HAMPTON, Ga. — Atlanta Motor Speedway has been dominated by a number of drivers over the years. There was Dale Earnhardt with nine wins, Bobby Labonte with six and Jeff Gordon with five. Now Jimmie Johnson owns the deed to the Hampton, Georgia facility.
Although Kevin Harvick dominated the stat sheet in the last three visits, it’s Johnson who has stood in victory lane when all was said and done in two of those three years (the third belongs to Kasey Kahne in 2014). In 2015, Johnson pulled away on the restart with 13 to go to win, despite Harvick leading 116 of the 325 laps to Johnson’s 92. The following year, Harvick again led more laps than anybody (131), but a slow pit stop, compared to Johnson, saw Harvick lose the race to the driver of the No. 48 car.
“I can say the last two races we have won here we didn’t really get our stuff situated until late in the going and been able to come out on top,” Johnson said. “Just because you might have a slow Friday or a slow start to the race I don’t think you can count anybody out. We have a lot of chances to work on the car and can make stuff happen here, which is really neat.”
Atlanta was the location of the win that came when Hendrick Motorsports was at their lowest in 2004. A week after a plane crash in Stuart, Virginia that killed eight members of the Hendrick Motorsports organization/members of Rick Hendrick’s family, Johnson took the lead on the final restart and beat Mark Martin, who led 227 of 325 laps, by nearly three-tenths of a second (.293). It was also his third-consecutive win, with wins at Charlotte and Martinsville the preceding two weeks. This made him the first to do so since Gordon in 1998-99 (Rockingham, Atlanta (1998) and the Daytona 500 (1999)).
In 2007, Johnson swept both Atlanta races, the last time this was accomplished prior to Atlanta scaling back to one race in 2011. The fall race was the second of four-straight wins, winning the previous week at Martinsville and winning the following weeks at Texas and Phoenix on the way to his second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title.
He was involved in a memorable battle for the win, despite coming up on the losing end, in 2011, with then teammate Gordon. For the final 10 laps, the two drivers battled side-by-side or in close proximity on worn out tires. Johnson made one final drive for the win, only to back off the gas exiting Turn 4 to avoid wrecking out and settled for runner-up.
He admitted that he had trouble remembering what happened that day in 2011. But said he more vividly recalled his duel with Gordon at Martinsville in 2007 because “I came out on top.”
Needless to say, Atlanta has been a great track for Johnson over his career, as well as Hendrick Motorsports.
“When I look back over my career and when I think of Hendrick related race cars and success from (Jerry) Nadeau running well here, Jeff has obviously always been amazing here. (Kasey) Kahne, it has been a good track for (Dale Earnhardt) Junior over the years. It is a good track for all of us.”
