Subway Fresh Fit 500 Race Review

Phoenix International Raceway -- 04/12/08

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Sunday Apr 13 2008 11:08pm

"We're back."

That's how Jimmie Johnson assessed the No. 48 team after his anticlimactic fuel-mileage win at Phoenix International Raceway Saturday night.
Despite being sixth in points heading into this weekend's race, Johnson's team and the whole Hendrick organization have faced constant questions about the fact that they hadn't posted a win yet in 2008 - particularly since HMS had already won four times by this point in the season last year.

Johnson defended his team's overall performance, however, despite the lack of wins. "You know, in some ways we recognize that we haven't been running how we want. But we finished second at California, second at Texas last week, fourth at Martinsville. I mean, yeah, we haven't won yet, but we're only seven races into this thing."

Well, eight races now, though Johnson's Phoenix win wasn't pretty as far as exciting finishes go. He cruised across the finish line with a seven-second lead over Clint Bowyer as crew chief Chad Knaus shouted to him over the radio, repeating the two words every racecar driver longs to hear: slow down!

"I was saying, 'Back the hell up, slow down,' " said Knaus after the race. "That's exactly what I was saying. I told him to back up his pace. We had went from a 29:20 to a 30:50. I said, 'Look, slow down another second and a half.' He came around again, slowed down to a 31 flat. That's when I said, 'Look, the next car behind you is 20 seconds back,' because obviously 10 seconds back wasn't far enough. He felt like he was going to need to go faster. I was trying to get him to slow down a little bit more."

Obviously the gamble paid off, as Johnson was able to conserve enough fuel to cross the finish line first, while several strong contenders, including Mark Martin, who had been leading the race, and Denny Hamlin, who was running second, pitted for fuel.

It's not as if Johnson didn't have a strong car all day, however. He was the overall lap leader, running out front a total of 120 of 312 laps. The only drivers to lead laps were Dale Earnhardt Jr., who led 87, Mark Martin, 68, and Ryan Newman, 37.

Newman was the polesitter and led the field to green slightly later than the planned starting time, due to a TV conflict involving the rain-delayed Boston Red Sox - New York Yankees game. Newman led the first 31 laps and intermittently thereafter, though the 12 car never looked as strong later as it had early on.

On lap 133, Newman's engine blew up, spilling a huge amount of oil on the track that caused a number of cars to either crash or spin out in its wake, including Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth, Reed Sorenson, J.J. Yeley, and Johnny Sauter. The race was red-flagged for clean up and what had begun as a promising weekend for Newman turned into a last-place finish.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., started 13th and climbed steadily through the field until taking the lead at lap 124. Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin both looked strong throughout the mid portion of the race, but the handling slipped away on the 88 car in the latter part of the race and Martin, as mentioned, pitted for fuel in the closing laps. Both drivers brought home top-10 finishes - a 5th for Martin and a 7th for Earnhardt.

Clint Bowyer stayed out at the end like Johnson had and finished second, his fifth straight top-10, and best finish of the year. Denny Hamlin's third-place finish was the highest among those who pitted for fuel, making three straight top 5s for the No. 11 team.

Other drivers with strong runs included Jeff Burton, finishing sixth for his sixth straight top 10, including a win at Bristol. Burton's only finishes outside the top 10 were a 12th and a 13th, giving him an average finish of 7.0 over eight races to lead all drivers in that category as well as in the overall points.

There was quite a bit of shuffling up and down in the point standings last night, with just two drivers in the top 25 - Jeff Burton at 1st and Carl Edwards at 9th - maintaining their positions from the previous week.

Among the top 12, Clint Bowyer was the biggest mover up, gaining three spots to 8th, while Kevin Harvick, who finished the race 19th when his car stalled on pit road on his final fuel stop, dropped three spots to 5th.

Last week's last-place finisher Jeff Gordon had an okay run at PIR, starting 11th and finishing 13th. Gordon moved up one spot in points to 13th and is now just eight points outside the top 12.

Interestingly, half of the drivers in the top 12 have won at least one race this season, while the other half have not. Those posting wins so far include Jeff Burton, Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards (three wins), and Ryan Newman. Those without wins are Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, and Kasey Kahne.

One of the buzzwords in NASCAR this year has been parity, with wins and strong performances being spread among a greater number of teams and manufacturers than in 2007. In eight races so far, three have been won by Ford, two by Chevy, two by Toyota, and one by Dodge.

We'll see what happens with that trend in two weeks, when the Cup series visits the traditional Chevy stronghold of Talladega Superspeedway. Only one race has been one by a non-Chevy team at Talladega since 1999.