In what was billed as a race full of potential payback after last week’s shootout at Sonoma, revenge had to wait until the final three laps of Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
That’s when Jimmie Johnson gave Kurt Busch’s No. 2 Dodge a race-winning retaliatory nudge as the drivers raced into Turn 3 on Lap 299.
Busch had shocked Johnson on Lap 294 of 301 at the 1.058-mile track when he shoved Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet up the track in Turn 3, moments after the final restart of the race. Busch’s lead was short-lived, however, as Johnson bumped him on Lap 299 and completed the winning pass in Turn 1 on Lap 300.
Tony Stewart ran second, .753 seconds behind Johnson, after his No. 14 Chevy slid into Busch’s Dodge in Turn 1 while overtaking him for the runner-up spot. Busch finished third, ahead of Jeff Gordon and Cup points leader Kevin Harvick. NASCAR.com
The four-time defending champion pulled away to win his second straight race after taking the checkered flag last week on the road course at Infineon Raceway.
It was a bump off the track that Johnson was most concerned about - his wife’s baby bump.
Johnson dedicated the win to his pregnant wife, Chandra, who is at home and due with their first child around the time of the July 10 race at Chicagoland Speedway. Johnson used Aric Almirola as his standby driver.
“Hopefully you didn’t go into labor with this victory,” he said to his wife. “Wait for me, I want to be a part of this.” MiamiHerald.com
“I was livid,” Johnson said. “I was so pissed off that he got into me, and I almost lost it at one point. … Once I got back going and I was still in second, I thought, man, I hope I catch you. I look forward to if I catch you, and my incentive was not necessarily to pass him.
“I just sat there as I put together a good lap or two, I saw that I caught him and this is going to work out just fine. … I just took that approach, got in there and of course I calmed down, just gave him a nudge and went on my way. But the laps leading up to that, I had great visions of a huge, spectacular crash.”
“I knew the thing that I had to try to do was try to get into Jimmie’s head and get him calmed down as best I could,” said crew chief Chad Knaus, adding that he was angry as well. “I felt like if he went at least a couple of laps, if we could at least maintain that distance with Kurt, he would be OK.
“I didn’t want it to go down like that, but (it) definitely made it pretty damned exciting.” USA Today
Busch said he gave the late-race run his best effort.
“Battling with Jimmie Johnson, we did what we could to get the lead,” he said. “We battled as best we could. It would have been great to hold those guys off. You just do the best with what you’ve got.”
The victory was Johnson’s fifth of the year. He was strong in the season’s early weeks but had been in what – for him – was a mini-slump before last week’s victory at Infineon Raceway. FOXNews
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NASCAR Sprint Cup: Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire - Race-Results
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