Photo Credit: Mike Mercurio
On Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Jimmie Johnson was hoping to make another trip to victory lane in the longest race of the season. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t get to do that as a spin at lap 275 and contact with the safer barrier at the pit road opening would result in a 40th place finish for the multi-time Sprint Cup Series Champion.
Johnson almost had the car saved and set to continue for the rest of the race, but he “got a little occupied on pointing it down pit road and driving off. I should have just let it spin all the way out. I had that one I just lost it at the end.”
Johnson commented afterwards that the car was really loose as soon as he’d get close to another competitor, it would get real edgy. He added that when he was by himself in clean air, he was fine. He displayed a lot of speed, making his way from the back to the top-five following another spin earlier in the race. It was being in that traffic, though, that resulted in the second spin.
“I had a lap car on the outside and a car I had been stalking on the bottom and then I tried to roll into the top behind the lap car,” he commented. “The thing just bugged out in the dirty air and around it went again. A tough day to try to get the balance right in the car.”
This isn’t a new scenario for the drivers. Johnson spun earlier this year while in traffic at Kansas Speedway due to being in traffic. He was able to bounce back from that spin, though, taking the victory. It is why many drivers have commented that being in clean air is such an advantage so far this year.
“I think it looked the same for a lot of people in traffic,” Johnson said. “Vegas, Atlanta, Texas, whatever was going on there the cars balance was advantage in traffic. The split from clean air to dirty air wasn’t as evil and last week at Kansas and All-Star and here I don’t know if it’s the tire versus the track. There is some other component there, at least for our car; it has been pretty wicked in traffic. Unfortunately bit us today.”
Perhaps attributing to Johnson’s issues was the aggressive set-up that was underneath the car as he said he and Chad Knaus approached this week “aggressively” due to not having anything to loose. After all, he is already locked in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
“Unfortunately we didn’t get long enough into the race for the aggressive set-up to come into play,” Johnson commented. “Another 30/40 laps we would have had the car right where we wanted it. I just didn’t make it there. I could have driven a little easier and tried not work so hard through traffic, but we said we were going to come in and swing for the fences. We did and I hit the fence.”
As of right now, the team is simply looking to get stronger and win some more races before September.
“Chad (Knaus, crew chief) told me he either wanted it on a hook or the trophy. Unfortunately we got the hook,” Johnson said.
