Four-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s/KOBALT TOOLS Chevrolet, delivered a statement about his chances for a “Drive for Five” as he scored a resounding win in the AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway on Sunday afternoon. Johnson led five times for a race high 191 laps en route to his 53rd career victory and sixth of 2010.
Coming into the Dover race, the Hendrick Motorsports driver had not visited victory lane since winning at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in June - a stretch of 10 races. The win not only was Johnson’s 53rd in 319 career races, but was the 194th for Hendrick Motorsports in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series history. Johnson has also won 19 of the 62 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series “Chase” races, more than any other driver.
Jeff Burton, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet matched his best finish of the season by coming home in the runner up position. His only other 2nd place run in 2010 also came at The Monster Mile in the Spring event.
The win counteracted Johnson’s 25th place finish at New Hampshire last week, which left Johnson 92 points back in the Chase, and vaulted him back to second place, now just 35 points behind leader Denny Hamlin.
“Obviously it was the weekend we would dream of. We got the pole, led the most laps and won the race,” Johnson said. “I had a great car and everybody did their jobs today. I was very pleased with the effort and it came at a good time obviously. We’ve got eight [races] to go and we’ll see where it goes from here.”
“We really had our hands full this weekend,” said crew chief Chad Knaus. “We came in qualifying trim, and as we unloaded, the car wasn’t reacting the way we anticipated. So we had to make some pretty significant changes, and when it came time to qualify, we had to put a setup under there that Jimmie hadn’t felt yet.
“For race practice, we weren’t where we needed to be then either. Honestly, we could adjust the car and make it do some different things, but we couldn’t really make the car better. The difference today was definitely the driver.”
The driver came out of the race knocking on Hamlin’s door in the points standings, although Hamlin’s 35-point advantage is the largest a driver has ever had after two races since the Chase was implemented in 2004. Hamlin finished 9th, which was no small accomplishment considering his history at Dover. He finished 4th in the May race this year, but before that had finished no higher than 22nd in the five previous races.
“It was a mediocre day,” Hamlin said. “I hate that we didn’t run better, but we got close to where we wanted to be leaving Dover. It’s frustrating that we still can’t get a grasp on this race track and didn’t run as well as we did in the spring. But if you told me I’d be taking a 35 point lead out of Dover, I’d take it.”
FIN CAR DRIVER MAKE 1 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 2 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet 3 20 Joey Logano Toyota 4 2 Kurt Busch Dodge 5 99 Carl Edwards Ford 6 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 7 98 Paul Menard Ford 8 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 9 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 10 43 A.J. Allmendinger Ford 11 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 12 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet 13 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 14 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet 15 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 16 83 Reed Sorenson Toyota 17 19 Elliott Sadler Ford 18 17 Matt Kenseth Ford 19 16 Greg Biffle Ford 20 47 Marcos Ambrose Toyota 21 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 22 12 Brad Keselowski Dodge 23 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 24 6 David Ragan Ford 25 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 26 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet 27 9 Bobby Labonte Chevrolet 28 9 Kasey Kahne Ford 29 13 Casey Mears Toyota 30 38 David Gilliland Ford 31 37 Tony Raines Ford 32 82 Scott Speed Toyota 33 34 Travis Kvapil Ford 34 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 35 0 David Reutimann Toyota 36 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge 37 7 Kevin Conway * Toyota 38 71 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 39 46 Michael McDowell Dodge 40 55 Mike Bliss Toyota 41 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota 42 81 J.J. Yeley Dodge 43 36 Dave Blaney Chevrolet
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