Posts Tagged ‘Jimmie Johnson’

Video Courtesy of Speed TV

Man I thought the Gatorade Duels were pretty exciting,  you couldn’t get two much closer finishes that that.

The Roush Racing cars looked pretty strong all day looks like they might be a force to reckon with when Sunday come around.

Not really sure with Dale Earnhardt Jr he didn’t look real impressive but sounded like the car was going to be good in Sunday race according to the interviews he gave. I hope he can do better Sunday than what he has shown the rest of this week.

This from Speed tv.

The Gatorade Duel At Daytona delivered back-to-back thrilling finishes as Jimmie Johnson edged Kevin Harvick at the stripe by .005 seconds – the second-closest finish in the history of the Gatorade Duel since the inception of electronic timing and scoring.

Kasey Kahne, behind the wheel of the No. 9 Budweiser Ford, nipped Tony Stewart at the line in the second Gatorade Duel by .014 seconds to capture his first win on the legendary 31-degree high banks of Daytona.

“It feels great,” Kahne said of his inaugural win on the 2.5-mile tri-oval. “You watch tons of races growing up as a kid. I can remember every Daytona 500, having 15-20 people at my house. Daytona is one of those tracks that has a ton of history. My car owner, Richard Petty, is a big part of that history and it feels good to be in Victory Lane here.”

“As I went by the start/finish line sideways, I looked up and hoped that it was the checkered (flag) because I felt like I was going to spin out,” said Johnson, who posted his first win in the 60-lap event and his third career triumph at the “World Center of Racing”. “Everybody wants this big prize. Everybody wants to win the Daytona 500. I think we sent a message today.”

Johnson, the four-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, had to start at the back of the pack after his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet was involved in an incident during practice on Wednesday.

The car, which the 2006 Daytona 500 champion raced to a second-place finish here last July in the Coke Zero 400 Powered By Coca-Cola, made its way through the pack and into the top 10 before leading the last seven laps of the race.

Kahne, who gave Ford their first win in the Gatorade Duel since Elliott Sadler back in 2006, had a shorter trip to the top 10 –

starting in the middle of the pack and leading twice for three laps.

Mark Martin, pole winner for the 52nd annual Daytona 500, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who will be starting alongside Martin on the front row Sunday, led off their respective Gatorade Duel 150-mile qualifying races to determine the starting order for “The Great American Race”.

Martin led once for a race-high 28 laps, and Earnhardt Jr. led once for five laps.

Three-time Daytona 500 champion Jeff Gordon will have to go to a back-up car and start at the rear of the field on Sunday after being involved in the final caution of the first Gatorade Duel with only six laps to go.

“We sent our Budweiser Shootout car that we wrecked on the last lap (Saturday night) home,” said Steve Letarte, crew chief of the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet. “They’ve already repaired that, so that car is as good as new. We’re better off bringing that car out. (It’s) been back to the shop, repaired and ready to come back down.”

Of the 19 drivers who were not guaranteed a spot in Sunday’s season opener, Michael McDowell and Max Papis raced their way into the field during the first Gatorade Duel and earned their first career starts in the Daytona 500.

Mike Bliss and Scott Speed earned the transfer spots into the Daytona 500 in the second Gatorade Duel while two-time Daytona 500 champion Bill Elliott, Joe Nemechek, Bobby Labonte and Michael Waltrip earned a starting spot with their qualifying times.

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• If the two photo finishes in the Gatorade Duel qualifying races are any indication, we’re in for a treat when the green flag drops on Daytona 500 (sports.espn.go.com)
• Johnson, Kahne win Daytona 500 qualifiers (canada.com)

By no means was the Budweiser Shootout the start that Henricks Motorsports was looking for.
Saturday afternoon  at Daytona International Speedway, Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the front row for the 2010 Daytona 500, the biggest race of the season.
Just hours after the Hendrick pole sweep, the team had four of the 24 cars competing in the Shootout. But Martin got caught in an early crash and finished 20th, with teammates Jimmie Johnson (13th), Earnhardt (11th) and Gordon (8th) not finishing where they would have liked, either.

But that was then.

This week, the game will be totally  different and the Hendrick group hopes it will be much better as well, at least from a team standpoint.

At the Gatorade Duels at Daytona Thursday Mark Martin will start on the pole for the first of two 150-mile qualifying races, and Jr will start on the poll for the second  150 mile qualifier.

The Gatorade Duels don’t mean a whole lot to Hendricks from a stand point of where they finish all four teams are in the top 35 in points from last year and are guaranteed a spot on the 2010 Daytona 500. What  it is for is to see what kinda a car they have for the 500. The Duels will give them a good indication what they have for Sundays race.

I already know that Dale Earnhardt Jr fans are concerned on the way JR performed at the Budweiser shootout. It was surprising being that Daytona has always been a track for Dale JR.

All we can do is sit back and see what happens next.

Till next week, see ya.

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• Dale Earnhardt Jr. off to needed strong start at Daytona International Speedway (sports.espn.go.com)
• Earnhardt out front again and wants to stay there (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

This was supposed to be the year that Jimmie Johnson got beat. Three consecutive championships on NASCAR’s premier series, something only one other man had ever done, was no doubt historic. But four in a row? Let’s not get crazy. Not with Carl Edwards coming off a nine-win season. Not with Kyle Busch hitting his prime. Not with competition tightening. There were simply too many obstacles, too many reasons for the law of averages to take its toll.

Johnson’s too nice of a guy to say it outright, so his actions said it for him: underestimate the No. 48 team, and they’ll eat you alive.

Instead, this became the year when we all learned never to discount a driver who’s already put himself on the short list of the best ever to wheel a stock car. Remember that short-sighted preseason media poll that predicted Edwards to win the title? Didn’t think so. The end result was Johnson, seizing the sport by the throat, winning his most recent title by his largest point margin, so dominating the Cup tour that by the end of the year his competitors’ only hope seemed to be early retirement.

Johnson’s too nice of a guy to say it outright, so his actions said it for him: underestimate the No. 48 team, and they’ll eat you alive. Don’t read too much into a disappointing 31st-place run in the Daytona 500, another struggle at Las Vegas, or continued goose eggs in the win column at Bristol or the road courses. Don’t buy into conspiracy theories about tire testing or tolerance warnings. Don’t get caught up in the fact that he didn’t take the points lead until only six races remained, later than he ever has in this unprecedented run of championships.

Because in the end they’re going to be there, and they’re going to be better than anybody, just as they were in 2009. After all, so many indicators seemed to point in the same direction — that the No. 48 team was fallible. Sixth in points after first Richmond! Shortcomings on fuel-mileage tracks! And yet, they won four times in the Chase, weathered the first genuine playoff crisis they’d faced in more than three years with typical aplomb, and ran away with a title that was never really in doubt. The end result was another typical Johnson season, with seven wins at strongholds like Martinsville, Dover, Indianapolis and Fontana, and a finishing kick that left the competition gasping for air.

And in the end, a lesson. Whatever yearning there may be in the grandstands or the media center for a new champion should not get in the way of reality. The No. 48 team is more in tune now than at any other point in its existence. Other teams in the garage area are truly confounded by how to confront the juggernaut before them. Other drivers are in awe of Johnson and what he’s done. The distance between him and the rest of the field is wider than it’s ever been. Who do you think will be picked to win the championship in the media preseason poll next year?

Johnson played it cautious throughout most of the year, publicly talking about the race at hand and not the historical ramifications of a possible unprecedented fourth consecutive title. But when the championship was finally secured at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he let it all out. “History, boys!” he screamed on the radio. “No one ever. Ever!” The previous year, he had tied Cale Yarborough’s 30-year-old mark of three consecutive titles. Now, he stood alone, and finally, he could allow himself to enjoy it.

Johnson’s run has been defined by almost mistake-free performances that gradually beat down his competition. So how shocking it was at Texas, the third-to-last race of the season, to see him bouncing off the inside wall with serious damage only two laps into the race. The result was a 38th-place finish, his worst in the Chase since Talladega in 2006, and 111 points cut from his lead. Although he won the next week at Phoenix, Johnson fumed about the incident for days. He’s probably still fuming about it. Maybe that’s one reason he’s so hard to beat.