The Hot Pass: Rivals stumble as Johnson cruises
With the strength of the Chase field, it's unlikely that this year's champion will be allowed a mulligan.
But as Jimmie Johnson cruised to his third win in this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup (and his first win at Lowe's Motor Speedway since 2005), half of his title rivals wish they could have a do-over as they encountered misfortune Saturday night.
Juan Pablo Montoya had a 3.5 average finish in the Chase — then came the NASCAR Banking 500.
On the Lap 125 restart, Jeff Gordon laid back, causing an accordion effect where Montoya, who was 11th at the time, ran into the back of Clint Bowyer and got hit from behind by Mark Martin. Martin damaged the nose of his car and lost several positions until the team could make repairs on the next stop.
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Although Brian Vickers was farther back in 21st, he sustained damage as well and returned to the pits immediately with a right-rear tire rub. Vickers dropped to 39th and went down two laps. Vickers ended the evening 34th and remains in the Chase cellar.
Montoya ran as high as fourth prior to the incident but experienced handling problems almost immediately. In eight laps, Montoya had dropped to 26th. By Lap 148, Montoya was scored 30th, one lap down.
Spotter Tab Boyd reported the damage from behind "separated the bumper from the quarter panel." Montoya was indifferent. "My car is done anyway."
As Montoya manhandled the No. 42 Chevrolet into Turns 3 and 4, "I can't hold it wide open. I'm afraid I'm going to go two laps down."
Montoya was prophetic. On Lap 164, he spun off of Turn 4. The pit crew adhered a makeshift quarter-panel onto the rear of the car and Montoya restarted 37th, two laps down. He finished 35th, four laps down and plummeted three positions to sixth in the standings.
Montoya triggered the sixth caution on Lap 190 when the sheet metal flew off his car. Denny Hamlin was third when the yellow flew, but returned to the pits with a loss of power. Crew chief Mike Ford radioed that the No. 11 car had dropped a valve. On the restart, Hamlin lined up 27th but reported, "I'm wide open. I don't think I'm going to make it." Hamlin headed for the garage on Lap 192 — his second straight DNF in the Chase. Hamlin finished 42nd and dropped two positions to 11th in the standings.
Martin fell off the lead lap on Lap 289, but became the beneficiary on the eighth caution on Lap 304. Martin recovered to 17th and maintained second place in the standings with a 45-point edge over Gordon.
Carl Edwards' issues started almost as early as the race began. Edwards started 28th but had dropped to 38th by the third caution on Lap 36 and was complaining about his car.
"I just can't drive it," said Edwards, who had an average finish of 10th at LMS entering the race. "I'm going to wreck. It keeps getting looser and looser."
Edwards made it to Lap 299 when his engine expired. He was scored 39th and fell two spots to 10th in the standings.
"It was bad," Edwards said. "We had everything kind of go bad all in one night, which, in a way, I guess you can say that's fortunate. That engine was probably gonna blow up whether or not we were running bad. If that was the 17's (Matt Kenseth) engine, that would be heartbreaking. I think it just showed a little mercy on us and let me go home early right now."
Greg Biffle ran as high as fifth midway through the race but was drawn into a four-wide run down the backstretch on Lap 311 which resulted in David Stremme bouncing off the Turn 4 wall and into the 16. Biffle was 12th before he went spinning across the frontstretch but salvaged a 16th-place finish.
"We're just fighting for the highest spot in points we can finish, which isn't looking bad for us right now considering (Montoya) had problems and (Edwards) and (Vickers)," Biffle said. "Our goal is to finish as high in points as we possibly can and if that's one, two, three, four or five, that's what it is."
Defining moment
Jimmie Johnson beat Kasey Kahne off of pit road by a nose on Lap 292 after the No. 9 had enjoyed a dominant 44-lap run. In clean air, Johnson was able to extend his lead. With the exception of trading the point with teammate Jeff Gordon for two circuits after the final caution on Lap 317, Johnson was able to "set sail" as crew chief Chad Knaus predicted.
Numbers game
Slip 'n Slide
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Knaus experienced his perfect weekend by leading all three practices, winning the pole and winning the race.
But Jimmie Johnson's sixth win also ties him for all-time victories with Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Johnson's 46th career Cup victory places him 13th on the all-time list, tied with Buck Baker. It's also Johnson 17th win in 55 Chase races for a winning percentage of 30.9.
Comeback kid
Brad Keselowski can't seem to catch a break.
Two weeks after NASCAR reprimanded him for being too racy with the Chasers, the sanctioning body popped the No. 25 car with a speeding penalty on Lap 36 Saturday night.
Keselowski was ninth before the stop but restarted 40th. He fought back to the top 10 before finishing 12th.
"What a great finish for the GoDaddy.com Chevy and for the No. 25 team tonight," Keselowski said. "We had a really great car and I want to attribute that to Tony (Eury Jr., crew chief) and the guys on this team. It's been a privilege to work with them this season and I'm glad we could end on a high note. I want to again thank Mr. (Rick) Hendrick for the opportunity to drive the 25 car and work with Tony Jr. and the R & D team. I've really enjoyed it and learned a lot in the process."
Underdog of the race
David Reutimann suffered from the flu entering the NASCAR Banking 500 but he refused to get out of the seat.
Reutimann wheeled the No. 00 Toyota from 21st into the top 10 before a problem with a lugnut in the pits hampered his progress.
"I'm about one notch above death," Reutimann said after he climbed from the car. "With about 30 to go, we were struggling pretty bad. The yellows helped a little bit. The guys were able to keep fluids in me."
Say what?
After Carl Edwards' engine failed 299 laps into the race:
"That's a mercy killing there."
