Denny Hamlin’s victory in Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 wasn’t a knockout blow to Jimmie Johnson’s title hopes, but it did deliver a stinging message to the four-time defending Cup Series champion.
Hamlin’s win, his series-best eighth of the season, his second in a row at Texas Motor Speedway and the 16th of his career, was perhaps more effective than the haymaker Jeff Gordon—yes, Jeff Gordon—tried to lay on Jeff Burton after Burton wrecked the No. 24 Chevrolet under caution on Lap 192.
And Hamlin’s victory certainly wasn’t as surprising as crew chief Chad Knaus’ dismissal of Johnson’s No. 48 over-the-wall crew after a series of blown pit stops. With Gordon’s No. 24 crew available, Knaus knocked his own crewmen out of the box; the last straw was slow work on the right-front tire under caution on Lap 194.
Johnson minimized the damage with a ninth-place finish, but repeated loss of track position helped transform his 14-point lead over Hamlin entering the event into a 33-point deficit as the series heads to Phoenix with two races left. NASCAR.com
“What a run,” said Hamlin, who recorded his 16th career Cup victory. “I felt like that was as aggressive as I’ve been on restarts all year. I did what I had to do.”
Hamlin started 30th and struggled to move through the field in the early going.
“At the beginning of the race, we were struggling and running 25th, and I couldn’t go anywhere,” he said. “On every stop, we just kept working on it and adjusting it. As soon as it turned nightfall, our car just took off.”
Kenseth rebounded from a one-lap deficit to finish second.
“Gosh, I’ve lost a lot of close ones here, and it always seems like I come up last,” Kenseth said.
Mark Martin took the third spot, while Joey Logano and Greg Biffle rounded out the top-five. Biffle suffered transmission problems after he had led a race- high 224 laps. MiamiHerald.com
Johnson had troublesome pit stops that led to an unusual midrace crew change when Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon’s crew was conveniently available. Gordon got wrecked out of the race and then shoved Jeff Burton on the track when they got out of their mangled cars.
“It was just a long day,” Johnson said. “I had speed in the car. We worked our way forward and had issues on pit road. ... We gave away so much track position from the beginning. It’s tough to get back where we needed to.”
While Hamlin and Johnson rarely were side-by-side on the track, their pit stalls were. Hamlin’s crew picked the one right in front of the defending champion, a bit of gamesmanship that might have impacted the outcome.
“When it was time to choose pits, that one was an option. I felt like that was our best option. You take the Chase hat off and you say, what’s going to be best for our race team, and I felt like we could outrun those guys all day,” Hamlin crew chief Mike Ford said. “We went beside them, and those guys faltered, and it made them panic and push to the point where they made changes. I think it worked out very well for us.”
On two stops early in the race, Johnson lost ground because of problems changing the front right tire. He had climbed to as high as second before those stops, and restarted after the second troubled stop — during a caution — in 13th place while Hamlin and Harvick both ran in the top six.
When Gordon was knocked out of the race, his crew went to work on the No. 48 car while Johnson’s crew went and packed up the No. 24 car’s stall.
“We needed to do something ... It’s sad we had to do that,” said Chad Knaus, Johnson’s crew chief.
“With everything on the line you’ve got to perform. We have to do our job,” Johnson said. “With the 24 out of the race it was a good opportunity for us to try it. It might be different to our sport in some ways. But man, you watch pro sports and if people aren’t getting the job done you’ve got to pull them out and put somebody else in.” The Associated Press
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