JJ’s seventh win at Texas hard-earned
FORT WORTH, Texas — Jimmie Johnson still knows his way to the winner’s circle at Texas Motor Speedway, even from the back of the field on a track that had changed significantly since his first six victories there.
And all while heating up behind the wheel because of trouble taking in fluids during the 501-mile race.
“I’m not feeling the best, but we got into victory lane,” Johnson said before going to the infield care center to receive treatment for apparent dehydration after his 81st career victory in NASCAR Cup Series competition.
Crew chief Chad Knaus said there was a malfunction with the system in the car, though he wasn’t sure what the problem was.
“Jimmie felt like it was an isolated situation,” Knaus said. “We got him cooled off and he’s looking good. He’s ready to go have a weekend off like the rest of us.”
Johnson, who last year
won his record-tying seventh season championship, charged under Joey Logano with 16 laps to go to take the lead. The Hendrick Motorsports driver kept his No. 48 Chevrolet in front.
“I guess I remembered how to drive, and I guess this team remembered how to do it,”
Johnson said. “I’m just real proud of this team. What a tough track and tough conditions. We were really in our wheelhouse, and we were just able to execute all day.”
This was the first Cup Series race in Texas since the 1 1/2-mile track’s first two turns were reconfigured and it was completely repaved earlier this year. It was Johnson’s seventh victory at the speedway, and his sixth in the past 10 races there.
Kyle Larson — who’s first in the points standings and has one victory this season — finished second for the fourth time this year. Logano, polesitter Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top five.
Logano regained the lead after not pitting on the final caution, but he just didn’t have enough to hold off Johnson.
“I needed a 15-lap run instead of a 30-lap run,” Logano said. “Or a couple cautions in there and we would be standing in victory lane with a 12th-place car, and that would have been something.”
Johnson had to start at the back of the 40-car field because of a tire change after a spin in qualifying. He had qualified 24th.
“Oh, probably on the second or third run I knew we were in good shape. From there, off we went,” he said. “It was so tough those first 23 laps in traffic. The air was very turbulent, the track wasn’t very clean.”
Johnson’s only top-10 finish in the first six races this season had been ninth at Phoenix International Raceway. Earnhardt, his Hendrick teammate, had his first top-five finish since a runner-up at Pocono Raceway last June, not long before he missed the second half of the season
because of lingering concussions symptoms.
Ryan Blaney won the first two stages of Sunday’s race and gave Wood Brothers Racing, the oldest active team in NASCAR, its longest front-running car in a race in 35 years. The 23-year-old Blaney finished 12th after leading 148 of 334 laps, the first time the team led more than 100 laps in a race since 1982.
Blaney first got the lead on the second early restart on the 16th lap, thanks to a somewhat bold move around the outside of Harvick going through the reconfigured turns where the banking was reduced and the track widened.
During a caution on a few laps before the end of the second stage on the 170th lap, Blaney stayed on the track for a shot to win the stage while other cars pitted. He restarted 20th after that stage and his pit stop, but after working back into the top 10, he overslid his pit on the last caution.
“That last pit stop was pretty discouraging. … We got in the back and couldn’t pass anybody,” Blaney said. “It was terrible to try to pass people.”