RICHMOND, Va. -- Just when Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet was starting to gather steam Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway, a 14-car pileup damaged the car and relegated the two-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion to a 30th-place finish in the Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400.
Opportunistic Clint Bowyer won the race after Kyle Busch slid up the track into the No. 88 Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Jr. as the two were battling for the lead on lap 398 of 400. Bowyer inherited the lead after the wreck and ultimately pulled away during a green-white-checkered-flag finish that took the race 10 laps beyond its posted distance.
Busch held off Mark Martin for second, with Tony Stewart finishing fourth and Martin Truex Jr. fifth. Denny Hamlin led a track-record 381 laps before developing a slow leak in his right front tire and surrendering the top spot to Earnhardt on lap 383.
For his part, Johnson struggled with an ill-handling car before major adjustments by the Lowe's crew began to produce dramatic improvements. On lap 230, however, contact between Carl Edwards' Ford and J.J. Yeley's Toyota on lap 230 triggered a massive pileup in turn 3 that blocked the track and necessitated a stoppage to remove debris from the racing surface.
After extensive repairs on pit road, Johnson soldiered home and salvaged the 30th-place result, the best he could have achieved under the circumstances. Johnson fell two places to seventh in the Sprint Cup standings but is still comfortably inside the 12 Chase-eligible positions.
"You're pit stall 12," crew chief Chad Knaus told his driver as the cars rolled off pit road to take their pace laps. "You've got the 29 (Kevin Harvick), 28 (Travis Kvapil), us, then the 7 (Robby Gordon) in front of us. OK, guys, like we talked about in the meeting, no mistakes."
"Thanks for everything," Johnson radioed back. "You guys are awesome. Let's have some fun tonight, a little short-track stuff."
"FYI, buddy," rejoined Knaus, "it's going to cool off a quite a bit. In the last 100 laps, it'll be about 60 degrees, and the track will change a bunch. Remember, buddy, you are on scuffs, your qualifying tires. Something else -- in the early going your splitter may touch with low air pressure (in the tires), but that should improve as the race goes along.
"OK, let's rock 'n' roll."
"Pace car's down," said spotter Stevie Reeves as the cars approached the stripe. "Get ready, green flag."
Johnson started 12th, but with his early handling problems, he could gain little ground.
"That was a good corner, man," Knaus said encouragingly on lap 19. "Nice and easy into the corner."
"The entry is good," Johnson reported on lap 24. "I think I should dial a little rear brake into it."
"Just tell me when you do that, bud," Knaus answered.
As Earnhardt gained ground on the Lowe's Chevy on lap 34, Knaus keyed his mic: "Next car back is the 88. He's pretty quick. Maybe we can learn a little something from him."
"A little tight in the center," Johnson rejoined, describing his handling characteristics.
Though Johnson had fallen to 16th by lap 56, Knaus reassured him: "You're running top-10 speeds. We'll get you back up there."
On lap 65, Johnny Sauter scraped the turn 3 wall to cause the first caution of the race. "It's good in, but as soon as I lay the power down and hook the center, it runs tight," Johnson said, anticipating a pit stop under yellow.
"We're going to raise the panhard bar quite a bit," Knaus replied. "We'll get it fixed."
The adjustments during the pit stop didn't help. On lap 101 Johnson complained: "Really tight in the center. I've got nothing with the front tires."
"You can do it, man," Knaus replied. "You can get it figured out. Keep digging, buddy. The leader's only about eight cars back."
At that point, the Lowe's Chevy had dropped to 26th in the running order, in danger of losing a lap to Hamlin.
"I'm about to lose my cool in here," Johnson radioed on lap 116.
"Remember, the madder you get the harder it's going to be," Knaus answered.
"I'm driving it so damn easy, it's driving me nuts," was the driver's reply.
With Hamlin just two cars behind Johnson, NASCAR called a caution for debris on lap 128.
"We're going to be the last car in here (in the pits), so we need to take advantage of it," Knaus said. (Spring) rubber in the right rear. Panhard bar up three."
"Take your time, guys," Knaus added as Johnson stopped in the pit stall. "Get everything right."
Then, after the Lowe's Chevy exited pit road, Knaus told his driver to bring the car back for some major adjustments. "I want to take the bar load out of it," Knaus explained. "I want to put a rubber in the left side."
"It's one to go," Reeves warned after the second stop. "You've got to catch the field."
Johnson restarted 28th on lap 134 but began to gain ground. He voiced his approval when Juan Pablo Montoya's spin off turn 2 brought out the third caution on lap 139.
"Improvement, huge improvement," Johnson radioed enthusiastically.
"Be specific," Knaus said.
"I'm rolling through the center really well," Johnson replied. "I have forward bite."
After Knaus brought the Lowe's Chevy back to the pits, he remarked, "I know we lost a couple spots there, but we had to get that sway bar link tightened up (from the previous pit stop)."
"Hey, Jimmie, the 5 car (Casey Mears) wants to know if he was too slow on pit road speed," Reeves said under caution on lap 143.
"Way slow in the first trap, then better and better, but still about 150 (rpm) below," Johnson replied, referring to 4,200 rpm in second gear, the measure of maximum pit road speed.
By lap 177, Johnson had climbed from 28th to 19th in the running order, but Hamlin was still chasing, and the Lowe's Chevy was about to lose a lap.
"Obviously, you know we need to try to go a little faster," Knaus said on lap 184, while Johnson was rolling through turns 1 and 2. "The 11 (Hamlin) is at the start/finish right now."
"The leader's eight cars back," Reeves added three laps later.
"We've really got to stay on the lead lap here," Knaus affirmed on lap 191. "Keep digging, buddy."
"Leader next car back," Reeves radioed urgently on lap 201.
"We're going to be pitting you in about 40 laps," Knaus added.
AJ Allmendinger's spin on lap 205 prevented the Lowe's Chevy from losing a lap, and when the field restarted on lap 211, Johnson was running 18th.
He was up to 14th for a restart on lap 227 after caution flew when Brian Vickers and Paul Menard tangled on the backstretch.
But on lap 230, Johnson's luck ran out. The Lowe's Chevy was severely damaged during the melee in turn 3, and Johnson lost four laps on pit road while the team performed major surgery on the car.
Under the circumstances, Johnson maintained a strong pace for the rest of the race. About the only thing out of the ordinary that occurred the rest of the way was a bizarre accident involving Michael Waltrip and Johnson's Hendrick Motorsports teammate Casey Mears. NASCAR parked Waltrip for running Mears into the turn 1 wall after the two cars got together.
"He's a freaking idiot," said Johnson, who had a good view of the wreck. "He's trying to kill him! I thought I was seeing things."
"That was amazing," Knaus agreed. "I've never seen anything like that in my life."
After Busch and Earnhardt tangled on lap 398, Knaus commented on the almost unanimous displeasure expressed by the sellout crowd of 112,000.
"I've never seen as many middle fingers in my life coming from the fans," Knaus quipped.
Twelve laps later, a frustrating day ended for the Lowe's team.
"We got wrecked there, guys, just as the car was starting to come around a little bit," Knaus said.
"Thanks, guys," added Johnson. "Nothing we could do about that."
