Jimmie Johnson Claims Marathon Race at Kansas Speedway
The Spongebob Squarepants 400. Even with sponsorships in mind, it was an unusual name for a NASCAR race, but more importantly, it seemed like forever until a winner could be decided at the Kansas Speedway on Saturday night.
On lap 98 of 267, NASCAR red-flagged the race due to heavy rain and lightning. It was a two hour and 16-minute delay before action could resume.
For the majority of the race, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. seemed to have the fastest cars, but in the end Jimmie Johnson took a gamble and ended up stealing the win.
Harvick was in the lead with Truex right behind in second place when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. brought out the yellow flag due to his single car accident with just 12 laps remaining. Both Harvick and Truex were running low on fuel, and were gambling on trying to win a fuel mileage battle with their cars and the rest of the field. When the caution flag came out, both headed to the pits while Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and a few others decided to stay out and run to the end. Truex came back starting 5th with no tires and all fueled up, while Harvick on the other hand took two right side tires and fuel.
On the restart with six laps to go, Harvick shot ahead to second, but just could not get up alongside Johnson to make the pass. Johnson ended up leading only ten laps, but those ten were the most important of the night. He stole the checkered flag from Harvick and to a lesser extent Truex. This was Johnson’s third win of the year, and ironically in all of his wins, Harvick finished second.
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With two wins already in the bag, Johnson could afford to take a chance and gamble on going for the win. If things had gone sideways and backfired, he knew he was locked into the season ending Chase for the Cup playoff by virtue of those earlier wins anyway.
We have two wins, we are locked in the Chase, and we are here to win a race, let’s gamble. Let’s go for it. Sure enough, it paid off. A few more laps, I think (Harvick) would have had me. He was awfully strong. Obviously being on right side tires would have been an advantage for him.
As the leader, Harvick was in a no-win situation when the caution came out for Stenhouse’s wreck. He hypothesized that had he stayed out, the cars behind him would have pitted and left him all alone on no tires and very little fuel.
Instead, Harvick decided to pit, and for a minute it looked like he might be able to drive by Johnson, but a slight wobble cost him momentum and he just ran out of laps to recover. The second place finish at Kansas makes it his sixth second-place finish of the season.
In the end, (Johnson) didn’t have the speed so they gambled and they were able to get enough cars in between us that we were not able to have enough laps to get around them. Just kind of a tough spot, as you’re leading a race, as to what’s right and what’s wrong, because you know half of them are going to come in and half of them are going to stay out. But that was the strategy that they took, and it worked out for them.
How the race played out was frustrating for Truex. He led a race high 95 laps, but is still without a win since June of 2013. Not taking tires and only getting fuel turned out to be the wrong strategy and cost him a chance to race to the front like Harvick, and he ended up finishing ninth.
If we got two tires we would have come out sixth. That would have been a pretty good spot to be in. But you never know how these things are going to play out. I hate fuel mileage racing because of that.
Truex was left pondering about tires, and Harvick thinking about his slight mistake that led to Johnson getting the win. Racing is all about pit choices that loom large, and small mistakes under green that can cost you a win.
Next week the Sprint Cup series heads back to Charlotte for the first of two weeks of racing, with the All-Star Race on Saturday the 16th followed by the Coca Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend. Let’s hope the weather doesn’t rear its ugly head again like it has so far at Kansas, Bristol, and Richmond.
