BRISTOL, Tenn. – Jimmie Johnson didn’t win three consecutive Sprint Cup championships by settling for second-best.
Johnson finished third in Sunday’s Food City 500, and he could not have been happier about it.
“I was very pleased to be that close to the front, to see what the leaders do,” Johnson said. “Now, next time I come here, I can visualize being in that spot.”
Has the defending champ gone soft?
Not hardly. It’s just that he’s had so little success at Bristol Motor Speedway during his career that he just wanted to be able to take something positive out of the weekend.
For instance, Johnson started on the pole here last spring, but wound up finishing 18th. He had no better luck in the summer race.
In fact, his luck has been so poor at BMS that he joked Friday about the need to psyche himself up before running here.
“I have to start by convincing myself that I actually like this place,” he said on Friday.
He offered a much different perspective after Sunday’s race, which he twice led for a total of 88 laps.
“This is a finish I needed,” he said. “It’s something I can build on. I really needed a weekend like this.”
Johnson said his team began building the foundation for Sunday’s success as soon as the race in Atlanta was over two weekends ago.
“We were quick right off the truck, and it kept building,” he said.
Johnson might have had an even better finish if his crew hadn’t struggled momentarily during his final pit stop to change his left rear tire. He was convinced the stop under caution was so slow that he’d be
15th by the time he got back on the track. Turns out, he was running fifth, and that enabled him to close on the leaders during the stretch run.
Johnson joked that he would have bumped winner Kyle Busch out of the way if he’d been close enough to catch him. He never got that chance, but he didn’t sound all that disappointed about it.
“I just wanted to finish this race,” he said. “I wanted to see all 500 laps.”
And, after he did, he didn’t want the race to end.
“I wish I could have raced 500 more [laps],” he said.
He might not have said that two days earlier.
jcnockaert@bristolnews.com|(276) 645-2572
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