September 29, 2008
By Ron Felix
CIA Stock Photo
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Johnson Wins Fifth Race This Year
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Jimmie Johnson captured his fifth victory of the 2008 season in Sunday's Camping World RV 400 at Kansas Speedway. It was Johnson's 12th "Chase" victory and his 38th win in 248 career races. Although Johnson led the most laps (76), he nearly lost the race on the last lap. He and Edwards were running one-two in the final 20 laps and Edwards was slowly closing in on Johnson. Edwards gave it one final lunge on the last lap -- getting past Johnson, but couldn't hold his line and scraped the wall. Johnson drove back past Edwards and took the victory.
"Where did he come from," Johnson said, referring to the final thrust by Edwards. "Those last two laps, he figured out something and got a bunch of grip. Man he was there I just didn't know. I thought I had him under control and I just didn't know he was there. Great race, I saw the slide job coming, dodged it and got one."
Johnson's crew got him out first on the final caution and Johnson took advantage of it.
"Yeah that really was the difference," Johnson said. "The ninety-nine was probably better on the long runs at the end of the race and we did a great job of closing the gap. That pit stop from those guys really made the difference. We're doing all the right things."
After Edwards scrapped the wall he gave a final stab at Johnson but had to settle for second place.
"I planned on hitting the wall but I didn't plan on the wall slowing me down that much," Edwards said. "I've played a lot of video games where you can run it into the wall and hold it wide open -- that's what I did but it didn't quite work out the way I wanted it to. I feel bad for the guys back in the race shop for tearing up their car intentionally but I wasn't going to get by him on the top and I didn't want to go in there with a slide job and hit him, so I just did what I could do."
Greg Biffle got by Jeff Gordon on the final lap to take the third spot, giving fourth to Gordon.
"It was Dover all over again, me and Jeff Gordon fighting for third and fourth place," said Biffle. "It was a pretty hard-fought battle, but I ended up getting by him on the last lap going to the stripe, so we’re excited to finish up third.”
Gordon's day turned out much better than expected. He was very ill (self described) before the race started and had Nationwide Series driver Brad Keselowski standing by.
“I guess I need to be sick more often," said a jubilant Gordon. "Yeah, that was a good run and a good car. I know if I had been healthy, I would have gotten more out of it. That was a tough day. I’m real proud of this DuPont Chevrolet team. They were awesome in the pits and they were calm and made good adjustments. It was a good car. Hey, I gave that position up to (Greg) Biffle there in the end. I came up on the No. 96 (Joey Logano) and he went high the lap before that so I thought I should go to the middle and then he went to the middle and Biffle got a good run inside of me. So it was a great race. We’re real proud of that effort. We’ll take it.”
Matt Kenseth battled his way back to fifth place after spinning early in the race and Kevin Harvick was sixth.
“We just got behind in the pits and then I spun out that one time – I don’t know if that was my fault or what really happened to be honest with you there," said Kenseth. "There was just too much ground to make up. It’s just hard to get back in the front, harder than it’s ever been, and to come back through and get fifth is a pretty big accomplishment, I think.”
Jeff finished seventh followed by David Ragan, A.J. Allmendinger and Elliott Sadler to round out the top ten.
Johnson now leads in the NASCAR points system by 10 over Carl Edwards.
For the third week in a row Kyle Busch suffered mechanical problems, this time initially it was a fuel pressure malfunction but when that was fixed it had other maladies. Busch and his team could never get the car to run right after that and had handling issues, he finished 28th -- one lap down.
“The car was sputtering and not running clean from almost the very start,” said Busch. “It was just really inconsistent. Sometimes it was loose, sometimes it was tight. I couldn’t get it to turn in the center of the corner and it just turned into a long day.”
“We were 25 laps into it and Kyle thought the motor was doing what it did last week and coming apart,” said crew chief Steve Addington. “That wasn’t the case. It was a fuel pressure issue. We came in, checked all the lines and everything and couldn’t find anything. We’ll go back and dissect the whole car to see what the problem was and see if we can find anything. This is the first time, but it seems like there’s been a first time for everything the last three weeks.”
Tony Stewart's day didn't pan out any better. On lap 129 of 267, Stewart spun after contact with Brian Vickers and slid through the infield grass. He drove away with grass on the front of his car but had a broken splitter. Stewart tried to make some laps at speed, but it soon became apparent that the splitter would have to be fixed if he was going to finish the race. Stewart had to stop under green, losing seven laps in the process. Stewart finished 40th.
Stewart didn't stick around for post-race interviews.
Patrick Carpentier scored a 29th-place finish and took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the Seventh time in 2008. Carpentier was the only Raybestos Rookie to lead a lap in today’s race, holding the top spot once for three laps. Carpentier became the first Raybestos Rookie to lead a Sprint Cup race since Michael McDowell led once for one lap in the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (race No. 27). He has now led 11 laps in three races this season.
“Just a long day, a long day," Carpentier said. "It was not too bad for the whole race just the last run there got really, really loose. I think I got a bad set of tires or something. It just got way loose. Long day. When it’s loose it’s slow. It was a long day for our LifeLock Dodge. We went from loose to tight for most of the day. It was frustrating for us. The guys did a good job on pit road and we even led a couple laps. We'll take it and move on.”
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule – the fourth race of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup – is the Oct. 5 AMP Energy 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The race begins at 2 p.m. EDT with live, high-definition coverage provided by ABC beginning with its pre-race show at 1 p.m. The race will also be broadcast live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.
For full final race results...
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For top-40 Sprint Cup drivers points...
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