Johnson Wins First Race at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. – It was classic Jimmie Johnson.

Lap after tense lap, the four-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion waited for his opportunity to pounce.

With six laps remaining in Sunday’s Food City 500, Johnson finally made a charge to the front and then held on for his first victory at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“About time, man,” said Johnson, referring to his Bristol breakthrough. “I am so proud of our team for setting a mark, going at it and accomplishing what we wanted to.”

Johnson and his crew chief Chad Knaus are famous for making pivotal late-race adjustments. The crucial call on Sunday came after a late caution flag with 17 laps remaining, as Knaus opted to give Johnson four fresh tires for a final 10-lap showdown.

Kurt Busch, who led 10 times for a total of 278 laps, relinquished the lead when he also opted to take on four tires. Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart, who all decided on two tires, were at the front when the race resumed with a double-file restart.

Displaying aggression and precision on the outside and inside lanes, Johnson powered from sixth to first in just three laps.

“We have worked so hard for this,” said Johnson, who celebrated his Bristol breakthrough by executing a burnout on the ramp leading up to Victory Lane.

“I thought we were in trouble there but those four tires were everything – and I was in the outside line, which was helpful.”

Busch maneuvered his car on the high and low side of the track in the final laps, but was forced to settle for a third-place finish behind Stewart.

Skeptics have contended that luck has played a vital element in Johnson’s dominance. Knaus hopes that Johnson proved a point with his relentless performance Sunday.

“There wasn’t a heck of a lot of luck involved in that,” Knaus said. “That was just driving.”

While the move seemed to backfire, Busch didn’t second guess his crew chief Steve Addington in the post-race press conference. However, Busch was furious over his in-car radio.

“We thought four tires was the way to go,” Busch said. “To lose to the 48 [Johnson] sucks, but that’s the way it goes.”

Stewart made his own pit-road decision for the final 10-lap sprint.

“We were too loose the run before that and we couldn’t get the track position we lost there,” Stewart said. “Whether I made the right call or not, I don’t know.”

After 55 straight sellouts for Sprint Cup events at BMS, there were many empty seats for Sunday’s race which began under overcast and chilly conditions. The estimated attendance figure at the 160,000-seat facility was 138,000.

There were a whopping 29 lead changes among eight drivers. That was the most number of lead changes at BMS in more than two decades.

The most dramatic storyline entering the day involved the running feud between drivers Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski. Normally a fan favorite, Edwards was greeted with a chorus of boos in prerace introductions while the crowd response to Keselowski was lukewarm.

The Edwards and Keselowski cars were side-by-side at one point with just 150 laps remaining, but there was no contact between the rivals.

Edwards finished sixth, while Keselowski settled for a 13th-place finish.

The race was halted 17 minutes by rain on lap 127. Twelve different drivers had led up to that point. To the dismay of fans and drivers, the race was delayed again by rain from lap 392 to 411.

Busch took control when the race resumed, but he could not hold off Johnson and his familiar Lowe’s No. 48 Chevrolet.

“Every win is extremely special, but when a track kicks your butt for so long and you finally can win at the track, there’s just something really unique about that,” Johnson said.

Kyle Busch, who swept both BMS races last season, experienced another rough weekend as his car slammed into the wall on lap 263. Busch, who qualified 38th and was slow in practice, rallied to finish ninth.

“The right front [tire] went down and I got into the wall, and things didn’t look good,” Busch said. “The guys never gave up and I never gave up, and somehow we got a decent finish out of it.”

NOTES: Contact between Greg Biffle and Mark Martin triggered a 13-car melee on lap 341.

“I was a lot faster than those guys in front of me, and I was going for it,” said Martin, who was running sixth at the time. “It’s just a shame. We had a car that I really believe could win. Mistakes happen.”

Joey Logano, who earned his first career pole Friday at BMS, was passed on the opening lap by Kurt Busch. Logano then encountered tire problems on his No. 20 Home Depot Toyota and finished 27th.

Dave Blaney, who qualified a surprising third place, completed just 40 laps and finished 42nd in his underfunded PRISM Motorsports Toyota.