LAS VEGAS -- With three Sprint Cup Series victories in as many years at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Jimmie Johnson was understandably a favorite among Vegas oddsmakers to take home the trophy again in this weekend's 400-mile event.
Lady luck didn't smile on the Lowe's team this time around, though, as Johnson fought the handling of his car throughout the race. By the time the checkered flag was displayed, the Team Lowe's Racing crew found itself in 29th position, two laps down to race winner Carl Edwards.
"We don't really know right now what was wrong with the car," crew chief Chad Knaus said. "We just didn't quite have the speed in it that we needed."
Based on the team's showing in all three practice sessions, speed didn't seem to be an issue for the No. 48 bunch, but qualifying was another matter. After Johnson posted the third-fastest lap in first practice on Friday, his qualifying lap later that afternoon gave him the 33rd-starting position for Sunday's race.
The team bounced back from the disappointing qualifying run as Johnson was among the 10 fastest drivers in both practice sessions on Saturday.
But from the drop of the green flag on Sunday, Johnson had his hands full dealing with the handling on the No. 48 Chevy. After working his way into the top 20 by lap 67, Johnson dropped back through the field and found himself a lap down before 100 laps of the 267-lap event had been completed.
Crew chief Chad Knaus and Johnson worked together to determine the chassis changes needed to improve the car's handling, but nothing the team tried resulted in any great improvements. As the race progressed, Johnson fell another lap down to the race leaders and was being shown as the second driver two laps down when the race ended.
Edwards posted his second consecutive Sprint Cup Series win of the 2008 season and claimed the top spot in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers' points standings for the first time in his career.
In spite of his mid-pack finish, Johnson lost just two spots in the points standings and sits 14th in points after three events of the 36-race season.
It was feast or famine for the other members of the four-car Hendrick Motorsports team. While Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Casey Mears both posted top-15 finishes (Earnhardt finished second, and Mears was 13th), Jeff Gordon found trouble late in the race. On lap 263, Gordon and Matt Kenseth made contact, sending Gordon's Chevy slamming into the interior retaining wall. The front of Gordon's machine was destroyed in the accident, and video replays showed his car's radiator sliding across the track after the crash. Gordon was uninjured.
The Team Lowe's Racing crew will look to rebound from this weekend's unsatisfactory run when it heads to another track where Johnson visited Victory Lane last season, Atlanta Motor Speedway, site of Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500. Johnson drove his Lowe's/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet to victory one year ago. The Lowe's crew then followed that up with a win last October at the 1.5-mile superspeedway.
The Kobalt Tools 500 airs live on Sunday, March 9, beginning at 2 p.m. ET on FOX and PRN Radio affiliates.
TELEVISION SCHEDULE
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Friday, March 7
Sprint Cup practice, 3 p.m. ET on SPEED
Sprint Cup qualifying, 6:30 p.m. ET on SPEED
Saturday, March 8
Sprint Cup practice, 11 a.m. ET on SPEED
Sprint Cup final practice, noon ET on SPEED
Sunday, March 9
Pre-race, 1:30 p.m. ET on FOX
Race, 2 p.m. ET on FOX
