Last stop dooms Kurt Busch’s bid for $1 million

Posted on May 19, 2013 by

Driver takes solace with close call, keeps Furniture Row Racing in the mix

CONCORD, N.C. — The pitch of Kurt Busch’s voice over the radio told the entire story.

“Plowing,” he said in a high, terse tone that had been absent for much of the race. “Never been this tight all night. Sorry.”

From the driver’s perspective, there was no need to apologize. Busch nearly delivered a massive payday for his Furniture Row Racing team, winning two segments in Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway and entering pit road the final time with his No. 78 car in first place. But the ensuing stop was a bit slow, the adjustment made to the vehicle was a bit off, and in the end Busch came up a bit short in his bid for $1 million.

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Busch led twice for 29 laps, and his average finish over the opening four segments of the 90-lap event allowed him to roll onto pit road first before the final 10-lap dash. He exited fifth, and that’s where he finished, as Jimmie Johnson claimed a second consecutive All-Star Race and did smoking, celebratory donuts as fireworks exploded overhead.

“It’s just, you’ve got to be perfect to win in this deal,” Busch said. “And Chad Knaus, Jimmie Johnson, those guys always shine in moments like this. For us, hey, we were in the mix. We won the overall as far as average finish. That gets you first to come down pit road. That doesn’t get you off of pit road first.

“My guys, I’m not getting down on them. We came out top-five. And then we were a little tight that last run in traffic, or we just didn’t get aggressive enough with our change. So that kills you. You’re a half a click off on the stopwatch on a pit stop, and a half a click off on an adjustment, and so you can go from batting four out of five to going up there and striking out.”

No question, Busch took some healthy cuts at it, beginning with a victory in the opening 20-lap segment that made him the only driver eligible to win an extra $1 million bonus track owner Bruton Smith dangled out there to anyone capable of sweeping all five segments. Younger brother Kyle Busch ended those hopes by winning the next two segments, but it was Kurt who stormed back into the lead to claim the fourth 20-lap stanza.

“Just gotta focus on 10 green-flag laps,” Busch told his team over the radio.

Given how good his No. 78 car had been on short runs for much of the night, winning that final dash — and a cool $1 million — certainly seemed a possibility. But first came the mandatory four-tire pit stop that would set the order for those last 10 laps, and as they crossed the exit line it was Kasey Kahne, Johnson, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano — and a flummoxed Kurt.

“That’s a little disappointing,” Busch said over the radio. “Third is fine, second is great, first is what we’re supposed to do. Fifth?”

Yes, fifth. “There wasn’t a debacle. No lugs fell off or anything like that,” said Todd Berrier, Busch’s crew chief. “Everything didn’t click. It don’t take much to go from in it to out of it. … Those guys are working hard, had good stops all night. Nothing we can do about it. We live the rest of our life in the future. We’ll make it up next week.”

Busch was never able to gain ground over the final 10-lap dash. The last adjustment on the No. 78 car, he said, wasn’t quite enough, which led him to wonder if he would have been able to hold the lead even if he had benefitted from a faster stop. “The adjustment might not have kept up even if we came out in first,” he said. “We’re splitting hairs.”

Particularly given how Johnson took off on the last restart. “The adjustment wasn’t enough, for sure, where we were. But track position is everything. We saw it all night,” Berrier said. “If we knew we were going to come out fifth, we’d have probably raised the track bar up another round. And still, that’s not going to ensure you that you’re going to pass some guys.”

In the aftermath, though, there were handshakes and pats on the back after another solid run for a No. 78 team that’s becoming more and more of a regular contender with Busch behind the wheel. The All-Star showing comes one week after Busch led 69 laps at Darlington, and he was also in the mix late at Talladega and Richmond.

“We’re stoked with the finish,” Busch said. “And yet, you want more. But fifth place in an All-Star race, and a good showing, at the end of the day, there’s no points. You’re only racing for the million bucks to win it. So second on back doesn’t matter.”

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Posted on May 19, 2013 by

Five-time Series champion could be chasing history in 2014

A cursory glance at Jimmie Johnson’s racing resume will tell you that the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet is a lock to make the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

But Johnson is still writing history, and in Saturday night’s Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, he added another gaudy tile to his mosaic of accomplishment.

Johnson now owns the record for most All-Star Race wins with four, breaking a tie with Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Jeff Gordon.

Johnson is the only driver in the history of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to win five-straight championships, the last one coming in 2010. In fact, no other driver had ever won more than three straight, and only one driver — Cale Yarborough — had accomplished that trifecta before Johnson came along.

"I still feel like there’s a lot left I can do in this sport, and I’ll work hard to do that."

— Jimmie Johnson

A winner of 62 Cup points races in 410 starts, Johnson already is eighth on the all-time list. Remember, this is a man who got a relatively late start, by modern standards, to his career at NASCAR’s highest level.

He was 26 when he finished his first full season of Cup racing in fifth place in the standings. In the 10 seasons since then, he has won the title five times, finished second twice, third once, fifth once and sixth once.

This year, he tops the standings again through 11 races, with a massive 44-point lead over second-place Carl Edwards. And where four-time champion Gordon, the man who lobbied for Johnson’s hiring at Hendrick, is talking about losing a step at age 41, Johnson, who is just four years younger, is still exploring the depth of his talent.

Yet we don’t appreciate Johnson as much as we should, in part because he makes what he does seem so effortless — and in part because he’s a legitimate threat to the iconic records of drivers who are revered throughout the NASCAR fan base, specifically the record seven championships of Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.

Self-effacing, non-controversial and businesslike, Johnson doesn’t have the larger-than-life presence that Petty and Earnhardt exuded in their heydays. Nevertheless, there’s an enormity to Johnson’s accomplishments.

There are those who discount Johnson’s record, citing the importance of crew chief Chad Knaus to the equation. It’s true that Knaus is essential to Johnson’s success, but the same could be said of the driver/crew chief relationships of other icons of the sport, relationships that were necessary to form the critical mass that produced greatness.

Petty had his Dale Inman. Earnhardt had his Kirk Shelmerdine. David Pearson had his Leonard Wood. Gordon had his Ray Evernham.

There’s justifiable pride, but no braggadocio, in Johnson. He’d prefer to let his record do the talking, and it will. Asked about his legacy after Saturday’s race, Johnson’s reply was predictably modest.

“Truthfully I don’t think it’s a question that I’m to answer,” he said. “I still have a lot of years left in my career, and that’s something that the public, the mass… that’s what other people come up with. I don’t think it’s right for me to sit here and say, ‘Hey, I’m this guy, I’m the guy or anything in-between.

“Very proud of what I’ve accomplished, but I still feel like there’s a lot left I can do in this sport, and I’ll work hard to do that. When I’m old, sitting in a rocking chair, hopefully people think highly of what I’ve done and give me a tip of the hat.”

In all probability, Johnson won’t have to wait that long. If the major story of 2013 is the introduction NASCAR’s new Gen-6 race car, the focus of 2014 is likely to be Johnson’s quest for a record-tying seventh Sprint Cup title.

The King and the Intimidator may have to make room for Jimmie.

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