Jimmie Johnson dominates in Pocono
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| Johnson started the season by winning in Daytona and he won for the 3rd time this season in Pocono. |
Jimmie Johnson totally dominated the Pocono 400-mile NASCAR Sprint Cup race Sunday on the 2.5-mile trioval.
The final green flag flew with 4 laps to go and Johnson pulled out an immediate gap to Greg Biffle in Turn 1 and steadily pulled away to victory in the 160-lap race.
Biffle came home second for Ford just ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Tony Stewart came home 4th and Ryan Newman rounded out the top-5.
A week after a penalty for jumping the final restart at Dover knocked Johnson out of a near-certain victory, Johnson absolutely scorched the field in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Party in the Poconos 400, beating Greg Biffle to the finish line by 1.208 seconds.
The win was Johnson’s third of the season, his third at the Tricky Triangle and the 63rd of his career. Johnson increased his series lead over second-place Carl Edwards (18th Sunday) to a staggering 51 points after 14 races.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran third, followed by Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman. Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano completed the top 10.
"What a race car!" Johnson said after climbing from the No. 48 Chevrolet in Victory Lane. "Not only a great race car but an engine. We had fuel mileage and plenty of power. It was awesome on the straightaways today to be able to do what I wanted around other cars.
"So hats off to chassis, aero and the engine shop for this awesome race car."
You might think winning at Pocono for the first time since he swept both races here in 2004 might assuage the sting of last week’s penalty. You’d be wrong.
"No, but it’s OK," Johnson said. "It doesn’t make up for much, but we know we’re a great race team. Things won’t keep us down. We had a great race car today and had a lot of fun. That was a lot of fun out there."
Johnson avoided a surfeit of action in the late stages of the race — because he was ahead of it. By the time Dave Blaney’s spin brought out the fourth caution on Lap 138, the five-time champion already had led 106 laps.
That yellow followed a caution for an accident in the Tunnel Turn on Lap 133, when Juan Pablo Montoya drove hard into the corner under Matt Kenseth, lost control of his No. 42 and started a synchronized spin with Kenseth.
Subsequently, Johnson had to endure four restarts but did so as the leader and quickly regained control of the race in each instance. All told, Johnson led 128 of 160 laps.
Biffle was happy with a runner-up finish that jumped him three positions to 10th in the standings, but he conceded that his No. 16 Ford was no match for Johnson’s Chevy SS.
"Jimmie was in a league of his own," said Biffle, who took the green flag from the fourth position on the final restart with four laps left and surged past Earnhardt and Kyle Busch in the first corner. "I was going to have to get up beside him, take the air off him–something to try and gain an advantage.
"But I gave him such a good push on the restart I couldn’t catch back up with him… I couldn’t get him."
Though Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Kyle Busch and Hamlin finished sixth and eighth, respectively, Hamlin said he could feel a reduction in horsepower in his TRD (Toyota Racing Development) engine, after the engines were detuned in favor of reliability in reaction to several recent valve train failures.
"Any horsepower change is going to be a difficult thing to overcome, especially this week and next week (at Michigan), our two horsepower race tracks," Hamlin said. "I wouldn’t be opposed to say that other guys probably stepped up coming to this race track, and we took a step back.
"It’s kind of a double whammy, but it’s something TRD’s going to work through."
PRESS CONFERENCE
THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with our postâ€'race press conference for today's Party in the Poconos 400 here at Pocono Raceway. We'll get started with Chad Knaus, crew chief for the No. 48 Lowe's Kobalt Tools Chevrolet. Talk about that exciting race out there today.
CHAD KNAUS: That was a lot of fun. I really love this racetrack. It's always been one of my favorites. When you come up here you have to have so many elements to have a successful race. You've got to have a race car that'll handle, you've got to have a race car that's good aerodynamically, great horsepower, great drive train, so many cool things have to come into play, good fuel mileage, good pit stops. When we showed up here on Friday we realized we had a very fast race car and that was nice. When you have a fast car that obviously makes the rest of the race a little bit easier. It was a great race. Everybody has been working really hard at Hendrick Motorsports, and I really couldn't really be prouder. Jimmie did a fantastic job today. His car control today was second to none.
THE MODERATOR: You guys led 128 laps which is a career high for you here at Pocono. This is your third win here, first since 2004. Talk about your strategy today.
CHAD KNAUS: Yeah, we really wanted to try to maintain track position. I think we saw that a lot. The 39 car played that a little bit. The 2 car was attempting to get some of that going, as well, and in traffic you could run about a second slower than what you do with the leaders, so we wanted to try to stay up towards the front. We had to work that pretty heavily with the tire strategy and the fuel strategy, but that's pretty consistent is what we've had up here. Everybody understands that game, and it was a lot of fun. Actually there was some solid racing, some good passing and a lot of fun.
Q. Steve Letarte said you came here with a similar concept. How alike were the 48 and the 88 today?
CHAD KNAUS: As the weekend progressed they definitely merged closer to one another. When we got here there was some differences, but then as practice went and the evolution of looking at all of our teammates' notes we were able to kind of pull some good from everybody and apply that to the 48 and I know the 88 did the same. That's another thing I want to say is from the 48 and 88 shop we've been working really hard to try to get our race cars better, and I think this is a good venue to try to show how good your race cars are, and for everybody at the 48 and 88 shop I think they did a fantastic job prepping these cars coming into this weekend.
Q. Chad, your sense of how Jimmie's mindset was this week, it was a disappointed â€'â€' sometimes when a guy has something he feels should have went to him, taken away from him, there's an extra sense of motivation. Did you see a different demeanor, different intensity level from him this week?
CHAD KNAUS: I don't really think so. It would have been very easy to come in here with a chip on your shoulder or a grudge, and Jimmie is not that kind of guy. For any of you who know Jimmie, he doesn't carry a grudge. He is a very laid back â€'â€' the pinnacle Californian, and he just lets it go and come and go as it pleases. We knew what we needed to do and that's what we focus on. The one thing I feel we do really good as a team is we don't focus too much on what happened yesterday or last week. We always try to keep eyes forward, and I think that gives us always a little bit clearer view. Sometimes it's pretty easy to get clouded.
My allergies are killing me up here from all that rain. I don't know if you guys are having the same problem.
Q. Chad, you said this is a good venue to show how good your race cars are. Last year the 48 and 88 did really well here. Are you bringing this car to Indianapolis, as well?
CHAD KNAUS: Oh, geez, I don't know. This is actually the race car that we won with at Indianapolis last year, I think. I'm pretty sure it is. So I don't know exactly â€'â€' I don't know yet. I've got to get home and look at it. We've had such a busy season trying to get cars built, trying to get our inventory up to where we can kind of begin to pick and choose where we want to take race cars. For the first third of the season, we really haven't had the luxury of saying, oh, this is a good race car, we want to take it here, and I don't think anybody in the garage has. I think everybody in the garage is trying to get the Genâ€'6 cars produced and manufactured. You just kind of take to the race track what you have, and that's kind of the way that we've been. We've been very fortunate that a lot of our race cars have been very, very solid, so when I get home, I won't be home this week, when I get home next week I'll be able to sit back, relax and kind of see what we've got for inventory.
Q. Does it feel like last year a little bit?
CHAD KNAUS: I think so. I think Stevie and Dale are doing a really good job. Their communication level has just soared over the last couple years, and I'm very proud of what it is that they do and how they communicate. They've got an amazing amount of respect for each other, and they believe in each other, and that's something that's very hard to find in the garage. When things go bad, a lot of teams, the driver will point fingers at the crew chief, the crew chief will point fingers at the drivers or the pit crew or mechanics or however it goes, and they don't do that. If they have a good week, they all celebrate it. If they have a bad week, they don't point fingers. They just say, well, we've got to get better. I think they are in a great spot. Jimmie and I are in a really good spot. Jimmie is switched on right now. He's as good or better than I've ever seen him.
THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by our race winner Jimmie Johnson driver of the No. 48 Lowe's Kobalt Tools Chevrolet, your third win of 2013. You extended your points lead today to 51 over Carl Edwards, so talk a little bit about your dominance out there today.
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Awesome. I knew we stretched it. I didn't know it would be that much, so that's great. My selfish motivation for that, if Chani goes into labor early, I don't have to worry about Richmond, honestly. That is what I'm working so hard for. I always work hard anyway, but it sure takes some pressure off if we lock early and don't have to worry about Richmond.
But great race car, clearly. I mean, that car had a ton of speed in it, and not only the car but I think our engine really had a chance to shine today, and the configuration here and the fact that we're able to shift, our engine shop works really hard to make that power, and today it showed, and then at times when we needed to conserve fuel we could get that done, as well. I felt like it was a very wellâ€'rounded weekend for us clearly with speed, that speed, you need power, and then when we needed to back it down and save some fuel we could do that, too.
Q. I'm curious, Chad won't cop to the fact that that car is coming back somewhere in the near future. Is that a car you'd like to see in several venues coming forward?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, I think the Brickyard would be a nice place to take it. We know things transfer from here to there. But years ago I lost touch with the cars that we took to the track. I used to have favorites, but things changed so much now, even though NASCAR has worked very hard to make the chassis the same and the bodies the same, we're now splitting hairs and making small revisions to cars and improving them that I don't know what car I am climbing in anymore, and that's a testament to Chad and my guys because I just show up and pull in tight and go.
It's nice to have that confidence in my team and in my cars.
Q. Chad, did you get the gas tank full on that last pit stop or was there some talk that maybe you guys hadn't? And also, obviously, Jimmie is looking at points. Are you looking at how many points your are ahead of Carl and the field right now.
CHAD KNAUS: No, we had it full. It was full. We just know that Jimmie isn't very good at saving fuel and the facts are the facts. The reason is because Jimmie drives so fast and he's on the throttle so much which translates into a great lap time. So the reason that we were backing him down was just to make sure we were where we needed to be. When we took that â€'â€' when we made that last pit stop, we were a lap and a half to two laps shy of being able to finish the event, so we wanted to make sure we saved, the cautions clearly helped, but we felt like that where we were at Jimmie could actually save enough from that point and get us to the end of the event.
As far as points go, it's always important. We've got some very tricky racetracks coming up, we've got road courses, we've got Michigan, we've got â€'â€' which is very hard for us for some reason, and we want to make sure that we get as many points accumulated as we possibly can so that if Chani does have a problem around Richmond time, we can all relax a little bit and make sure everything is okay.
JIMMIE JOHNSON: And just to add to the points, even if there's a big gap between points positions, and I think you guys work hard and look at stats of who has gained the most points in the last 10 races and things like that, it's something we pay close attention to, as well, so if we're protecting a big lead but we're running 10th to 15th each week, if I look at the last two weeks as an example, we didn't finish where we should. Other guys are, other guys are top threes, top 5s, and we pay close attention to that, and right now I think the 20 and I think Brad is starting to heat up a little bit, I think that the 99 is showing some strength, those are the guys that I've got a close eye on right now and just trying to make sure we're putting points on them. If we're doing that we're doing our job, even though the gap might change and look more dramatic at the top right now, we've got to keep a good eye on the past five races, past 10 races to be sure we're the ones earning the most points.
Q. Jimmie, for a mellow guy like you, that was a hell of a burnout at the end. Was there a little extra message or juice there today?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: No, I wasn't sure how much smoke there was. The gear ratios are much different here, and normally I can get into second gear and get the tires spinning pretty quick and give a great smoke show, and second gear is so tall I couldn't pull it. I wasn't sure my burnout was that good. I'm glad to hear it still was good, and I went to a donut at the end, because in the mirror it didn't look very smokey to me, and I thought, man, I don't want to give a lame burnout. So I went into some donuts, and that was pretty fun.
Q. Chad touched upon this earlier, but how honest did the 88 keep you on a couple of those final restarts, and do you sense any growing strength within that team over there?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Oh, yeah. I mean, they ran great all day long. Restarts are so tough, and around here if you can get the clean air on a short run, especially with the series of cautions we had, it would be tough to pass him. But even with having a dominant car, I didn't want to be in that position of running second and have to worry about getting by somebody. I learned a lot on the two restarts where I was on the outside of the 39, and that helped me a lot going into those final three with Junior on the outside of me.
Q. Do you sense that team growing and growing?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: I do. They grow stronger and stronger each week, and I know there's a bright light on those guys and what they do week in and week out. They're strong, and they elevate their teammates, as well. They're great teammates, they help us out. We certainly do all we can to help them out and help them grow and get stronger. But they're clicking. They're doing a great job.
Q. You say you guys do a good job of not looking in the past, yet human nature what it being, it still had you guys come to the track with a little extra incentive after last week, and Jimmie, when you go through a week of adversity you guys always seem to rise to the occasion that following week.
CHAD KNAUS: I'd really love to say that I can play into that drama, but we're so busy and we've got so much going on that Monday at 12:00 that's gone, whether it's win, lose, draw, whatever happens. Monday, tomorrow at 12:00 I've got to hop on an airplane and go somewhere else. I will not think about Pocono again until we start to come back here in three or four weeks, whatever it is. We cannot afford to linger on any emotions or any thoughts. It's tough to do, it really is, but you've got to force yourself to move on, and that's why I could never write a book, because I don't remember what happened.
It's going to be â€'â€' that's just the way that we roll.
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, I mean, there was a little lingering for me. I wanted to prove a point and show everybody really what could happen in that restart zone than what happened to me last week, but I couldn't do it to a teammate. I just couldn't. So I guess if things stay the way they do, I'll save that for another day and prove my point even more. Outside of that, it does not change how we approach the weekend and how we attack and go, and honestly when you get on the track â€'â€' for me it might linger a little longer for a driver because we're not involved as much â€'â€' Chad is clearly dayâ€'toâ€'day, but once the timing and scoring goes hot in the practice session, everything that happened during the week or the week before is gone, and you're just focused on the present.
Q. When Jeff Gordon won in August last year here, he said, you know, you don't always know when your next one is going to be, and that's certainly different from his perspective than where you all are. You're dominant right now. Does it still feel like a win to savor, or no matter how many you have behind you, the one that you're in, is it still as fresh to get a win?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, I'm not going to lie, over time things change a little, but Jeff is absolutely right, and there are no guarantees we'll win again, there really aren't. So the sport moves so fast, and from being on the road, we're just â€'â€' we pick up our circus and head home and dust it off and reload and head right back out. That part prevents us all from savoring, from enjoying different aspects of the sport. At the end of the year we get a nice offâ€'season, if you're the champ or had a great year and met expectations, you can really savor it then, but if it's not into an off week or that's your only other opportunity, you get two of those now a year, to savor longer than normal, things just move really fast in our sport.
But Jeff is absolutely right; you don't know when you're going to win again. There are no guarantees.
Q. 128 laps is about as dominating as you can get here. When did you realize that you had this kind of car?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Well, yesterday in practice I knew we had a lot of speed in a very comfortable car that I could lean on at times, and it wouldn't step out on me, and I could produce a lap time. Yesterday's conditions were far different than today's, so we slept well. We knew that some minor changes were all we needed to start the race. I'd say second or third pit stop we really nailed the setup. It's not like we were very far off to start with because we were leading, but we dialed it in and got it right for the conditions at hand and made it happen.
Q. Jimmie, last year you finished fourth hear and that kicked off this run that ended at Indy with the win where I think you were sixth or better in seven straight races or something like that. Chad just said he's never seen you more switched on. Is there something about this time of year?
CHAD KNAUS: You guys are blowing this up. This car might not be going to Indy.
JIMMIE JOHNSON: You know what my vote is. (Laughter.)
Yeah, I mean, I feel like we have some clarity right now in what the car likes and what it wants, and really that's the only thing that we as a team go by and really any team does. There are a lot of times when you work on your stuff and you test and you race and you build some theories, and that's all we do week in and week out as to why the car is tight or why it's loose. Sometimes your theories play out and you're smart and you're here in victory lane and other times they don't. I feel like we have a clearer vision now of what the car wants, what this Genâ€'6 car wants and we're getting smarter and smarter with it, and that leads into stretches where you can click off the wins and the finishes.
Excited to have some clarity right now. I think we understand that our package, regardless if it's a short track or big track and even superspeedway, we've been awfully good there, too, so we have clarity right now, and as long as we can keep it, we'll be in good shape.
Q. Everybody said that you were just killing it in Turn 3, and that's where â€'â€' that was like your secret weapon because nobody could catch you there. What was your secret getting through Turn 3?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: I knew I was faster there. I'm not sure what or why, but I could yard guys real good through Turn 3. In years past I've learned a line and a rhythm to that corner that's been useful. A lot of available grip with the fresh repave, and I think it's kind of come my way coming back to the old way of the way Turn 3 used to work for me, and that's the way I drove it today. Just got to be smart with it. But I think our car was rolling all three corners pretty good. In fuelâ€'saving mode, I could get a nice gap off of 3 and manage my fuel the rest of the way around the track and guys would kind of inch back up to me and then blister 3 again and get my gap and they'd slowly catch up due to fuel savings.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, guys. Thanks a lot.
Results
| Pos | Driver | Car | Make | Start | Laps | Led | Status |
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 48 | Chevrolet | 1 | 160 | 128 | Running |
| 2 | Greg Biffle | 16 | Ford | 13 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 3 | Dale Earnhardt Jr | 88 | Chevrolet | 6 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 4 | Tony Stewart | 14 | Chevrolet | 19 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 5 | Ryan Newman | 39 | Chevrolet | 23 | 160 | 19 | Running |
| 6 | Kyle Busch | 18 | Toyota | 8 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 7 | Kurt Busch | 78 | Chevrolet | 20 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 8 | Denny Hamlin | 11 | Toyota | 17 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 9 | Kevin Harvick | 29 | Chevrolet | 5 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 10 | Joey Logano | 22 | Ford | 21 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 11 | Jeff Burton | 31 | Chevrolet | 24 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 12 | Jeff Gordon | 24 | Chevrolet | 11 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 13 | Jamie McMurray | 1 | Chevrolet | 22 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 14 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 42 | Chevrolet | 25 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 15 | Clint Bowyer | 15 | Toyota | 3 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 16 | Brad Keselowski | 2 | Ford | 10 | 160 | 4 | Running |
| 17 | Marcos Ambrose | 9 | Ford | 26 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 18 | Carl Edwards | 99 | Ford | 2 | 160 | 9 | Running |
| 19 | Mark Martin | 55 | Toyota | 14 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 20 | Travis Kvapil | 93 | Toyota | 39 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 21 | Aric Almirola | 43 | Ford | 12 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 22 | Casey Mears | 13 | Ford | 27 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 23 | Martin Truex Jr | 56 | Toyota | 15 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 24 | David Gilliland | 38 | Ford | 31 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 25 | Matt Kenseth | 20 | Toyota | 4 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 26 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr | 17 | Ford | 16 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 27 | Bobby Labonte | 47 | Toyota | 29 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 28 | David Stremme | 30 | Toyota | 33 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 29 | Danica Patrick | 10 | Chevrolet | 30 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 30 | Paul Menard | 27 | Chevrolet | 9 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 31 | Dave Blaney | 7 | Chevrolet | 32 | 160 | 0 | Running |
| 32 | David Reutimann | 83 | Toyota | 34 | 159 | 0 | Running |
| 33 | AJ Allmendinger | 51 | Chevrolet | 18 | 158 | 0 | Running |
| 34 | Josh Wise | 35 | Ford | 36 | 157 | 0 | Running |
| 35 | Timmy Hill | 32 | Ford | 38 | 156 | 0 | Running |
| 36 | Kasey Kahne | 5 | Chevrolet | 7 | 141 | 0 | Running |
| 37 | David Ragan | 34 | Ford | 28 | 121 | 0 | Running |
| 38 | Landon Cassill | 33 | Chevrolet | 37 | 70 | 0 | Clutch |
| 39 | J.J. Yeley | 36 | Chevrolet | 35 | 39 | 0 | Transmission |
| 40 | Michael McDowell | 98 | Ford | 41 | 33 | 0 | Vibration |
| 41 | Scott Riggs | 44 | Ford | 43 | 28 | 0 | Vibration |
| 42 | Joe Nemechek | 87 | Toyota | 40 | 11 | 0 | Engine |
| 43 | Jason Leffler | 19 | Toyota | 42 | 8 | 0 | Transmission |