Let Junior win? No way, Johnson says
Driver ridicules idea he didn’t try to beat Earnhardt on Sunday
Jimmie Johnson was incredulous when he realized some Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans actually thought Johnson let the No. 88 car win Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.
“(The social media reaction) was more about, ‘You owed us, thanks for letting Junior win,’ ” Johnson said Tuesday. “I’m like, ‘For one, I didn’t owe you. Two, you’re taking away what your driver did. He won the race! You’re acting like I just let him win the race.’ ”
Johnson, speaking after a news conference to promote the May 16 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, said No. 88 fans shouldn’t discount the effort Earnhardt and his team made to pull off the victory.
“You’d think they’d would stand up and be like, ‘ My guy kicked butt today, and he won the race,’ ” said Johnson, who finished second. “Instead, there’s been a lot of, ‘Oh, well, you let him win.’ ”
There was never a thought of letting Earnhardt win, Johnson said. He replied “absolutely not” when asked if he would simply allow Earnhardt to beat him and said, “That’s the most ridiculous thing ever.” But if he couldn’t win, then the next best thing was for one of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates to do so.
“So on that side, I’m stoked for him and stoked for the shop,” Johnson said. “But, man, I was doing everything in my power to set up a pass for the win.”
Johnson said his strategy was to wait for a move off Turn 4 on the last lap. He had pulled out of line in the past while running second on the last lap and ended up finishing 15th; that wasn’t going to happen again, he said.
He expected a line would form on the bottom lane, but it never did. And when he tried dragging his brakes to back up to Ryan Blaney and the others behind him, they didn’t give him enough of a shove.
“With such a small group of guys in line, there just wasn’t any energy,” he said. “I just got this small run off of their push, and Junior was easily able to defend that.”
He praised Earnhardt for leading everyone to the top side. All drivers knew the bottom was faster, but everyone was afraid to pull out of line and lose position, so no one linked up — Johnson included.
In that regard, Earnhardt played the perfect strategy as the leader.
“I gave it my all, but it just wasn’t in the cards,” Johnson said.
Johnson said if it made Earnhardt fans happy to think he let their favorite driver win, “That’s cool.
“Although I’m afraid to have them on my side, because they’ve hated me forever.”