Johnson rolls dice, craps out in ‘roval’ win bid
CONCORD, N.C. — Jimmie Johnson saw an opportunity to snap a 58race losing streak, and went for it. It cost him a shot at an eighth NASCAR championship and allowed Ryan Blaney to steal a surprise victory in the debut race of the “roval” at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Had Johnson just settled for second, he’d still be in the playoffs. Instead, he wrecked with Martin Truex Jr. and wound up in a three-way tie for the final transfer position into the second round of the playoffs. The seven-time NASCAR champion was eliminated Sunday on a tiebreaker.
“I knew where I was on the math,” Johnson said. “I didn’t think that I was going to crash or spin trying to overtake him like I did. I thought I was making a calculated move and giving myself the chance to win and unfortunately it didn’t turn out that way.”
The roval was a unique combination speedway and infield road
course created to improve the racing at Charlotte. The unusual layout and unfamiliarity made it a treacherous circuit for the 16-driver playoff field because it was an elimination race for four of the contenders.
The race was unexpectedly clean until the end, which was marked by two different wrecks among the leaders and a red-flag period of almost 15 minutes. The chaotic close made for a suspenseful post-race period in which NASCAR had to review the results and break the tie between Kyle Larson, Aric Almirola and Johnson.
Larson and Almirola advanced, both by picking up desperation points on the final lap. Eliminated along with Johnson was Daytona 500 winner Austin Dillon, as well as Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones.
Blaney had hovered around the cutoff line most of the race and stunningly wound up the winner with an automatic berth for the Team Penske driver into the next round of the playoffs.
“I didn’t expect that. Sometimes it is better to have a little bit of luck on your side,” Blaney said. “You hate to see two guys take each other out, especially two of the best cars all day.”
The two best cars actually belonged to Larson and Blaney’s teammate Brad Keselowski.
Keselowski was on track to win for the fourth time in five races until he misjudged the entry into the first turn on a restart with six laps remaining. It triggered a multi-car accident that collected Larson, who had led 47 laps. Keselowski’s race ended after leading 29 laps.
Kyle Busch was also in the accident and mocked his fellow drivers for their error.
“All of us are just stupid and don’t know where to brake,” said Busch. “We all just drove off into a 90-degree wall because I guess we didn’t have anything better to do.”