Jimmie Johnson snatches win at Kansas
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Jimmie Johnson and his team are thieves.
The No. 48 crew snagged an unexpected win in Saturday night's rain-delayed SpongeBob SquarePants 400 thanks to a late-race refusal to pit.
A caution for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. hitting the wall on lap 256 of the 267-lap race presented a dilemma for teams. Do you pit for tires and gas – the race's pit stop cycle had put teams on the precipice of making it to the end on fuel – or stay out, hoping to not run out of gas and that track position would make up for the lack of fresh tires?
Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus chose the latter. And it worked perfectly as Johnson took the lead off the final restart with six laps to go and held off Kevin Harvick for the win.
"Just in a bad spot leading the race there," Harvick said. "[Johnson] and [Earnhardt Jr.], those guys didn't have anything for us on speed. They were just doing what they had to do track position-wise and then moving all over the racetrack to try to get the air off the cars."
When the race was red-flagged for over two hours for rain with 98 laps complete, Johnson was mired in the 20s and nearly crashed his car in the early stages of the race, saving it from an impressive tire-smoking four-wheel slide.
But as the race resumed in the complete darkness, Knaus and company made adjustments to the car and Johnson started creeping his way to the front of the field. He didn't take the lead until he got it under the final caution flag thanks to the well-executed strategy ploy.
"In some ways we fought really hard to get to victory lane, but it's fun to win one gambling," Johnson said. "We haven't really gambled before and won. Not to my knowledge. So it feels a little different and pretty cool to have that come together."
Harvick had the lead when Stenhouse hit the wall, but he and Martin Truex Jr., the driver who was running second at the time, both pitted along with others. Four cars – Johnson, Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch – stayed out, meaning Truex restarted in fifth and Harvick, who led 53 laps, restarted in sixth.
Harvick was able to move to third behind Johnson and Junior after the restart, but after clearing Junior, he wasn't able to get anywhere close to Johnson to challenge for the win.
Even if he had gotten near Johnson and passed him, it would have meant the continuation of an incredible streak. Including Saturday night, Johnson and Harvick have won seven straight races at 1.5-mile tracks dating back to October's race at Kansas Speedway.
With victories at Atlanta and Texas, Johnson is the first driver in 2015 to get three wins.
Truex led 95 laps, the most of any driver, but couldn't charge towards the front in the race's final laps as he took fuel only on his pit stop. He finished ninth.
Junior ended up third while Gordon was fourth. Polesitter Joey Logano, the driver not named Harvick or Johnson who last won a race at a 1.5-mile track, finished fifth after fighting back from two pit road issues. The first was a pit road penalty for too many men over the wall and the second was when he pitted when pit road was closed. Both violations meant he had to restart the race at the back of the pack.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
