Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick continue rolling right along with NASCAR win at Dover

Jimmie Johnson won his second Sprint Cup Series points race of the season and Hendrick Motorsports made it four wins in a row on Sunday in Dover, Del.

Ol' Mr. Five-Time is looking more and more like a man on his way to pick up a six-pack. Five-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, that is, and a sixth Sprint Cup seems to be on his shopping list.

After opening the season 0-for-10 and 0-for-16 dating to last fall, the Hendrick Motorsports driver is on a tear here lately. He won the Mother's Day weekend Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway and came back a week later to win the Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He ran like a winner in last weekend's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte before a pit mistake left him 11th. And on Sunday, at sun-splashed and half-empty Dover International Speedway, he dominated the FedEx 400.

Sunday was the latest chapter in the impressive run of recent success for Hendrick Motorsports. At Darlington, Johnson gave the Chevrolet-based organization its 200th all-time Cup win. At Charlotte, he delivered its seventh all-star win. Last weekend, teammate Kasey Kahne gave Hendrick its 201st all-time win, taking the Coca-Cola 600. In the middle of all of that, Johnson's team won the annual NASCAR Pit Crew Challenge competition in Charlotte.

“I guess that for the last month or so we've been at the top or in the top-two when it comes to scoring points,” Johnson said at Dover. “But, really, nothing matters until we get to--where is it?--Chicago?--yeah, Chicago to start the Chase [for the Championship] in September. All that matters is being top-10 or being a wild-card driver in Chicago, then doing well in those last 10 races. We're doing the things we need to win another championship, but it's too early to talk about it. We have to still be doing these things in September and beyond.”

Sunday was absolutely no contest. Even with a brand-new, untested car, Johnson was the class of the field. He led 289 of the 400 laps, doing it in clumps of six, 31, 126, one, 49 and the final 76 laps. He was 2.55 seconds ahead at the end over Kevin Harvick, with Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Clint Bowyer, Aric Almirola, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Kahne and Marcos Ambrose well behind. It was Johnson's seventh career Dover win, his second points win this year and his 57th official win in just 376th Sprint Cup starts.

And it ties him with Hall of Fame drivers Richard Petty and Bobby Allison for most wins at the narrow, high-banked, one-mile track in downtown Dover. “That's a huge honor because I've never paid much attention to statistics,” Johnson said. “I guess that's because I never thought I'd ever accumulate any cool stats like that. Those guys are legends in this sport and I'm very proud to be in that sort of elite company.” 

Only six drivers other than Johnson led in what was a fairly uneventful 400-miler. Jeff Gordon led 60 laps and looked racy, but a loose wheel cost him a lap and he never recovered, finishing 13th. Pole winner Mark Martin, who finished 14th, led 43 early laps before settling back a ways. David Ragan (21st) led three laps, Kenseth and Denny Hamlin (18th) two laps each and Dale Earnhardt Jr. one. The only time anyone but Johnson, Martin and Gordon led was during pit stops, slightly distorting that "17 lead changes" statistic. 

Johnson said he felt Gordon was better in the middle stages, before the loose wheel did him in, and Gordon didn't disagree. “The fastest car doesn't always win the race,” the four-time champion said. “We're sitting here 13th and that's silly. Ultimately, though, we put ourselves in this position to get this finish, so that's very frustrating. And I'm not even sure what happened. It's always more frustrating when you've got a car that can win. This does nothing for us; we need wins.”

And Johnson was always concerned about late-race restarts, when built-up rubber might affect short-term handling. “It was so tough to keep the tires clean (under caution) and so tough to get a good, clean restart,” he said. “But by staying ahead, I could control which restart lane [high or low] I wanted, and that helped. But hot tires on restarts made it more difficult late in the race.” 

The race was just nine laps old when 13 cars crashed in turn two, the year's biggest crash in its 13th race. It began when Tony Stewart got into Landon Cassill and got worse when Regan Smith shoved Stewart into the backstretch wall. Eventually, Juan Pablo Montoya, Dave Blaney, Stephen Leicht, Casey Mears, David Gilliland, Travis Kvapil, Michael McDowell, Scott Speed, Reed Sorenson and Joe Nemechek drove into it and were involved to varying degrees.

Stewart, the reigning series champion, was among five stars who had serious issues. Carl Edwards, second in last year's final points, was a top-10 runner until cutting a right front tire and wrecking at lap 165. Kyle Busch, who started the day eighth in points, went to the garage at lap 202 with terminal engine issues. His older brother, Kurt Busch, retired at 338 with a blown engine after running poorly most of the day, and Jeff Burton brought out the last caution when his engine blew with 36 laps remaining.

Greg Biffle finished 11th and retained his points lead, by one over teammate Kenseth. Earnhardt Jr. is 10 behind, then Hamlin (-22), Johnson (-33), Martin Truex Jr. (-45), Harvick (-46), Stewart (-79), Kyle Busch (-80) and Bowyer (-81). The tour is at repaved and reportedly very fast Pocono Raceway for a 160-lap, 400-mile race next weekend. 

Sunday

At Dover International Speedway

Dover, Del.

Lap length: 1 mile

(Start position in parentheses)

1. (2) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 400 laps, 48 points

2. (6) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 400, 42

3. (5) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 400, 42

4. (17) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 400, 41

5. (4) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 400, 39

6. (12) Aric Almirola, Ford, 400, 38

7. (18) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 400, 37

8. (11) Joey Logano, Toyota, 400, 36

9. (13) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 400, 35

10. (21) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 400, 34

11. (7) Greg Biffle, Ford, 400, 33

12. (16) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 400, 32

13. (14) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 400, 32

14. (1) Mark Martin, Toyota, 400, 31

15. (3) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 400, 29

16. (23) A.J. Allmendinger, Dodge, 400, 28

17. (20) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 400, 27

18. (10) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 400, 27

19. (24) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 400, 25

20. (22) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 399, 24

21. (28) David Ragan, Ford, 398, 24

22. (15) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, engine, 364, 22

23. (42) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, 348, 21

24. (9) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, engine, 338, 20

25. (29) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 331, 19

26. (19) Carl Edwards, Ford, 318, 18

27. (26) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 306, 17

28. (31) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 296, 16

29. (8) Kyle Busch, Toyota, engine, 202, 15

30. (38) Reed Sorenson, Ford, accident, 124, 0

31. (39) David Reutimann, Chevrolet, engine, 110, 13

32. (41) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, accident, 65, 12

33. (32) David Stremme, Toyota, overheating, 63, 11

34. (34) J.J. Yeley, Toyota, overheating, 41, 10

35. (37) Stephen Leicht, Chevrolet, accident, 29, 9

36. (36) Mike Bliss, Toyota, steering, 23, 0

37. (43) Scott Riggs, Chevrolet, vibration, 21, 7

38. (27) Landon Cassill, Toyota, accident, 9, 6

39. (35) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, accident, 9, 0.

40. (30) David Gilliland, Ford, accident, 9, 4

41. (40) Casey Mears, Ford, accident, 8, 3

42. (33) Michael McDowell, Ford, accident, 8, 2

43. (25) Scott Speed, Ford, accident, 8, 1