Jimmie Johnson Salves Hendrick Wounds
Written by John Davison · October 31, 2004
Jimmie Johnson put a cap on the most painful week in the history of Hendrick Motorsports with a win at the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 Sunday.
Following his win last week at Martinsville, the HMS teams were notified of the airplane crash which claimed the lives of team president John Hendrick and his twin daughters; owner Rick Hendrick’s son Ricky and six more, including the plane’s pilot and copilot, putting a pall on the entire week. Sunday afternoon, Johnson claimed his third-consecutive win, following victories at Charlotte and Martinsville, to begin the healing process for the Hendrick organization.
Mark Martin came off a very disappointing finish at Martinsville to dominate the race before a pair of late race cautions dropped Martin to second and spoiled the team’s strategy, letting Johnson around on fresher tires to take the win. “Pat Tryson was a sitting duck. He lost either way when they threw that caution,” said Martin. “If I find out that that caution was for the show, I’ll choke. I saw the 29 car coasting slow and if I’d have been NASCAR, I would have told somebody to push him off of pit road. It wasn’t a problem and I hate that, but we were a sitting duck. If we pitted, they stay out and win. If we stay out, they pit. So it was nobody’s fault but those caution flags.”
“Once I got in the car today and knew what I was supposed to do, I honestly forgot about everything until I took the checkered flag,” said Johnson. He stopped under the starter’s stand following the race and carried the checkered flag around the track in a “Polish Victory Lap” salute to the crowd. “I wanted to do the victory lap to honor our friends. It doesn’t change anything and we don’t get back our friends that we lost. But it sure makes all of us feel a little better to be able to do something like this,” explained the winner.
Just a dozen laps from the end of the race, Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt Jr were battling for position when Earnhardt’s car touched Edwards’, sending the No. 8 Chevy spinning into the inside wall and out of the race. “I was racing for the win there, but I think I came up on Carl (Edwards) there and turned myself into the inside fence there and tore my car up,” Earnhardt said. “We had a good car today. It was kind of disappointing to lose all those points but I don’t think it was Carl’s fault there. I just came up on him I think and it went from there.”
Earnhardt’s woes dropped him two positions in the chase for the NEXTEL Cup, where at one time he stood to close within 2 points of point leader Kurt Busch. Earnhardt ended the race in 33rd place and some 98 points back of Busch. Busch exited the race early with a blown engine, allowing Johnson to close to second place, within 59 points of Busch. Jeff Gordon dropped a place, to third in points, after a 34th-place finish in the race.
Unofficial Finish, Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500, Atlanta Motor Speedway
Fin, Str, Driver, Car, Laps, Pts, Bns, Award, Status, Ti. Led, Lps Led
1, 8, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, 325, 185, 5, $298,250, Running, 4, 17
2, 7, Mark Martin, No. 6 Viagra Ford, 325, 180, 10, $238,500, Running, 4, 227
3, 4, Carl Edwards, No. 99 World Finanical Group Ford, 325, 170, 5, $180,117, Running, 2, 15
4, 2, Joe Nemechek, No. 01 U.S. Army Chevrolet, 325, 165, 5, $145,050, Running, 2, 3
5, 32, Kasey Kahne #, No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge, 325, 160, 5, $137,275, Running, 1, 4
6, 21, Jeff Burton, No. 30 America Online Chevrolet, 325, 150, , $110,700, Running
7, 13, Brian Vickers #, No. 25 GMAC Chevrolet, 325, 146, , $100,250, Running
8, 29, Jamie McMurray, No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge, 325, 142, , $99,325, Running
9, 15, Tony Stewart, No. 20 The Home Depot Chevrolet, 324, 138, , $130,063, Running
10, 5, Greg Biffle, No. 16 National Guard/Subway Ford, 324, 134, , $95,735, Running
11, 12, Rusty Wallace, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge, 324, 130, , $128,233, Running
12, 43, Ricky Rudd, No. 21 Rent-a-Center Motorcraft Ford, 324, 127, , $108,456, Running
13, 16, Casey Mears, No. 41 Target Dodge, 324, 124, , $98,625, Running
14, 40, Michael Waltrip, No. 15 NAPA Chevrolet, 324, 126, 5, $113,081, Running, 1, 1
15, 20, Dale Jarrett, No. 88 UPS Ford, 324, 118, , $111,742, Running
16, 14, Robby Gordon, No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet, 324, 115, , $110,512, Running
17, 1, Ryan Newman, No. 12 Mobil 1/ALLTEL Dodge, 323, 117, 5, $138,092, Running, 2, 58
18, 25, Brendan Gaughan #, No. 77 Jasper Eng. & Trans./Kodak Dodge, 323, 109, , $85,225, Running
19, 41, Sterling Marlin, No. 40 Coors Light Dodge, 323, 106, , $109,400, Running
20, 19, Bobby Labonte, No. 18 Wellbutrin XL
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I tend to agree with Martin, no need for the Harvick caution. At the same time the only teams that would have had any motivation to push him out of the way would have been his own crew and they would have had to make to sprint to his location. Any other opposing crew members would all have been hoping for the caution.
Considering it was Halloween, I believe the “Mistress of the Dark,” Elvira cast a spell over most of the top ten Chase contenders.