(AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Jimmie Johnson finished the day in the top-ten at Talladega with a sixth place finish that was a result more of luck than skill and 184 point lead over the Chase field. The win went to Jamie McMurray, whose last win was at Daytona in July of 2007 in another memorable finish over Kyle Busch. Kasey Kahne, Joey Logano, Greg Biffle, and Jeff Burton rounded out the top-five finishers to survive the messy final laps.
In typical Talladega fashion, the race did not begin to take shape until one of the favorites, Denny Hamlin, blew his engine on lap 137. The subsequent yellow brought the entire field through the pits. Many teams believed they were good to go to the end.
Jamie McMurray took the point for the first time in the day doing some trading with Dale Earnhardt Jr. being pushed by Casey Mears. While things were shaping up at the front, Jimmie Johnson, who chose to fall back and ride along through out the day, was in danger of losing the draft in the 25th spot with 25 laps to go.
Five laps later, Johnson had dropped back to 30th out of 33 cars on the track, causing some to question whether he had a car capable of mounting a charge forward. “Any ideas?” Johnson asked out of frustration and the fact that he had no love from other drivers.
At eight to go, Johnson had tacked on to the back of Kurt Busch and was beginning to progress back through the field. Johnson was back up to 25th in another lap, but lost his help when Kurt Busch experienced tire problems with seven laps to go.
The infamous lap 183
Johnson had momentum and made a break to the inside, on his charge to the front, and got blocked by Burton. It may have been the best thing to happen to Johnson all day.
Later in the same lap, Kevin Harvick made the same inside move on the field and was coming up along side a group of drivers that included Marcus Ambrose, Ryan Newman, and Tony Stewart. With a push from Ambrose, Newman got into the back of Stewart. The 39 car spun around and went airborne, with the back end coming up and flipping the car upside down onto the hood of Harvick as he was going for the pass.
Had Johnson not been held up by Burton, he more than likely would have been positioned on track where Harvick found himself. Instead, Johnson was one of a handful of cars that was able to come down pit road, unscathed, just before the race was red flagged so that Newman could be cut out from his car.
The first stroke of luck for Johnson was being held up on his charge. The second bit of luck was getting into the pits for fuel when he did. As the field returned to yellow conditions, there was some chaos in getting the cars back into line, causing the green, white, checker to be called off twice.
The added distance then began to cause attrition as cars that had not seen the pits since the yellow for Hamlin’s engine ran out of fuel. On the second go around, race notables like Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon were forced to come down for a splash of fuel. As a result, Johnson moved up all the way up to the twelfth spot.
Coming to the green, Knaus warned Johnson that others at the front would likely have fuel issues. When Johnson asked what his strategy should be, Knaus simply stated, “I have no idea.”
Sure enough, John Andretti ran out off gas in the tri oval, leaving Johnson in 11th crossing start/finish. Mark Martin barrel rolled in the front stretch after being hit by Martin Truex Jr., in an accident that collected several cars, as the field came to the white flag. Yellow flew after the white, freezing the field for the final go-around.
Leader and race winner, Mc Murray admitted that he coasted as much as possible on the final lap, as he too was in danger of running out of gas. Johnson gave kudos to Knaus for the fuel warning, “I might kiss you.”
Johnson was happy after surviving the race. “…[M]an, this isn't Halloween this is an early Christmas present. So we got through here well. Did not expect that. With the green-white-checker restart I thought we were 20th at the best and we came home with a top-10."
Aside from the controversy surrounding NASCAR’s role in how the racing evolved, the latest visit to Talladega proved just how important luck truly is at the sport’s largest track. In the case of Newman (and in light of both the spring and fall races), when luck is not on your side it looks as if the driver is a marked man. Conversely, when lady luck smiles on a driver, in the case of Johnson, running 31st miraculously can become a top-ten finish.
For more information on Southern California Motorsports, check out:
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Janelle Jalbert is a fan of a variety of racing formats and equally enjoys the history of the sport. Janelle grew up in an auto mechanic’s family and swears that there is carb spray running through her veins. She can be reached via email for both comments and story ideas. You can follow Janelle as the Southern California Motorsports Examiner on Twitter as @SoCalMotorsport.
Janelle also serves as the NASCAR Truck Series Examiner. Feel free to join the discussion about the hard racing in the CWTS at the NASCAR Truck Series Examiner fan page on Facebook
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