Johnson Asserts Dominance at Atlanta, Wins First of the Year

Jimmie Johnson takes the checkered flag at Atlanta (Google Images)

The race at Atlanta Motor Speedway appeared to be a continuation of the finish at Daytona the week before. Daytona 500 champ Joey Logano won the pole position and 500 runner up Kevin Harvick was the dominant car in final practice. But there was also a major hiccup in qualifying that meant many of the top contenders were forced to start at the rear of the field; cars that could potentially contend with Logano and Harvick.

NASCAR said that the issue was caused by teams pushing the envelope and getting too close to the edge as far as specifications, but when 13 drivers (including Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart) don't get to make a lap because they are forced to go through tech multiple times, it's really hard to pin that on the teams. The sanctioning body and their need for laser accurate tolerances on these cars is just as much to blame. Kenseth went as far as to say his No. 20 team would've missed the race if NASCAR was going off of this year's points.

Once the field had been set and the track had been dried, the race went green on a drizzly Sunday afternoon and the Vortex Theory (proven by Darrell Waltrip, Ph. D.) took effect and kept any future rain showers away. The race was uneventful early on and was dominated by Harvick and Logano, though Dale Earnhardt Jr was a strong contender the entire way.

Aside from a few early problems, the biggest of which was Austin Dillon losing a tire on lap 60. This sent his No. 3 Chevy spinning into the turn two grass and, while trying to get himself going again in the rain soaked earth, Dillon looked more like a rally racer than a stock car driver. His car was coated with mud that I'm sure made the second year driver wish Atlanta had a car wash in the garage area. But while there were not many other early wrecks, it was fun to watch the drivers who were forced to start at the rear of the field work their way to the front. Early on the race looked like the second episode of the Joey Logano Show, but once Harvick and Johnson made their way up to the front, this quickly turned into a race.


Jeff Gordon's demolished car getting hauled away (Google Images)

Restarts were also very exciting all day long. Because the pavement at Atlanta is so worn out, drivers came in to get four tires on every caution and they were forced to try and get all they could get on every restart before their tires wore out. A fresh set of Goodyear Eagles was good for about five laps or so and this led to some hectic jockeying for position after pit stops. The most interesting restart occurred with 70 laps to go and a bunch of good cars saw their days end in a could of smoke.

Coming off turn two after taking the green, Denny Hamlin got loose at the front of the pack and spun in front of traffic. Jamie McMurray spun to avoid him and collected the No. 24 of Jeff Gordon. The four time champion almost had the wreck cleared until McMurray clipped him and sent him spinning towards the inside wall. This wreck also reignited a controversy that wasn't even a week old. Following Kyle Busch's violent wreck at Daytona last week, Atlanta Motor Speedway added 130 ft of SAFER barrier around their facility... except they missed a spot. The spot where Gordon's car hit Sunday.

After climbing from his car, Gordon was visibly upset, yelling at nearby safety officials and emphatically gesturing towards the concrete wall where he hit. "I am very frustrated with the fact that there are no SAFER barriers down there," Gordon said after his hit. "I knew it was a hard hit. I was like 'man I can't believe...' I didn't expect it to be that hard. Then I got out and I looked and I saw 'oh wow, big surprise I found the one wall here on the back straightaway that doesn't have a SAFER barrier. I don't think we can say anymore after Kyle's incident at Daytona. Everybody knows we have to do something and it should have been done a long time ago. All we can do now is hope they do it as fast as they possibly can.

It's no surprise Gordon was so angry. He has battled back problems the last few years and those issues have not been helped by the fact that when he spins, he has a real knack for finding concrete walls. Two examples that come to mind are his hard hit at Las Vegas in 2008 and at Richmond in 2011.

Harvick led the most laps on the day, a total of 116, Logano led 84, but it was the man in the middle, Johnson led 92 circuits, who nobody could catch once he got out front. It looked as if the six time champ was about to run away with the win until a big wreck with 20 laps to go led to a nine minute red flag and one last shot at taking down the No. 48 car.



Austin Dillon goes dirt tracking in the No. 3 car (Google Images)

Going into turn three, Joe Nemechek's No. 34 car came down on Greg Biffle's No. 16 Ford. This cause the track to be blocked and a good number of drivers, including Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Regan Smith and Kyle Larson, to pile into the wreck.

Once the track was cleared and the race went back green, Dale Jr made a run at taking the win away from his teammate, but once Johnson got clear of Jr's No. 88 car, he was gone just like before and there was no catching him. Harvick managed to net the runner up spot for the second week in a row, Junior scored third and Logano and Kenseth rounded out the top five finishers. Honorable mentions also go to the No. 78 team of Martin Truex Jr and the No. 47 team of AJ Allmendinger who came home sixth and seventh respectively. A very great job by a couple of single car teams.

After an eventful weekend in Atlanta, Johnson and the Sprint Cup tour travel to Las Vegas to begin the annual west coast swing. After a trip to Sin City, the circuit will travel to Phoenix and Fontana before returning east to Martinsville Speedway. And this stretch of racing all begins this weekend at 3:30 eastern on FOX with the Kobalt 400 from Las Vegas Motor Speedway.