CUP: Johnson Wins NASCAR Banking 500

Sprint Cup

CUP: Johnson Wins NASCAR Banking 500

Jimmie Johnson triumphed on a cold night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway...

Tom Jensen | Posted October 18, 2009 Charlotte, NC

Jimmie Johnson celebrates after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series NASCAR Banking 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)

Jimmie Johnson drove a stake through the heart of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, winning Saturday night’s NASCAR Banking 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway while most of his closest championship competition self-destructed.

Johnson took the lead on pit road from the previously dominant car of Kasey Kahne on Lap 292 of the 334-lap race, and from there drove to his sixth victory of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season and his third in five Chase races in his all-conquering Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Impala SS.

The three-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion survived a spate of late-race cautions to secure the victory. And he definitely sent a signal to his fellow Chase competitors with his amazing weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway: Johnson qualified on the pole, was fastest in all three practice sessions, led the most laps and won the race — literally, as good a weekend as possible and exactly what Johnson and his crew chief Chad Knaus had planned.

“It was a perfect weekend, something Chad always wanted to do,” said Johnson. “Win every practice, qualifying and the race, and we got it.”

Jeff Gordon, Johnson’s teammate at Hendrick, briefly took the lead on a restart with 17 laps to go, but three laps later, Johnson took the lead and was gone.

“I knew he was going to be tough,” Johnson said of Gordon. “He got by me, and I was pretty nervous. He had the outside lane and that’s kind of where I needed to be to clear him. The restarts before on the bottom I was able to get by him, but he had a great restart and I really had to hurt him.”

With five laps to go, Matt Kenseth put his Roush Fenway Racing Ford into second place over Kahne, himself a three-time winner on the 1.5-mile North Carolina oval. Completing the top five were Gordon and Joey Logano in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

It was a truly disastrous day for many of the Chase hopefuls: Denny Hamlin dropped a valve in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and finished 42nd, while Carl Edwards broke a transmission and ended his race 37th.

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Tom Jensen

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