DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- If there's a silver lining to Jimmie Johnson's 27th-place finish in Sunday's Daytona 500, just consider that Johnson ran 39th at Daytona last year before winning his second consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup title.
Nevertheless, from trouble on a pit stop on lap 78 to a tap from Sam Hornish Jr. that sent the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet spinning into the No. 1 Chevy of Martin Truex Jr. on lap 177, it wasn't Johnson's day.
Penske Racing teammates Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch powered past Tony Stewart on the final lap of the 50th running of the Great American Race to give team owner Roger Penske a Daytona 500 victory to go with his 14 wins in the Indianapolis 500. This also was the first time Penske drivers finished 1-2 in a Cup race.
But it was Johnson who started on the pole after a spectacular qualifying run the previous Sunday, and the driver of the Lowe's Chevy felt as if he had an excellent chance to win the 500 for a second time.
"Let's go out there today and have some fun -- kick off the season in style," Johnson said as he led the field off pit road. "Let's remember what we are --professionals -- and get the job done today. OK, boys, let's have fun."
After surrendering the lead to fellow front-row starter Michael Waltrip on lap 1, Johnson regained it on lap 3. Moments later the Toyotas of Joe Gibbs Racing began to assert themselves as Denny Hamlin passed the Lowe's Chevy for the lead on lap 4.
Over the next few laps, Hamlin swapped the lead with teammate Stewart as Johnson fell back but remained in the top five.
"Unfortunately, (it feels) a little flat," Johnson reported to crew chief Chad Knaus on lap 9.
Nevertheless, Johnson remained in the lead pack, and spotter Stevie Reeves told him three laps later: "You've got about a 12-car breakaway. Everybody's single file."
By lap 26, the handling on Johnson's car had begun to deteriorate. "I'm pretty tight now," he said. "Got to be careful here."
Nevertheless, Johnson was able to maintain contact with the top two cars at the time, those of Denny Hamlin and teammate Jeff Gordon.
"Hang on, bud, we're going to fix you up," Knaus radioed on lap 30. "We've going to make a couple of small air-pressure adjustments and see what we've got."
On lap 37, Knaus brought Johnson to the pits for a green-flag stop for four tires and fuel. After the field cycled through, Johnson was running sixth in a three-car pack, approximately one second behind the lead trio of Hamlin, Gordon and Kyle Busch.
"You're three-tenths (of a second per lap) off those guys ahead of you," Knaus told his driver. "Jimmie, before the next round of pit stops, I need you to get as close to the front as you can."
By lap 59, Johnson had moved to the high side of the track. "It's just a little free," he said. "Might be tight if I was down there (in the inside groove)."
On lap 65, with the two groups reunited, Johnson tried a solo pass to the inside, to no avail. "Hey, bud, went down there, tried to get to the front, didn't work, tightened up there on the bottom," he told Knaus.
"We'll get you back up there," the crew chief replied.
With a pit stop approaching on lap 74, Knaus prompted the Lowe's crew: "Air-pressure adjustment, guys, air-pressure adjustment. Hurry up."
But the ensuing pit stop was a disaster as the clutch started to slip and the car rolled off the jack before the left-side tires could be mounted.
"Get it up, get it up, get it up," Knaus shouted to his jackman. "Jimmie, don't go."
"Did it feel like that clutch was slipping?" Knaus asked Johnson after the lengthy stop that dropped Johnson deep in the running order. "When you come in the pits from now on, leave it in neutral, OK?"
"Do you feel like the clutch isn't getting fully engaged?" Knaus asked again.
Johnson wasn't sure, but he told Knaus, "As soon as the jack went up the car stalled."
Less than five laps later, NASCAR called a caution for debris, and Johnson brought the Lowe's Chevy back to the pits for service.
After the stop, Knaus encouraged his driver: "You've got plenty of time to get this back. It's just going to make it a little more interesting, that's all."
Johnson was 28th for a restart on lap 85, and lap 93 brought more bad news.
"I've got a right-rear problem," Johnson radioed to Knaus. "It's been really loose for the last few laps."
"Take it easy for a lap or two," Knaus replied. "If it's still there, we'll bring you back in."
"It's stabilizing," Johnson said on lap 95. "I think it might have been traffic."
One lap later, Johnson changed his mind. "I can't drive this thing. Coming to you."
"Drop the panhard bar," Knaus ordered, anticipating a pit stop, but Johnson was wavering. "Do you think I should just ride it out?" he asked.
"Jimmie, I've got to leave that to you -- I'm not driving it," Knaus replied.
"I'll drive it," Johnson said with finality. On lap 101 he added, "In traffic, it's really edgy. It's rolling better when I'm by myself."
On lap 108, Johnson was running 27th and making little progress, but a superb pit stop on lap 120 gave the Lowe's team hope of salvaging a respectable finish.
"That was awesome!" Knaus exulted after Johnson gained a dozen positions on pit road. "I don't know how you did it, but that was a great job getting onto pit road."
On lap 124, Knaus added, "Jimmie, that set of tires we just took off was the best-looking set yet."
But on lap 125 Knaus told his driver, "We're losing a half a second a lap to the leaders."
A second caution for debris in turn 2 brought another pit stop on lap 152, and Johnson restarted 11th on lap 156. On lap 162 he deftly avoided a wreck out of turn 4 involving Roush Fenway teammates David Ragan and Matt Kenseth.
"I picked the right lane to save my life," Johnson said.
On lap 163, after a pit stop under caution for fresh rubber, Knaus said, "Tires are going to be a big advantage here, bud. A lot of those guys took gas only. They've got six or seven laps on the tires. All right, so we're sitting in 12th. That's good. Everybody ahead of you took either no tires or two tires. Jimmie, that 18 car (Kyle Busch, immediately ahead of the Lowe's Chevy) is the best car here. He probably took four tires. If you can stay with him, that's probably your ticket to the front."
But Johnson never got a chance to prove the theory. On lap 177, as he was rounding turn 2 between cars, Johnson got a tap from the No. 77 Dodge of Hornish and careened into Truex's Chevy.
Despite the best efforts of the driver and the crew, Johnson finished 27th in the season opener.
"The No. 77 got loose inside of me or something went on there where he just barely got me and turned me around," Johnson said after the race. "I thought we were going to make it without getting hit real hard, but we had a little bit of contact. We stayed on the lead lap and did a good job there, but we had lost track position early in the day and we were fighting to get it back all day and it was really difficult to pass anyone out there.
"This is a big race. I wanted to win this race. I felt like we had the car, especially in the beginning of this race, that was capable of doing it. But we just lost track position and it was impossible to work through traffic and get the track position."
