Jimmie Johnson won his seventh NASCAR title in 15 years on Sunday.
Advertisement
For Johnson, it’s the culmination of a self-appointed journey to tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr., the sport’s pillars, for number of championships.
Carl Edwards was in position to claim his first Sprint Cup after taking second from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and fellow-championship contender Kyle Busch with 24 laps to go.
Still, Edwards was the clear class of the field among the four championship contenders for most of the race. That was for the race and with 10 [laps] to go, what do you expect?
Edwards’ championship chances were gone in that fiery instant.
On the Lap 259 restart Logano tried to go way below Edwards, who moved down to block him.
Truex patiently fought his way back to the front, But near Lap 200 as he was passing Harvick for fifth place, Harvick rammed the right-side of Truex’s vehicle, sending it into the wall, causing serious aerodynamic damage.
The benefactor of Edwards’ error, though, was Johnson, who had darted through the wreck ahead of Busch and Logano. Following one last caution, on the race’s final restart, the No. 48 auto pushed past Kyle Larson on the inside line to take the lead, and held off all comers to take the win.
Johnson led only three laps all night long, but they were the three that mattered – the final three. The four finalists were setting the NASCAR season finale up for a frantic finish.
And after he strapped into his vehicle, he slowly drove down pit road and slapped hands with almost every crew member from every other team. That meant that the 48-car driver would have to start at the back of the field. Instead, Johnson got to the front of the pack, and rode his Lowe’s vehicle to the checkered flag.
Kyle Larson was second Sunday and Kevin Harvick third. Kyle Busch took himself out of contention with a head-scratcher of an under-caution pit stop with three laps to go. That was the drive of my life and it didn’t yield a championship, but I have a lot of pride in how we performed. He led seven times for 132 laps.
Carl Edwards is halfway to his first championship. He overcame a vehicle that was ill-handling and slower than those of fellow title contenders Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Joey Logano. But he did what he had to do to win his 7th championship on Sunday.
It was tough to see a wreck deny Edwards his moment, but also tough to not think NASCAR got its ideal ending Sunday night in the farmlands southwest of Miami. Logano got a spectacular start and dove to the inside to pass Edwards, who reacted by trying to cut Logano off. Logano clipped him from behind, sending Edwards into the inside wall and from there into a massive pileup with several following cars.
“I’m sure the world felt like anybody but Jimmie Johnson was going to win the championship with 20 [laps] to go”, said the victor. Officials determined body panels had been tweaked after going through pre-race laser inspection. But he then settled into a spot behind the leaders, worrying that he didn’t have anything better than a fifth-place vehicle. The quartet ran in top-10 during much of the long race to the delight of the sellout crowd, but they only led 57 laps in total. Edwards owned the mistake, refusing to lay complete blame on Logano. The similarity wasn’t lost on Stewart, whose success (49 wins) and temperament made him the closest person the Cup Series had to Earnhardt following the seven-time champion’s death in 2001.
The championship team was joined by vehicle owner Richard Childress, as well as Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart in Victory Lane.
For his final race, Stewart wore a helmet that was made to look weathered, sporting some actual rust.
“The one thing we have in our corner is we have Jimmie Johnson”. That bested Johnson’s 10.6 average finish in the playoff – which was good enough to win a title. He described the responsibility as “shared” – in other words, two drivers racing for the same space. What a resume for Jimmie Johnson.
Advertisement
Jimmie Johnson just makes it look that way.
