September 28, 2009
By Ron Felix
Starting from the pole, Jimmie Johnson completed the sweep of Dover International Speedway by winning the AAA 400 Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday.
It was Johnson's fourth victory this year, two of those coming at Dover. With his fifth victory at Dover, Johnson tied David Pearson for third on the all-time win list at the track. Richard Petty and Bobby Allison posted seven victories each at the Monster Mile.
Johnson also led three times on way to leading the most laps (271 of 400), it was his 44th win in 283 career races.
"For me, this is one of the closest tracks to off-road racing that we have on the circuit," said Johnson. "You're virtually airborne off in each corner, so I think that helps me some and relates back to the vehicles I drove growing up. This track really favors a loose race car, and just by habit I enjoy a loose race car and that's what I look for everyday at each track. So it just really plays into our style."
CIA Stock Photos
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Johnson Celebrates Fourth Victory
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Mark Martin battled his way from a 14th place starting spot to finish second.
"I'm really happy with the result," said Martin. "You know, we missed it just a little bit. Our car was just not right on and it showed itself quite a bit on the restarts. It would hang in there really well on the long run. But it wasn't a car that could contend to win. So I thought it was a great result for a hard-fought race by my team."
Martin still leads the point standings by 10 over Johnson and 65 over Juan Pablo Montoya.
Matt Kenseth was third, it was his best finish since winning the second race of the season at Fontana, Calif., in February.
“It ended up being really good," said Kenseth. "We didn’t qualify very good, but we were really happy with our car. When the race started, I didn’t think we were quite as good as we were yesterday, but we were able to have really good pit stops. We got most of our position through pit stops and restarts.
"I kept getting in the proper lane on restarts and my car would run for two laps, and then I’d get two or three spots, and you had to do it right there because there weren’t many people that could pass very good. So, we had a nice, solid day on pit road, and the car was okay, also, and I was able to get a decent finish out of it.”
Montoya completed the race in the fourth spot and Kurt Busch was fifth.
“It was a really good run for our Miller Lite Dodge," Busch said. "We put it up front most of the day and put ourselves in position (to win), but a couple of guys were quicker than us at the end. We wanted to come and get tires (during last caution). It’s a tough call. You want to go for the win, but at the same time, you’ve got to get a good solid finish. So, we decided to stay out and hang on. I’m proud of my guys. We had excellent pit stops. It was a nice solid day for us. The track got rubbered in and when it did, we were tight on corner exit. Tight on corner exit slows the car on the straightaway. If we can tweak that, we’ll be after them."
Rounding out the top ten were Jeff Gordon, A.J. Allmendinger, Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman.
Scott Speed finished 25th on the day to take Rookie of the Race honors for the sixth time this year.
“We were really good for about 10 laps and then we just went away, really. We don’t really know why," Speed explained. "If we were able to maintain that pace the whole time we would have had a great day. We were just falling off a lot and we don’t know why.”
Joey Logano is alright after a four car wreck on lap 30. The accident started when Bobby Labonte moved to the inside and clipped Logano as the cars headed toward the corner of Turn 3. Logano lifted and Tony Stewart got into the back of Logano, sending him spinning toward the infield.
The No. 20 Home Depot car bit and shot back across the track, where he was hit by Reed Sorenson, Martin Truex Jr. and Robby Gordon. The contact set in motion a series of barrel-rolls, estimated to be at least ten roll-overs for Logano. The young rookie driver climbed from his crumpled machine unhurt, but was shaken by the experience.
“I’m fine," said Logano. "It scared the heck out of me. I’m not sure what happened. The spotter was clearing me low. I got down there and then they checked up getting into the corner. I guess I got hit from behind, I’m not really sure. I haven’t seen a replay yet. I’m not sure I want to see a replay. It was like it started rolling and I was in there like please make this thing stop and it just kept going and going. It goes to show how safe these cars are. It just startled me.
“It was the wildest ride I’ve ever been on," Logano continued. "You can’t go on a rollercoaster worse than that. I’m just still shaking. I’m not even sore which is really surprising after all that. I’m just happy to land on my wheels. When I was on my side that was when I was getting worried for a minute. The good Lord was with me on that one.”
The Sprint Cup Series moves to Kansas Speedway next Sunday, October 4th, 2009. The Price Chopper 400 is the third race in the "Chase for the Championship." Jimmie Johnson was the winner of this race last year. The race is scheduled for 1:00 PM /Eastern time and will be broadcast on ABC television. The race will also be broadcast live on MRN Radio and SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.
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