Keselowski also had a great run as he was one of the most consistent drivers throughout the chase by finishing mostly in the top-10 in the first four races in the chase.
The third round of the NASCAR Sprint Cup’s Chase opens today at Martinsville Speedway, and MLive wants to know who you are picking to win it all now that the field has been pared down to eight drivers.
This Sunday, the action heads to The Paperclip in the mountains of Virginia for the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Johnson won the opening race of the last Chase round at Charlotte and he is the most successful of the Chasers at Martinsville where he owns eight victories to go along with eighteen top five finishes.
Starting next season, current Sprint Cup drivers with more than five full-time seasons in that series will be limited to a maximum of 10 Xfinity Series starts and seven Camping World Truck Series starts per year.
Jimmie Johnson will drive for his seventh Cup championship at Homestead-Miami.
Johnson earned one of four spots in next month’s title-deciding season finale Sunday with his ninth career victory at Martinsville Speedway.
There are a few times a year where drivers’ thoughts might be dominated by the winnings associated with first place in a NASCAR race.
“We’ve had strong cars and then we even had some stuff just come our way”, Johnson said of his string of success at Texas.
“I think certainly when it comes down to the end of one of these things, you hope that non-Chase guys race you a little bit differently, being that you are in the Chase, ” Truex said. “I think every time I come here that anything less than a victory is a disappointment”, Hamlin said.
“We saw the No. 17 (at Dover) stretch fuel mileage, made a decision to go slow, went two laps down and finished 11th, ” said Greg Biffle.
“We’re locked in now, and I’m just honored to be in this position”.
Still, Johnson is quick to point out there are no guarantees in his quest to get to the championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 20.
Martinsville is a tight paper-clip shaped track with concrete corners and curbs where drivers push and shove their way around for 500 grueling laps, often leading to flared tempers both during and after the race.
Debris on race track brings out the yellow flag at Lap 132. Gordon, now a Fox Sports analyst, said Friday he didn’t think he’d race a Cup vehicle again after today, but added: “Go ask Rick Hendrick”. Johnson lost only three spots because only a few cars remained on the lead lap, and he got the auto re-fired before he lost a lap.
“We really had great long run speed”, Johnson said.
Race director David Hoots refused to restart the race until the running order had been checked and the cars were properly positioned.
“Hopefully, that doesn’t change what happens going into Homestead“.
Remember grade school, when you got behind the line leader and stayed there? “It definitely was not right”. Hamlin, who led 48 laps, finished third, and was followed to the checkered flag by Matt Kenseth (176 laps led) and Kyle Busch (3 laps led). But all was not well in the Gibbs camp after the race. Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards have won 11 times this year, including the Daytona 500, and remain the overall favorites on paper despite not winning once during the first six races of this playoff. “I always look forward to the challenge, hopefully we can put together a ideal race and work our way toward the front and have a shot”. “So, JGR all the way”, Busch said.
“Thankfully, we had some track position at the time, so the pace auto didn’t come to me and put me down a lap”.
“I think today was pretty cool because we had cloud cover”, Hagan said.
Jimmie Johnson, the driver who landed his Cup ride at Hendrick with Gordon’s assistance, isn’t quite sure that ol’ four-time will never be back on a race auto. The Round of Eight opener will likely be Gordon’s final NASCAR race. “We fought that for nearly the entire second half of the race”. Hamlin was eventually passed by Johnson, who almost ran out of gas under caution but made it to pit road for service and lined up fourth for the restart. Out of patience, he moved Johnson out of his way.