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But after Kevin Harvick was snookered out of a victory at the Kansas
Speedway in the wee hours of Saturday night following a rain delay,
Jimmie Johnson was asked how he pulled off his upset.
"Experience," he said, almost deadpan.
He might have said, "We just picked up the pieces." Follow up with a
big smile and the message to Harvick -- even on a good night you
can't beat us -- would have been delivered.
Crew chief Chad Knaus and Johnson were very likely both smiling big
on the inside when Harvick, who had been leading by eight seconds,
elected to pit when a caution flew with 12 laps remaining. The
primary concern for Harvick's Stewart-Haas Racing team was fuel, but
while stopped, they also put on two fresh right-side tires.
Johnson and Knaus gambled on having enough fuel and that enough cars
would stay out of the pits to put up a buffer to the faster Harvick
on the re-start. They then got a bonus when the safety car stayed
out an extra lap as the cars in the rear got jumbled, meaning more
fuel savings and less concern about worn tires.
"The way the tires would fire off, you could put together four or
five good laps on older tires and then they would slow down,"
Johnson said. "So I felt like with maybe nine to go it would have
been tough, and then they waved off the (one to go signal). I'm
like, 'Sweet, we're getting in the window, keep waving them off.'
And it worked out."
In the final eight laps, Johnson was superb by breaking away from
Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., who also stayed
out. Once Harvick catapulted to second behind him with his faster
car and fresh tires, Johnson then mimicked Harvick's high line and
used the wash of air behind his Chevy. That aerodynamically pinched
the nose of Harvick's car and got Johnson the breathing room he
needed to literally take the victory.
But ever the polished professional -- which doesn't always win him
the adoration of fans -- Johnson just shrugged off a brilliant
takeaway victory against his rival.
For his part, Harvick kept the dampers on as well. The sometimes
tempestuous driver knew well enough that this one got away and will
cost him postseason points in the Chase. But he declined to be
anything but fatalistic about his plight. And after all, the two
rivals have the same Hendrick Motorsports source for engines and
chassis.
"Yeah, he (Johnson) wasn't that strong," Harvick said. "He was just
trying to run right in front of our car, so for those first few laps
when you're pushing like that it really takes the air off the front
of the car and it gets the chatter in the front end and it snaps
around. But that was the strategy that they took, and it worked out
for them."
Rivalries make racing go around, but the two natural adversaries for
this year's championship are working overtime at not stirring the
pot -- the same pot that in turn stirs fans. These days, it seems to
be an unwritten rule that letting your rival know in public that
you've just stolen a race from him is a no-no.
Richard Petty versus all comers sustained NASCAR for two decades,
especially Petty versus Bobby Allison or David Pearson. Darrell
Waltrip versus Allison, Dale Earnhardt Sr. and his rivalries did
likewise in the 1980s and 1990s. Alas, Johnson, the current driver
to beat who is closing in on a tie with Petty and Earnhardt when it
comes to championships, prefers to play it cool. He didn't even come
out of the car grinning like the cat that ate the canary.
There is every indication that this year's Chase could well come
down to Johnson versus Harvick -- with perhaps an outside chance the
rivalry will heat up a little bit as long as the latter driver
ironically nicknamed "Happy" is involved.
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Johnson and Harvick are the only two drivers with multiple wins this
season. In the last seven races on the 1.5-mile tracks, which is a
configuration that plays a major role in the Chase, Johnson has won
four and Harvick the other three. (Of course, it would be the other
way around had the Stewart-Haas Racing driver won in Kansas.)
There are five races on 1.5-mile tracks in the Chase. Two of those
are the Texas Motor Speedway and Kansas -- where Johnson has already
won this year. Another one is Charlotte Motor Speedway, where the
series runs its next points race and its only 600-mile event.
Johnson has done well in NASCAR's longest race and a follow-up win
to Kansas would certainly give his team the clear momentum headed
toward the decisive season finale at the Homestead-Miami Speedway,
which is the fifth and final 1.5-mile track in the Chase.
Another driver who is a threat on the 1.5-mile tracks is Joey
Logano. His Penske Racing Fords have led 179 laps in the four events
on the intermediate ovals, including 29 at Kansas, where he won the
pole. But the Kansas race was typical of Logano and his team's
inability to close the deal.
An early pit problem dropped Logano back into the pack. Although he
probably passed more cars than any other driver, he never quite made
it back to the clean air at the front.
On the other hand, Johnson nearly crashed his ill-handling Chevy in
the early going before the rain delay and pitted out of sequence.
"At one point I was looking out the right-side window," he said of
his narrowly avoided crash.
Yet, after some chassis adjustments in the pits, Johnson was able
to manage himself and his car in the dirty air of the pack well
enough to gradually get back to the front.
The only laps he led were the final 10.
"Once the race got going, I felt like my car was more stable than
others that I was around," Johnson said. "I saw some really nervous
race cars, and once I could get a little gap of clean air, I could
put down a couple good laps and I could hear that on the radio. I
knew that if we could ever get there that we could be competitive."
Like his style or not, on a Midwestern spring night cooled off by
45 minutes of rain, Johnson played it very cool.
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