Jimmie Johnson earns shot at record-tying title with Martinsville win
Jimmie Johnson knows what it’s like to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.
After all, he’s won six of them.
But he has never known what it’s like to race hard for one on the final day of the season since NASCAR went to the elimination format for its Chase for the Sprint Cup playoffs in 2014.
This year, he will.
Johnson won the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, securing his spot in the Championship 4 race that will determine this season’s Sprint Cup champion in three weeks at Homestead. It was his ninth career victory at the 0.526-mile short track, and the 79th win of his career.
"Burn it out, brother!" crew chief Chad Knaus told his driver as Johnson began a post-race celebratory burnout.
If Johnson can finish ahead of the three other Chase drivers who will advance to the Homestead race on Nov. 20, he would win a record-tying seventh championship. Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt each won seven titles during their driving careers as well.
"I’ve been trying to ignore this conversation about seven (championships) but now I can’t," said Johnson, who led 92 laps. "We’re locked in. I’m just honored to be in this position."
Brad Keselowski, who has been eliminated from the Chase, finished second Sunday -- followed by a trio of Chasers from Joe Gibbs Racing who still harbor championship hopes in Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch. Kenseth actually led a race-high 176 laps on the day.
"We had a good day, but not a great day," Kenseth said. "The guy who had a great day is the guy doing a burnout."
Other Chasers did not fare as well at Martinsville.
Carl Edwards, for instance, ran into big trouble on Lap 357 of the 500-lap event.
Edwards was running in the top 10 in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota when he blew a right-front tire and clobbered the wall hard, jeopardizing his chances of advancing in the Chase.
The hard impact sent Edwards into the pits and then behind the wall for lengthy repairs on his car.
It was not the start Edwards wanted for the first Round of 8 Chase race, since he’ll now probably have to win next week at Texas or the week after at Phoenix to advance to the championship round of the Chase at Homestead.
Both Keselowski and Hamlin, who led 48 laps, questioned a lengthy caution period that occurred when NASCAR had trouble figuring out the proper running order of the field before a mid-race restart.
Keselowski was asked afterward if he thought he could have caught Johnson had there been more green-flag laps.
“Yes. I know what you’re thinking, I’m thinking it too. You can say it, I can’t," the driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford said in reply to the question. "We don’t need to run 100 laps under yellow with the field not trying to figure out where they’re at, and it probably cost us the race.”
Hamlin contended he was incorrectly passed by other cars -- including that of fellow Chase contender Kevin Harvick -- when NASCAR attempted to sort out the mess.
"I was just confused on the scoring and why they couldn’t get the scoring right," Hamlin said. "There were a couple cars that stole a lap back from us and the other leaders.
"You’ve got to get it right in these situations. Every point matters. There’s got to be a better way because there’s 20 cameras all over my race car and it shows the cars going by me. That’s disappointing that we can’t get that right."
Johnson overcame several obstacles of his own to win. He battled much of the day with the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Hamlin, who bumped Johnson out of the way to take the lead on Lap 200 -- which resulted in a tire rub on the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy. That forced Johnson to pit road for repairs and dropped him all the way to 25th in the field after the stop took 40 seconds, nearly four times the length of time that is normally acceptable for a routine stop these days in NASCAR's top series.
Johnson also appeared to run out of fuel after working his way back into the top 10 around with just under 150 laps remaining. But he got the car re-fired, came to pit road to get the car checked out and serviced, and was able to get back on the track without falling out of contention for the win.
"There were a lot of moments, but anything in life you have to work for," Johnson said after notching his fourth win of the season and his second in seven Chase playoff races. "It's not going to come easy and we knew that coming into this race. There are so many challenges with this track."
Johnson laughed when he was asked about the possibility of joining a couple of racing legends and Hall of Famers in total NASCAR Premier Series championships.
“I’ll probably lie to all of you guys and say I’m not going to think about it at all. But it’s inevitable," he said. "Fortunately, I don’t have to think about it for three weeks. But we’re going to enjoy this and savor it. We’re going to get our ducks in a row for Homestead.”
