Tactical Johnson wins at Kansas

Jimmie Johnson has scored his third victory of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season, winning a final dash to the flag at the Spongebob Squarepants 400 at Kansas Speedway.

The result was his 73rd career win, notching up his 200th top 5 and 300th top 10. It marks his third win at Kansas; tying with Jeff Gordon for the most.

Johnson’s race was far from straight forward after he got loose early and despite going sideways he didn’t wreck.

Then a 150-minute rain delay took the race deep into the night with fuel strategy playing a big part.

The race appeared to be between series champion and points’ leader, Kevin Harvick, and Martin Truex Jr. who led the most laps (95) in the race.

However, a caution was called with 11 laps to run when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. found the fence. A range of different strategies came into play, with the key ones being Harvick taking fuel and right-side tyres, Truex Jr. with fuel only and Johnson electing to not come to pit road and re-start off the point.

As the race re-started with six laps to run, Johnson pulled ahead of team-mates Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon with Harvick in hot pursuit. Truex’s old tyres were no match and he fell back to ninth at the finish.

The time it took for Harvick to pass Gordon and Earnhardt Jr. was critical as he ran out of laps to reel-in Johnson at the finish.

Of the 267 laps in the race, Johnson led just the final 10. Despite the early car handling issues, the rain delay, and running low on fuel, Johnson put the result down to one key ingredient.

“Experience helps you – just shrug it off,” said the man who has won four of the six races at 1.5 mile tracks so far in 2015.

“It was a long hard night of racing for track position. Then once we got up front, we were able to hold on there for the final six laps.”

Another solid race for Harvick saw him surpass 1000 race laps led through the first 11 races of the season. The last time a driver has done that was Gordon back in 1995.

He solidified his lead in the standings with his eight finish in the top-2.

Pole man Joey Logano finished in fifth place. This despite two pitlane infractions which meant he had to re-start off the rear of the field. He passed an impressive 55 lead lap cars on the track throughout the race.

Also grabbing attention was 18-year-old Erik Jones. Who substituting for Kyle Busch, ran inside the top-10 for the majority of the race. His good run would come undone late in the race when he lost the rear of his Toyota and slammed the fence.

Next week the NASCAR Sprint Cup has its All-Star weekend at Charlotte Motorspeedway. No championship points are on offer, but that will matter little to the drivers who will race for the US$2 million purse.

VIDEO: Final lap

VIDEO: Victory Lane

 RESULTS: Spongebob Squarepants 400 – Kansas Speedway

POS.	CAR #	DRIVER	MAKE	START	LAPS	LAPS LED	FINAL STATUS	POINTS	BONUS PTS
1	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	19	267	10	Running	47	4
2	4	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	6	267	53	Running	43	1
3	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr	Chevrolet	17	267	0	Running	41	0
4	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	11	267	0	Running	40	0
5	22	Joey Logano	Ford	1	267	29	Running	40	1
6	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	18	267	1	Running	39	1
7	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	3	267	43	Running	38	1
8	41	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	8	267	20	Running	37	1
9	78	Martin Truex Jr	Chevrolet	4	267	95	Running	37	2
10	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	15	267	0	Running	34	0
11	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	14	267	0	Running	33	0
12	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	7	267	0	Running	32	0
13	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	9	267	0	Running	31	0
14	47	AJ Allmendinger	Chevrolet	29	267	0	Running	30	0
15	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	10	267	3	Running	30	1
16	9	Sam Hornish Jr	Ford	26	267	0	Running	28	0
17	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	2	267	0	Running	27	0
18	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	22	267	0	Running	26	0
19	13	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	24	266	0	Running	25	0
20	19	Carl Edwards	Toyota	5	266	12	Running	25	1
21	15	Clint Bowyer	Toyota	21	266	0	Running	23	0
22	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	28	266	0	Running	22	0
23	46	Michael Annett	Chevrolet	43	266	0	Running	21	0
24	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Ford	20	266	0	Running	20	0
25	83	Matt DiBenedetto	Toyota	35	266	0	Running	19	0
26	33	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	32	266	0	Running	0	0
27	10	Danica Patrick	Chevrolet	27	265	0	Running	17	0
28	98	Josh Wise	Ford	40	265	0	Running	16	0
29	40	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	41	265	0	Running	0	0
30	51	Justin Allgaier	Chevrolet	25	265	0	Running	14	0
31	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	30	265	0	Running	13	0
32	38	David Gilliland	Ford	38	263	0	Running	12	0
33	55	David Ragan	Toyota	23	263	0	Running	11	0
34	34	Brett Moffitt	Ford	39	263	0	Running	10	0
35	35	Cole Whitt	Ford	34	263	0	Running	9	0
36	95	Michael McDowell	Ford	31	262	0	Running	8	0
37	23	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	37	262	0	Running	0	0
38	32	Joey Gase	Ford	42	262	0	Running	0	0
39	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	16	258	0	Running	5	0
40	18	Erik Jones	Toyota	12	242	1	Running	0	0
41	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	13	205	0	Accident	3	0
42	26	Jeb Burton	Toyota	33	153	0	Rear Gear	2	0
43	7	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	36	125	0	Vibration	1	0

 

STANDINGS

POS	DRIVER	POINTS	BEHIND	STARTS	WINS	TOP 5	TOP 10	DNF
1	Kevin Harvick	437	Leader	11	2	8	10	0
2	Martin Truex Jr	391	-46	11	0	2	10	0
3	Jimmie Johnson	389	-48	11	3	7	8	0
4	Joey Logano	375	-62	11	1	6	9	0
5	Dale Earnhardt Jr	360	-77	11	1	6	7	1
6	Brad Keselowski	343	-94	11	1	3	7	1
7	Matt Kenseth	331	-106	11	1	3	6	0
8	Jamie McMurray	328	-109	11	0	2	4	1
9	Jeff Gordon	317	-120	11	0	2	7	1
10	Kasey Kahne	313	-124	11	0	1	4	1
11	Aric Almirola	312	-125	11	0	0	0	0
12	Paul Menard	306	-131	11	0	2	2	1
13	Ryan Newman	305	-132	11	0	4	7	0
14	Kurt Busch	292	-145	8	1	3	4	0
15	Denny Hamlin	284	-153	11	1	3	4	1
16	Clint Bowyer	272	-165	11	0	0	2	0
17	Danica Patrick	270	-167	11	0	0	2	0
18	Carl Edwards	265	-172	11	0	0	1	0
19	AJ Allmendinger	259	-178	11	0	0	2	2
20	Casey Mears	242	-195	11	0	0	1	1
21	Greg Biffle	242	-195	11	0	0	1	0
22	Kyle Larson	237	-200	10	0	0	3	2
23	David Ragan	235	-202	11	0	1	1	0
24	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	227	-210	11	0	1	1	1
25	Austin Dillon	225	-212	11	0	0	1	2
26	David Gilliland	212	-225	11	0	0	0	0
27	Sam Hornish Jr	210	-227	11	0	0	1	0
28	Justin Allgaier	207	-230	11	0	0	1	2
29	Trevor Bayne	190	-247	11	0	0	0	1
30	Tony Stewart	179	-258	11	0	0	1	3
31	Cole Whitt	177	-260	11	0	0	0	1
32	Brett Moffitt	161	-276	9	0	0	1	0
33	Michael Annett	137	-300	11	0	0	0	1
34	Alex Bowman	132	-305	10	0	0	0	2
35	Josh Wise	116	-321	10	0	0	1	2
36	Matt DiBenedetto	109	-328	8	0	0	0	0
37	Michael McDowell	87	-350	6	0	0	0	0
38	Jeb Burton	53	-384	8	0	0	0	2
39	Alex Kennedy	40	-397	5	0	0	0	0
40	Bobby Labonte	38	-399	2	0	0	0	0
41	Brian Vickers	32	-405	2	0	0	0	0
42	Michael Waltrip	26	-411	2	0	0	0	0
43	Reed Sorenson	22	-415	2	0	0	0	0
44	Mike Wallace	8	-429	1	0	0	0	0
45	Ron Hornaday Jr	2	-435	1	0	0	0	1
46	Ryan Blaney	0	-437	4	0	1	1	2
47	Brian Scott	0	-437	3	0	0	0	1
48	J.J. Yeley	0	-437	10	0	0	0	1
49	Regan Smith	0	-437	4	0	0	0	0
50	Chase Elliott	0	-437	2	0	0	0	0
51	Matt Crafton	0	-437	1	0	0	0	0
52	Johnny Sauter	0	-437	1	0	0	0	0
53	Chris Buescher	0	-437	5	0	0	0	0
54	Landon Cassill	0	-437	11	0	0	0	4
55	Ty Dillon	0	-437	2	0	0	0	0
56	Brendan Gaughan	0	-437	5	0	0	0	1
57	Mike Bliss	0	-437	6	0	0	0	0
58	Joe Nemechek	0	-437	1	0	0	0	0
59	Joey Gase	0	-437	2	0	0	0	1
60	Jeff Green	0	-437	1	0	0	0	0
61	Erik Jones	0	-437	1	0	0	0	0
62	Travis Kvapil	0	-437	0	0	0	0	0
63	Tanner Berryhill	0	-437	0	0	0	0	0
64	Justin Marks	0	-437	0	0	0	0	0