CUP: Johnson Wins Tense Daytona 500

Sprint Cup

CUP: Johnson Wins Tense Daytona 500

Jimmie Johnson holds off late-race charge to claim second 500 victory…

Mike Hembree | Posted February 24, 2013 Daytona Beach, FL

5-Time Champion Jimmie Johnson wins his 2nd Daytona 500 in his 400th career start.

Jimmie Johnson dominated over a tense late-race green-flag run and won Sunday’s Daytona 500 by holding off Dale Earnhardt Jr. and other challengers.

The win was the second for Johnson in the Great American race and the seventh for team owner Rick Hendrick.

It was the first, however, for Chad Knaus, the crew chief who has been with Johnson for five Sprint Cup championship runs. When Johnson won the race in 2006, Knaus was under suspension, and Darian Grubb (now at Joe Gibbs Racing) was the substitute crew chief.

The victory came in Johnson’s 400th career start. He is only the 10th multiple winner of the 500.

“It is just awesome,” Johnson said. “No other way to describe it. Four hundred starts and every one with Lowe’s and Hendrick. First to win in the Gen-6, and that car is a Chevy SS.

“It’s a very, very proud moment. Plate racing has been a little tough on the 48 the last few years.”

Johnson, who won $1.5 million for the 61st win of his Sprint Cup career, took the final green in the lead with six laps to go and Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin trailing. Traffic shuffled behind him in the final-lap dash to the checkered, but Johnson stayed in front of the drafting pair of Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin to win with relative ease.

“I felt like I was sitting on something all day,” Johnson said. “I was ready to have some fun when it counted.”

Danica Patrick, who was third at the white flag, dropped to eighth in the final 2.5 miles but still scored the first top-10 finish by a woman in NASCAR’s biggest race. She raced in the top 10 most of the day, led five laps and appeared to be a victory threat until the last-lap jousting.

Jeff Burton’s trioval crash set up the race finish with a green flag with 19 laps to go. Keselowski, Johnson, Marcos Ambrose and Biffle were in front.

The field was slowed again with eight laps to go because of debris – apparently a piece of aluminum – on the backstretch. Johnson, wrestling for the lead with Keselowski, hit the debris, but the impact apparently didn’t affect his car.

When the green flag returned with 15 miles to go, Johnson protected the lead and built enough of a cushion to make it difficult for a drafting pair to challenge him.

That effort came on the last lap as Earnhardt Jr. broke away from a draft with Patrick and moved to the inside with help from Martin. They were not able to put themselves in position to slip past Johnson.

Despite the traffic jam at the front as drivers shifted positions, the finish was clean. “There was plenty of recipe to have a big one at the end,” Martin said. “It just didn’t happen.”

Following Johnson, Earnhardt Jr. and Martin at the finish were Keselowski and Ryan Newman.

An early-race accident ruined the day for three potential winners – Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne.

The wreck developed near the front of the field on lap 34 in the middle of a big pack of cars. Kyle Busch bumped Kahne as the cars moved through the trioval, and Kahne shot across the track in front of traffic. Mayhem followed. Nine cars eventually were involved, and the Kahne, Stewart and Harvick entries were heavily damaged.

Kahne said the cars in front of him slowed just before the contact with Busch.

The crash was particularly harsh for Stewart, who appeared to have a potent car. Despite multiple championships, Stewart remains winless in both the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500.

“The hell with the season, I wanted to win the Daytona 500,” said Stewart, winner of Saturday’s Nationwide race.

A turn-two crash with 63 laps to go wrote another wicked chapter in Carl Edwards’ 2013 Daytona. Contact between Keselowski and Trevor Bayne sent Bayne sliding in a group of cars, and Edwards was among those who became ensnarled in the melee. During Speedweeks activities and testing, Edwards wrecked five cars.

Patrick ran near the front all day and made a bit of history on lap 90, becoming the first woman to lead a lap in the 55-race history of the 500.

Joe Gibbs Racing had an eventful day. Its three drivers were running near the front late in the race when two – Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch – went behind the wall around lap 150 with mechanical problems.

Knaus said he was pleased to get another 500 win for the 48 team – and to be on hand for it.

“I eat sleep and breathe 48,” Knaus said. “Any time that I’m taken away from that race car, I’m pretty sad. But when those guys were able to come down here and win the Daytona 500 in ’06 in my absence, I think that really solidified the strength of the 48 car. I was here in spirit.

“To finally be able to come down here and win and be part of this is definitely a huge dream come true. A great experience.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 31 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Hembree

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR

CUP: Johnson Destroys Another Format
For a record fourth time, Jimmie Johnson rolls home first in Sprint…
CUP: Busches Falter In Final Shootout
Kyle, Kurt Busch lose top spots on pit road prior to 10-lap finale……
CUP: McMurray, Stenhouse Advance To All-Star
Jamie McMurray dominates Showdown to move into All-Star field with…