Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson dominates at Phoenix; takes commanding lead into final race
Jimmie Johnson celebrates his win in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 with members of his Hendrick Motorsports crew. // David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
AVONDALE, Ariz. – One of the only questions about Jimmie Johnson throughout his march through nearly four NASCAR Chase playoffs has been how his race team would deal with adversity.
After all, until last week at Texas, Johnson hadn’t faced any during the Chase since 2006.
But on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Phoenix, Johnson showed everyone how he responded.
Johnson completely dominated the NASCAR Sprint Cup Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, putting a ruthless beating on the field like he was boxer Manny Pacquiao.
“We just put a butt-kicking on everybody today,” Johnson said with a laugh.
He never let up and occasionally held leads of five-plus seconds – quite a gap for a 1-mile race track – and put himself in prime position to win his fourth consecutive Cup championship next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The runner-up in the standings, Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin, was fourth at Phoenix, meaning Johnson will only need to finish 25th or better next week to clinch the title.
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!” Johnson shouted on the team radio after the race, then immediately asked crew chief Chad Knaus, “Where’d that 5 finish?”
Told Martin was fourth, Johnson said, “Awesome stuff, boys! Awesome stuff.”
Later, in victory lane, Johnson acknowledged that overcoming the Texas mishap – a wreck on lap 3 – could have been difficult.
“We could have easily been beat down, and certainly there could have been some dark moments in the last week,” Johnson said.
But the 48 team bounced back and didn’t let anyone else believe they had a shot at winning.
Richard Childress Racing’s Jeff Burton fought his way to second with roughly 25 laps to go and tried to mount a late charge, but Johnson kept pulling away in the final laps and won by a couple seconds.
“I feel this is fair to say that this is the best we’ve run all year,” Burton said.
No one could keep up with Johnson's 48 car, which has been the one to beat all year – and for the last four years.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin finished third, followed by Martin and Earnhardt Ganassi Racing’s Martin Truex Jr., who had started on the pole.
Penske Racing's Kurt Busch, who won last week at Texas, was sixth. Burton’s RCR teammate Clint Bowyer was seventh, followed by Juan Pablo Montoya (Earnhardt Ganassi), Jeff Gordon (Hendrick) and David Reutimann (Michael Waltrip Racing).
A multicar wreck started by an apparent oil leak on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s car marred the race for the sport’s most popular driver after he spun out and took drivers Tony Stewart, Brad Keselowski and Brian Vickers with him.
But that was one of only four cautions in the race – two were for debris – and Johnson turned the rest of the day into a rout.
Johnson won his seventh race of the season and 47th overall, which puts him 13th on the all-time victories list. He won at Phoenix for the fourth time in the last five races.
