Johnson bumps his way to win in Loudon

Jimmie Johnson gently bumped Kurt Busch aside with two laps remaining--repaying a similar bump from Busch six laps earlier--and drove away to win Sunday afternoon's Lenox 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. It was Johnson's second consecutive Sprint Cup Series win, his fifth this season and 52nd of his career.

The 301-lap race was fairly uneventful until the final 18 laps, when two caution periods dramatically changed the outcome. During the first of those two--on lap 283 for pole winner Juan Pablo Montoya's wreck after contact from Reed Sorenson--Johnson and a host of challengers pitted for tires. Inexplicably, leader Jeff Burton stayed out, a questionable call that might have cost him the race.

Johnson easily passed Burton on the restart on lap 287, but was immediately slowed when Kyle Busch was turned--inadvertently, everyone agreed--by contact from Burton. On the final restart, Kurt Busch took the lead on lap 294 with a classic bump-and-run pass in turn four. Johnson patiently ran down Busch and passed for the win with his own turn-four bump-and-run.

"I have to say I was a little shocked [when Busch bumped me aside], and I haven't spoken to him or really seen any video to know if he slipped and accidentally got into me, or that was his intention," Johnson said of the first contact with Busch. "If it was his intention, that's the first time in nine years racing with him that I've experienced that and definitely changed the way that I race with him from that point moving on. I hate that he felt that I wasn't going to wreck him because my goal was to wreck him.

"I don't want people to think, 'Oh, I can knock [Jimmie] out of the way because he's not going to wreck me'. That's last thing I want people to think. He didn't wreck me, and at the end of the day I guess I didn't owe him a visit to the fence, so it worked itself out.

"Inside the car, I was livid. I was so pissed off that he got into me and I almost lost it at one point. I was just kind of sliding and it took off and the tires started chattering and that's usually when you're turned around. Once I got back going and was still in second, I thought, 'Man, I hope I catch you. I look forward to this if I catch you,' and that was my incentive, not necessarily to pass him. All I had to do was get to his bumper and I was going to win the race . . ."

“Well, I thought it was a great short-track battle," Busch said afterward. "It wasn't because he did something that I had to do something, or since I did something, he had to do it back. Driving down into turn three, I saw my window, and it was a perfect time to go for it, because our car was good on the short run, and once four or five laps got on the tires, I knew we were going to have a hard time holding them off and he was still going to be right there. So, just a classic get in the corner a little bit deeper than the guy. We didn't just flat-out wreck them. We didn't cut his tire. We didn't drive over him. It was just a nice nudge that we are all used to seeing and appreciating on short tracks.

"Driving into turn three, I had all intentions of passing him on the inside and trying to cut underneath him at the apex. I just got into him a little bit in the left rear and nudged him up and we were able to squeak on by. Your motive is always to pass a guy clean and you always want to make sure that when you do pass him, that he's not completely upset with you and then we'll go and race again if he's going to come back and try to pass me at the end, and he did, he did great.”

Four-time and defending series champion Johnson went on to win ahead of Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon, points leader Kevin Harvick, Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joey Logano and A. J. Allmendinger.

No. 2 starter Kasey Kahne dominated, leading twice for 110 laps before engine trouble sidelined his Ford on lap 236. Burton led seven times for 89 laps before his contact with Kyle Busch left him 12th. Busch led twice for 46 laps but finished 11th. Montoya led the first 36 laps and was a contender until his retirement and 34th-place finish that likely ended his hopes of making the Chase for the Championship.

The other 20 laps were divided among Johnson (nine), Kurt Busch (seven), Stewart (two) and Newman and Elliott Sadler (one each). There were 14 lead changes, but only five on the track under green-flag conditions.

RESULTS

1. Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 301 laps at 113.308 mph avg. speed; 2. Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 301; 3. Kurt Busch, Dodge, 301; 4. Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 301; 5. Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 301; 6. Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 301; 7. Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 301; 8. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 301; 9. Joey Logano, Toyota, 301; 10. A. J. Allmendinger, Ford, 301;

11. Kyle Busch, Toyota, 301; 12. Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 301; 13. Marcos Ambrose, Toyota, 301; 14. Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 301; 15. David Reutimann, Toyota, 301; 16. Greg Biffle, Ford, 301; 17. Matt Kenseth, Ford, 301; 18. Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 300; 19. Elliott Sadler, Ford, 300; 20. David Ragan, Ford, 300;

21. Mark Martin, Chevrolet, 300; 22. Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 300; 23. Sam Hornish Jr., Dodge, 300; 24. Reed Sorenson, Toyota, 300; 25. Carl Edwards, Ford, 299; 26. Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 299; 27. Scott Speed, Toyota, 299; 28. Paul Menard, Ford, 299; 29. Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 298; 30. Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 297;

31. David Stremme, Ford, 294; 32. Kevin Conway, Ford, 292; 33. Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 292; 34. Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 280 (crash); 35. David Gilliland, Ford, 268; 36. Kasey Kahne, Ford, 236 (engine); 37. Andy Lally, Chevrolet, 142 (brakes); 38. J. J. Yeley, Dodge, 84 (brakes); 39. Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 68 (brakes); 40. Todd Bodine, Toyota, 31 (transmission);

41. Michael McDowell, Toyota, 24 (electrical); 42. Dave Blaney, Toyota, 20 (no power); 43. Max Papis, Toyota, 11 (brakes)

TIME OF RACE: 2h 48m 38s

MARGIN OF VICTORY: 0.753s

PURSE: $5,256,417, winner's share $264,928

FAST QUALIFIER: Montoya, 28.781s (132.337 mph)

PROVISIONALS: Conway, Labonte

DID NOT QUALIFY: Travis Kvapil, Mike Bliss

STARTED AT REAR: Labonte (backup car)

LEAD CHANGES: Fourteen among nine drivers

CAUTION PERIODS: Four for 19 laps

POINTS LEADERS: 1. Harvick, 2,489; 2. Johnson, -105; 3. Kyle Busch, -161; 4. Hamlin, -185; 5. Gordon, -187; 6. Kurt Busch, -201; 7. Kenseth, -285; 8. Burton, -330; 9. Stewart, -331; 10. Biffle, -363; 11. Martin, -442; 12. Edwards, -469

NEXT: Daytona Beach, Fla., July 3 (7:30 p.m. Eastern, TNT)

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