understand what he says.’’

“You can’t look at that perspective without looking at the original … he left early and he didn’t give it back like we tell them all the time when this type of thing comes up. It’s pretty cut and dry.’’

“We’re always here. And we’re down at the R&D center if they want to come and talk.’’

For his part, Montoya seemed to chalk it up to a strategy call that just didn’t work. Ironically, Montoya was penalized for speeding on pit road with only 35 laps remaining after dominating the 2009 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis — a race that Johnson went on to win.

“Jimmie was laying off nearly a car length from me and I knew he wanted to jump the start,’’ said Montoya, whose runner-up finish to Tony Stewart equaled his best ever oval showing.

“I backed off a little bit for us to line up and he didn’t want to do it. When we got to the line I think he wanted to time it and he timed it too well. He wanted to get the jump on me and he just jumped it too well."

Race-winner Stewart had a prime view of the restart, as he was lined up directly behind Montoya. And while he had sympathy for Johnson’s day ending like it did, Stewart was firm that the leader sets the re-start pace.

“Juan was leading the race so he was in charge of the restart pace,” Stewart said. "The zone we have is not conducive to being leader-friendly. Most of the time, the guy second has a huge advantage. I feel bad for Jimmie because he ran good all day … but he knows what the rules are and that the leader has to cross the start/finish first. Everyone knows what the procedures are. I feel bad for Jimmie because I don’t think that’s (finish) what he deserves. You don’t want it coming down to a decision NASCAR has to make.”

"(Montoya is) someone that plays fair by the rules and doesn’t abuse things like that. There’s a lot of other drivers that will play games. But I didn’t feel like he slowed that pace down to an absurd rate. I feel he has the flexibility as the leader to adjust to what feels right to him.”

Johnson’s team owner Rick Hendrick was more philosophical about the whole thing than his driver, but also intended to get clarification on the ruling.

“Evidently the rule is if someone spins their tires or doesn’t go, you still have to wait,’’ Hendrick said. “I didn’t think that was the rule but it really doesn’t make much difference what I think right now.

“We had a good day and the fellows ran good, we just came up short. I hate that, we were quick enough to win the race, but that’s their call. I’ll ask them about it… I’m disappointed, but I’m not angry about it. No sense in getting mad in this sport"

For Johnson, the finish was hardly indicative of his effort. After going a lap down early in the race, he came back to lead 143 laps — second only to Kyle Busch’s 150.

A win would have been Johnson’s eighth, and made him the all-time winningest driver at Dover’s "Monster Mile," breaking a tie with Hall of Famers Richard Petty and Bobby Allison.

“You never want to lose, especially when you had a chance to win and we had a chance to make history today,’’ Johnson said, pausing as various drivers such as Busch stopped by to offer a back-slap and head shake.

“You have to go in and learn from these situations, whether I do or they do, we’ll all be smarter from the conversation."

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Posted on June 2, 2013 by

Stewart takes advantage of Johnson getting black-flagged on late restart

DOVER, Del. — A penalty to Jimmie Johnson was all Tony Stewart needed to break out of a four-month slump.

After Johnson was assessed a drive-through penalty for jumping the final restart — a sanction Johnson protested vehemently — Stewart passed Juan Pablo Montoya on Lap 398 of 400 to win Sunday’s FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks at Dover International Speedway.

The victory was the first of the season and third at Dover for Stewart, who has notched 42 of his 48 career wins after May 31. Stewart finished .788 seconds ahead of Montoya, who matched his career-best NASCAR Sprint Cup Series finish on an oval track.

Jeff Gordon came home third, followed by Kyle Busch and reigning Cup champion Brad Keselowski. Johnson finished 17th, the first car one lap down, smarting from a penalty he felt was unjustified.

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But Keselowski’s Ford failed the height-stick test in post-race inspection (too low in the front), with penalties expected after NASCAR’s completion meeting during the coming week.

Stewart, whose struggles this year have been well-documented, was happy to take the win, no matter how it came his way. Coming on the heels of a seventh-place run last week at Charlotte, a 1.5-mile downforce track, Stewart was happy to point out the progress his team is making.

“It’s definitely momentum,” Stewart said. “We got two weeks of momentum under our belt now at two totally different race tracks. That is big. Momentum is huge in this sport. We’ve still got a lot of work to do. We won’t sit… I guarantee you none of these guys behind you (his crew) will tell you we are exactly where we want to be right now. It’s a good reward for how hard they have been working to get that first win of the year.

“Now it’s trying to be more consistent and stay in the top-10 more and make our program better. It’s proof that no matter how bad it’s been this year, none of these guys have quit and given up. Just really proud of the effort this weekend; I think we probably made more gains from Friday to right now than any team in the garage did. I’m really proud of that fact.”

If Stewart was elated after the race, Johnson was still fuming.

“I totally disagree with the call, but it is what it is, and we’ll just come back and try to win in the fall,” he said.

Johnson knew he had beaten Montoya to the start/finish line, not knowing whether something was wrong with Montoya’s car, and said he tried to give the position back to the Colombian driver.

“I ran half-throttle for the first half a lap, waiting for him, and then at some point you’ve got to go, and you’ve got to race, and that’s when I got back in the gas and took off,” he explained. “I was hoping they would see that I was trying to give him the spot back.”

NASCAR vice president Robin Pemberton, however, described the penalty as cut-and-dry.

“That was an easy call — a very easy call,” Pemberton said. “He beat the 42 even out of the (restart) box, from what we could see on the film. We give ’em an opportunity to give it back.”

Until the decisive penalty, it looked for all the world as if Johnson would claim a record eighth victory at the Monster Mile.

Johnson started 24th and, in the early stages of the race, had difficulty moving forward through traffic. In fact, the No. 48 Chevrolet SS went a lap down when Kyle Busch passed him on Lap 70.

But Johnson came to pit road early, on Lap 71, and used the extra time on new tires to regain the lost lap by the time NASCAR called an opportune caution for debris in Turn 2 on Lap 80. From that point on, it was a charge to the front by the five-time champion.
Johnson had worked his way up to sixth before a caution for debris on the backstretch slowed the field on Lap 160, moments after a blown engine eliminated what was arguably the strongest car in the race, Matt Kenseth’s No. 20 Toyota.

After a restart on Lap 165, Johnson again moved forward, finally taking the lead for the first time on Lap 206, passing Kyle Busch to the inside through Turns 1 and 2.

Just as a Johnson victory was looking academic, however, Denny Hamlin’s right front tire blew in Turn 1 and sent his No. 11 Toyota hard into the outside wall, bringing out the seventh caution of the race. Montoya took two tires when the lead-lap cars came to pit road and narrowly beat Johnson to the exit.

That turned the race inside-out, as NASCAR black-flagged Johnson for beating Montoya to the start/finish line on the restart on Lap 382. Montoya held off Stewart for 16 laps but wore out his tires in the process and had to surrender the top spot.

“In one of the runs under green, we decided to make a couple of big changes on the car, and the car just took off—came to life,” Montoya said. “It came to life at the right time. It’s a shame there at the end that it was way too loose. I just couldn’t hold Tony off.”

Notes: Despite running 17th, Johnson holds a 30-point lead over second-place Carl Edwards (14th Sunday) in the series standings… Kyle Busch, who has two victories this season, moved back into 10th place after falling out of the top 10 last week at Charlotte… Hamlin’s crash put a serious crimp in his effort to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup despite missing four races with a back injury. Hamlin dropped two spots to 26th in the standings and is 74 points behind Ryan Newman in 20th, the position he needs to reach to be eligible for a Chase wild card.

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