Following last week's thrilling finish to the Daytona 500, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series went to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the second race of the season, and Jimmie Johnson walked away with the victory after the first overtime race of the season.
Kurt Busch leads early
Kurt Busch led the field to the green flag after brother Kyle Busch had his pole-winning time disallowed after he failed post-qualifying inspection. That forced him to start at the back of the field.
Ku. Busch got a great start, while Jamie McMurray spun his tires, which allowed Ku. Busch to lead the first lap. Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin made a lot of progress early as he made the high line work very well in the opening laps.
Hamlin started in 12th, but within the first nine laps, he moved all the way up to 3rd. His early luck began to falter around Lap 19, when he dropped out of the top ten.
Martin Truex Jr. began to close in on Ku. Busch around Lap 32. Before he was able to make the pass for the lead, he was passed by Matt Kenseth, who then turned his sights to the leader. Kenseth finally got the lead on Lap 42 when Busch made his first pit stop of the day.
Kenseth didn’t hold the lead for long, as Busch regained the lead after pit stops had cycled through. Kenseth regained the lead on Lap 64, when he used the high line to pass Ku. Busch.
The field made their second pit stops around Lap 75, and after everybody stopped, Kenseth was sitting in the lead, with Ku. Busch in second place.
The third round of pit stops occurred around Lap 117, and when everybody cycled through, Truex Jr. found himself in the lead, with Jimmie Johnson in second position.
Pit Road Problems for Kenseth
Kenseth was in third place, but he got a penalty for improper fueling, which forced him to vacate his position and serve a pass-through penalty.
Kenseth didn’t serve his penalty immediately, as his crew chief, Jason Ratcliffe, argued the penalty with NASCAR for quite a while, which forced NASCAR to show Kenseth the black flag with a white cross, which means he is no longer being scored.
After that, Kenseth finally served the penalty, although the team was still not happy with the call. That put Kevin Harvick into third place on Lap 125.
Harvick took advantage, and just 10 laps later, he passed Truex Jr. for the lead. He had the lead at Lap 150 when the fourth round of green flag pit stops were made, and when the field came out of the pits, Truex Jr. was back in the lead.
Harvick regained the lead on Lap 164, when he passed Truex Jr again. Harvick again was in the lead when it was time for green flag pit stops, but this time, Harvick came out of the pits in the lead.
Debris brings out the first caution of the day
Harvick was leading on Lap 210 when the first caution of the day finally came out, for debris on the track. It was the longest green flag stretch to start a race in the history of the track.
The caution allowed the drivers to make their first caution stops of the day, and Harvick won the race off pit road to restart in the lead. Truex Jr. didn’t have a very good stop, as a multitude of problems led to him losing four spots on pit road, forcing him to restart in 6th place.
Harvick returned to the pits with 74 laps to go to make yet another green flag pit stop, and was joined by Truex Jr., who pitted from second place. While they were on pit road, Austin Dillon temporarily led the race, before he made a pit stop to finish the cycle. When the dust settled, the top two were the same as when they went in, with Harvick in the lead.
Johnson takes a risk in the pits
Johnson took a massive risk on his final pit stop, as he stopped well before everybody else, which worked, as while everybody else was pitting, Johnson was on the track, and ended up with a 10 second lead over Harvick. Johnson’s lead quickly began to fall, however, as the tire wear stared to even out, Harvick began to slowly make up the time.
Harvick was trying everything he could, but his lap times were virtually the same as Johnson’s, which meant that he wasn’t gaining any ground, with less than 10 laps to go.
Johnson had a five second lead with three laps to go, but everything changed when Ryan Newman’s car went up in smoke to bring out the second caution of the day, and eliminate Johnson’s massive lead.
Under the caution, most of the field came down pit road to change four tires, putting everybody on the same page in terms of tire wear. Johnson won the race off pit road, with Harvick second, and Ky. Busch sitting in third place, with the best shot he had all day to win the race.
It was the first opportunity to see the new overtime line NASCAR instituted before the season. On the restart, the field made it past the restart line, but before they could get to turn three, Aric Almirola crashed hard, and collected a few other cars.
Johnson won the race back to the line to claim the win, with teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. claiming a second place finish Ky. Busch, who started at the back of the pack, finished in third place.
It was Johnson’s 76th career win, which puts him in a tie on the NASCAR all-time wins list with Dale Earnhardt Sr. The win also clinches Johnson a spot in the season ending Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Next weekend, NASCAR goes to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, VAVEL USA will have coverage of the race weekend, including tweets on the @NASCARonVAVEL Twitter account.