Christa L.Thomas/Chevrolet - Jimmie Johnson won the NASCAR All-Star race on Saturday night for a record fourth time.
Well, what will NASCAR, Sprint and Charlotte Motor Speedway come up with next? What will the best minds in racing do to slow the Jimmie Johnson-Chad Knaus juggernaut in NASCAR's annual All-Star race? What diabolical format can they conjure to give the rest of the field a shot?
The answer: perhaps nothing short of locking the gate will keep the No. 48 Chevrolet team from victory lane in the exhibition race.
Johnson and Knaus took advantage of last year's somewhat lazy format to win the $1 million-plus race. This year, with a new format designed to force teams to race harder in all five segments, Johnson and Knaus won again, this time by leading only the final 10 laps. (They also won in 2003 and 2006 with a different format and different rules. Johnson thus passed teammate Jeff Gordon and the late Dale Earnhardt for career All-Star wins.)
This year's format was fairly simple: four 20-lap segments and a final 10-lap shootout to decide the overall winner. There was a mandatory four-tire stop between the fourth and fifth segments, and drivers would enter pit road based on their average finish in the earlier segments. The harder you ran (the thinking was), the closer to the front you'd enter pit road for the mandatory stop.
Johnson started 18th on the 22-car grid and briefly looked like anything but a contender. He finished 15th in the first segment, then rallied to finish fourth, third and third in the next segments. He entered pit road fourth and came out second, finally where he needed to be. He quickly took the lead from Kasey Kahne on the final restart and drove away to a 1.722-second victory.
“I didn't do us any favors in (Friday night) qualifying,” Johnson said after becoming only the second driver (behind the late Davey Allison in 1991 and 1992) with consecutive All-Star wins. “I was fearful we wouldn't be on the first or second row for the final restart, and I felt the winner would come from up there. We didn't finish very well in the first segment, but we chipped away at good finishes the rest of the night. And the pit stop put us on the front row for the last 10 laps, right where we need to be.”
Johnson won easily over Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Kahne, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Sprint Showdown winner Jamie McMurray, Matt Kenseth and pole-winner Carl Edwards. The rest of the 22-driver field: Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Showdown runner-up Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Marcos Ambrose, Clint Bowyer, David Ragan and fan favorite Danica Patrick. Mechanical problems sidelined Mark Martin late and Brad Keselowski early.
The Busch brothers won four of the five segments, but Johnson won the only one that truly counted. Second-starting Kurt Busch led all 20 laps of the first segment -- interrupted by a 43-minute red flag for rain -- ahead of Kyle Busch, Bowyer, Edwards and Kahne.
Kyle Busch won the second segment, leading the final 12 laps after Bowyer led the first eight. Bowyer, Edwards, Kurt Busch and Johnson finished top five in that segment. Kyle Busch won the third segment by leading laps 44-60 after Bowyer had led 41-43. Kurt Busch was second, then Johnson, Earnhardt and Logano. Kahne then led laps 61-71 in the third segment, but Kurt Busch charged by and led the final nine laps in beating Kahne, Johnson, Kyle Busch and Logano.
The race turned dramatically in the pits. Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch went in first and second, then Kahne, Johnson and Logano. When they came out, Kahne was ahead of Johnson, Kyle Busch, Logano and Kurt Busch. But Johnson took the lead on the last restart and easily beat the rest of the field.
“This is incredible, especially the way we had to go about it,” Johnson said. “Through a lot of aggressive driving, a great handling car and a lot of different things – like Chad's strategy at different times to have us on better tires than some cars around us – we were able to keep clicking away at good finishes through the second, third and fourth segment. That got us to fourth (entering the pits) and our guys had an awesome top. We were on the front row and that's what we needed for 10 laps.”
For Kurt Busch, fifth-place was an especially difficult result. “We were one click slow on the pit stop and one click off on the final adjustment,” he said after his bittersweet night. “We came out fifth and got stuck in traffic, and I couldn't race back through it. We weren't perfect, but we're happy. To win some segments and be in position in the All-Star race shows the strength of this team. These guys put me in position with the best average finish through the first four segments, but we were just a shade slow on pit road. Even if we'd come out first, though, it would have been tough to hold off those guys.”
Kyle Busch felt he had the best car overall – it was hard to argue that point – but the pit stop ruined his night. “It came down to pit road, where my guys always prove their worth,” he said. “Unfortunately, we didn't have the best stop and came out third. That was the race right there. You've got to be on the front row if you're going to win this thing. It was just another missed opportunity with the best car and me behind the wheel, and not come home with a win.”
Johnson took a post-race swipe at critics – he didn't get specific – who often say his success is more luck than talent. The question was whether he and Knaus have reached a point where they don't worry about the All-Star format or the rules or how the race is run.
“No, we just get lucky, man,” Johnson said. “That's what people say. There's no talent involved… we just got lucky tonight.”
Kevin Harvick snatched Charlotte NASCAR Sprint Cup victory from Kasey Kahne at the end of a gruelling 600-mile race interrupted by two red flags.
His brother Kyle Busch suffered even worse luck.
Champion Brad Keselowski tangled with Danica Patrick while they ran three-wide with Stenhouse.
