Five takeaways from Bristol: From Jimmie Johnson to Clint Bowyer
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Rain forced a one-day delay in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The weather isn’t nearly as predictable as the driver who won Monday as Jimmie Johnson, who has dominated the sport for a decade, secured his 82nd career victory.
Here are five takeaways from NASCAR’s eighth race of the season:
1. Johnson moving toward 100
Richard Petty’s record 200-win mark is safe, although Johnson’s consecutive victories (Texas and Bristol) makes the 100-win mark more attainable for the seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion.
Johnson, however, isn’t yet convinced.
“It just seems too far out there that I don't think that the 100 is achievable,” Johnson said. “I hope I'm wrong. I really do. I would love to clearly do that. But again, I've always felt that that's just such a big number, and with as competitive as our sport is, the new twist with stage racing and what it's done to our series, that's going to be a hard number to get.”
The victory puts him a win from tying Cale Yarborough for sixth on the all-time wins list. After that, only Petty, David Pearson (105), Jeff Gordon (93), Bobby Allison (84) and Darrell Waltrip (84) are ahead.
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2. Bristol still can put on a show
Second-place finisher Clint Bowyer admitted “The Bullring” days on the half-mile oval are over.
“I know that everybody wants to see that Bristol of old and ring around the bottom and us beating and banging and moving cars,” Bowyer said. “I'm telling you, the workload, the effort that you put into driving that car, you can't drive them any harder than that. Literally it's a qualifying lap almost every single time. I think they've done a great job of creating that environment.”
Workers sprayed VHT TrackBite on both the lower and higher racing lanes in the hours before the race. The storms that forced Sunday’s postponement had robbed what little rubber had accumulated from the Xfinity Series race and practice sessions.
“This race without a doubt would have been single file around the top if the VHT wasn't on the bottom, so that is a huge help to create multiple lanes of racing,” Johnson said.
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3. Kyle Busch’s tire woes continue
Kyle Busch had two tire incidents with his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, the latter on Lap 383 that knocked the 2015 champ out of the race. He finished 35th.
“I don’t know why the fastest car out there keeps blowing tires,” Busch told reporters after he was evaluated and released form in the infield care center. “We were coming through the field twice and if people want to see racing and (cars) coming from the back to the front, you have to have tires that will last.”
Busch railed against Goodyear after a tire issue led to his other DNF this year — at the Daytona 500 in February. He also described his Goodyear tires as “junk” earlier this month at Martinsville.
He didn’t mention Goodyear by name Monday and even hinted that it could be an issue with his car’s setup.
“I don’t know if it’s fundamentally wrong what we’re doing, but it seems like all the rest of our JGR cars are fine,” Busch said.
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4. Earnhardt losing ground
Dale Earnhardt Jr. exited Bristol with his third DNF and slipped to 24th in the points standings, a day before announcing he will retire from NASCAR after this season.
“It’s racing,” Earnhardt told USA TODAY Sports when asked about his struggles so far this season.
Earnhardt’s car began to smoke as he exited Turn 2 and he told reporters afterward that his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet suffered an issue with its oil system during a caution moments before he made contact with the wall on Lap 219.
Chad Knaus, Johnson’s crew chief and fellow Hendrick Motorsports employee, warned reporters to “be cautious putting that out there until we know for sure.”
“I haven't confirmed that it was an engine failure,” Knaus said. “Maybe our people can tell us. Yeah, I don't know that that was the case.”
Earnhardt, who missed the second half of last season as he recovered from a concussion, hasn’t won a Cup race since November 2015, at Phoenix Raceway.
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5. Bowyer is back
Bowyer was looking for something that he doubt he’d see over the final laps: a mistake by Johnson that would allow him to win his first race since October 2012.
“You know better than that,” Bowyer quipped. “It's Jimmie Johnson. You try everything you possibly can and I was starting to do some pretty desperate things with brakes and my line and stuff like that. Then you just realize, ‘All right, let's put it in perspective here, we've come a long ways, it was a long day, and second place is probably a good run for us, and we should be happy with that.’ We shouldn't hang our head about it.”
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