Johnson Overcomes Early Blowout to Take Indy
Written by John Davison · August 6, 2006
Jimmie Johnson, driving nearly the entire race with smoke coming off the left front tire of his No. 48 Chevrolet, ended the day with the fastest car on the track, easily passing Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr for the lead after a late-race caution to clean up debris on the track.
Pole winning Jeff Burton struggled in the later stages of the race to finish 12th after leading over half the race. Johnson led the next most laps, followed by Kevin Harvick and Kenseth. Only Johnson, Burton and Harvick led more than ten laps, Kenseth holding the lead for only nine, Kyle Busch led eight laps; Brian Vickers led two laps, while Joe Nemechek, Kasey Kahne and Kenny Wallace each headed one round of the old 2.5-mile rectangle.
Early in the race, Johnson suffered a blown left-front tire, possibly echoing the problems suffered in final practice by third-place qualifier Kurt Busch, who blew that corner and destroyed his car, dropping to the back of the field in a backup car. For nearly the entire rest of the race, Johnson’s car showed smoke from that corner, but the crew kept making adjustments and brought it to the front of the field.
Johnson’s fellow Hendrick Motorsports driver Jeff Gordon had troubles with his front antisway bar, allowing the car to lean in the turns and scrape the track. The team made repairs under a caution, after he dropped several laps down but pit strategy and a couple of “lucky dog” passes got the No. 24 car back to the lead lap where he eventually finished 16th.
Elliott Sadler brought out the first caution after he lost the air on his rear spoiler and crashed hard on the third lap. “I got really loose in front of the 01 car getting into turn two, and kind of took the air off our spoiler, and just lost it,” explained Sadler. “It’s a shame, it’s 100 percent our fault.” In spite of the early caution, NASCAR still threw a competition yellow for the teams to check their left-front tires after two cars had problems in final practice Saturday.
Just after this caution, Boris Said had his third start as an owner cut short. His Ford spun when Reed Sorenson tapped him. Said’s Ford landed on the access road with both rear springs knocked out of the car. Said was disappointed but uninjured. “I don’t know, somebody just got into me just a little bit - just enough,” the road racing ace explained. “It was just a racing deal. It wasn’t on purpose or anything, I don’t think. I don’t know who it was, but it’s unfortunate. I really just wanted to bide my time and be there at the end and learn. I’m not used to going out this early in a race, so I feel bad. I feel like I let the team down and all those fans who are supporting our SoBe Energy Drink car. It’s disappointing, but I’ll go home and watch it on the hotel TV.”
With Burton and Johnson dominating the race, the real action seemed in the pits as teams continually searched for the ideal setup under changing conditions. Johnson’s Chad Knaus-led team hit their stride after the early tire problem while the other teams all seemed to hunt for the setup. Mark Martin finished in fifth place after starting 17th but Martin’s fellow Roush driver Matt Kenseth made the biggest advance of any top five finisher: 18, finishing second to Johnson.
Kurt Busch made the biggest advance from his position at the first green flag as he started in 39th after switching to his backup car and moved on to finish tenth. “We were listed as 10th at the end, but man we had to struggle today. The backup car gave us some signs of hope, but it was real tight at times and loose at others. We just couldn’t quite nail it down,” said Busch, describing his day. “We were fast at times today, especially early on but when the track got rubbered in our car got tight and we had to hang on. It was a good finish, but we really need to crack the top five if we want to make this Chase easier on ourselves. Tenth is good and we’ll take it, especially with a backup car, but on pit road is where we made up most of our spots. We’ve just got to make the car a little better. A top 10 was all we had in mind today.
Busch had a troublesome pit stop in the race, with the left front wheel left loose. “We even had to go back to the back again after a left front was loose. We had a hard-fought day. Indy challenges you in so many ways. It’s good to have The Captain [team owner Roger Penske] on my side and we finished 10th. We got the most points out of today possible, more than we deserved actually, but a top 10 feels good.”
Unofficial Finish, Allstate 400 at the Brickyard
Fin, St, Driver, Car, Laps, Pts/Bonus, Status
1, 5, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, 160 laps, 185/5 pts, Running
2, 20, Matt Kenseth, No. 17 DEWALT Ford, 160, 175/5,
3, 10, Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Reese’s Chevrolet, 160, 170/5,
4, 2, Clint Bowyer *, No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet, 160, 160/0,
5, 19, Mark Martin, No. 6 AAA Insurance Ford, 160, 155/0,
6, 31, Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet, 160, 150/0,
7, 37, Kyle Busch, No. 5 Kellogg’s/Delphi Chevrolet, 160, 151/5,
8, 22, Carl Edwards, No. 99 Office Depot “Back to School” Ford, 160, 142/0,
9, 32, Tony Stewart, No. 20 The Home Depot Chevrolet, 160, 138/0,
10, 3, Kurt Busch, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge, 160, 134/0,
11, 13, Tony Raines, No. 96 DLP HDTV Chevrolet, 160, 130/0,
12, 1, Jeff Burton, No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet, 160, 137/10,
13, 14, Denny Hamlin *, No. 11 FedEx Express Chevrolet, 160, 124/0,
14, 11, Ken Schrader, No. 21 Little Debbie Ford, 160, 121/0,
15, 8, Ryan Newman, No. 12 ALLTEL Fastap Dodge, 160, 118/0,
16, 16, Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Hot Hues Chevrolet, 160, 115/0,
17, 30, Brian Vickers, No. 25 GMAC Chevrolet, 160, 117/5,
18, 24, David Stremme *, No. 40 Coors Light Dodge, 160, 109/0,
19, 23, Martin Truex Jr. *, No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Chevrolet, 160, 106/0,
20, 34, Scott Wimmer, No. 4 Lucas Oil/Forward Air Chevrolet, 160, 103/0,
21, 12, Scott Riggs, No. 10 Stanley Tools/Valvoline Dodge, 160, 100/0,
22, 26, Bill Elliott, No. 100 Burger King Chevrolet, 160, 97/0,
23, 39, Casey Mears, No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge, 160, 94/0,
24, 21, Joe Nemechek, No. 01 U.S. Army Chevrolet, 160, 96/5,
25, 18, Jamie McMurray, No. 26 Crown Royal Ford, 160, 88/0,
26, 40, Kyle Petty, No. 45 Tire Kingdom Dodge, 160, 85/0,
27, 36, Travis Kvapil, No. 32 Tide-Downy Chevrolet, 160, 82/0,
28, 35, Dale Jarrett, No. 88 UPS Ford, 160, 79/0,
29, 41, Reed Sorenson *, No. 41 Target Dodge, 160, 76/0,
30, 42, Dave Blaney, No. 22 Caterpillar/Cat Financial Dodge, 160, 73/0,
31, 33, Sterling Marlin, No. 14 Waste Management Chevrolet, 160, 70/0,
32, 28, Kenny Wallace, No. 178 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet, 160, 72/5,
33, 7, Greg Biffle, No. 16 National Guard Ford, 160, 64/0,
34, 6, J.J. Yeley *, No. 18 Imitrex/GSK Chevrolet, 160, 61/0,
35, 4, Kasey Kahne, No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge, 159, 63/5,
36, 9, Robby Gordon, No. 7 Menards/Johns Manville Chevrolet, 159, 55/0,
37, 17, Mike Skinner, No. 37 Checkers/Rally’s Dodge, 159, 52/0,
38, 29, Jeff Green, No. 66 Inta Juice Chevrolet, 159, 49/0,
39, 25, Chad Chaffin, No. 34 Race El Paso Dodge, 158, 46/0,
40, 38, Bobby Labonte, No. 43 Totino’s MEGA Pizza Rolls Dodge, 135, 43/0, Out
41, 15, Jeremy Mayfield, No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge, 82, 40/0, Out
42, 43, Boris Said, No. 160 SOBE - No Fear Ford, 20, 37/0, Out
43, 27, Elliott Sadler, No. 38 Snickers Ford, 3, 34/0, Out
*: Rookie
Comments
One Response to “Johnson Overcomes Early Blowout to Take Indy”
Got something to say?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Any bets on how closely the officials will look at Johnson’s car during post race inspections? I noticed smoke coming from the right front tire area at every corner during the closing laps; initially I thought it was a tire rub. Looking closer I realized the color of the smoke was wrong, (grey, not blue) and it was the front valance dragging on the track.
Penalties for illegal shocks or springs forthcoming? Possible DQ due to Chad’s other penalties this year?? Wouldn’t that be a kick in the gut!