He’s baaaack!
Jimmie Johnson answered all questions about his readiness to contend for a sixth consecutive Sprint Cup title with a dominating performance in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.
Johnson held off hard-charging Kasey Kahne in a green-white-checkered finish set up by Jeff Gordon’s blown engine on Lap 265. Johnson beat Kahne to the finish line by .548 seconds in a race that went five laps past its scheduled distance of 267 laps.
The victory was Johnson’s second of the season, the 55th of his career and the 20th in 74 career Chase races. He left Kansas tied with Rusty Wallace for eighth on the all-time Cup win list. NASCAR.com
“We’ve got a very strong group of guys, and we’ve been knocking on the door all year long,” Johnson said. “We got beat in some cases, and we beat ourselves at other times. Today, we went out there and did a great job. We got this car to victory lane.”
He also won at this 1.5-mile track for the second time.
Johnson sat 10th in the point standings after New Hampshire two weeks ago, but has since climbed to third in the rankings, just four points behind new leader Carl Edwards.
“I’m really happy with the way the team is clicking right now,” Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus said. “Jimmie is doing a really good job. The guys are doing a great job on pit road.” MiamiHerald.com
The win was also the 199th win for Johnson’s car owner, Rick Hendrick.
“This sport is so tough, look at all the second places we have this year (four),” Johnson said. “We have been close but just have not got the job done. We were glad to get the win done today.
“We did our job today and hopefully we can do it six more times.”
Kahne, 16th in points, challenged Johnson on the race-ending, two-lap finish but couldn’t get past the No. 48.
“I thought if I could get a good restart I’d have a shot, because my tires were a little fresher than his,” Kahne said. “Jimmie was the car to beat all day that I could tell, so I knew he was going to be fast once we got going.”
Brad Keselowski, the June winner at Kansas Speedway and the winner in Saturday’s Nationwide Series event, finished third.
Matt Kenseth finished fourth, while Carl Edwards mounted a furious charge to finish fifth after running back in the pack and falling a lap down earlier in the race.
Edwards left Kansas with the points lead by one ahead of Kevin Harvick. Topeka Capital Journal
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas - Race Results
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