Coming off of his Daytona 500 victory, there were high hopes for Jimmie Johnson heading into Phoenix to continue the success. After all, he had finished in the top five in two of his last three starts in the desert.
The weekend started off well for Johnson as he qualified third, however he would fall as low as 18th due to an early race pit stop for four tires while most of the leaders took two.
“We lost a lot of track position and realized then that the game here, it was going to be a little bit different than what we had expected,” Johnson said. “That was our last four-tire stop that we made. That was really key to keep track position.”
Using strategy and making some passes, Johnson would work his way up to fifth mid-race and be in position to possibly take the win, restarting beside Carl Edwards on the green-white-checkered restart. Edwards would get the jump, leaving Johnson to battle for second with Keselowski through turns one and two.
Down the backstraight, Denny Hamlin took the shortcut through the dog leg, finding himself along side Johnson for second. The two would bang fenders all the way to the checkered, with Johnson barely grabbing second.
“I think we made the car better as the day went on and I know we made it a lot better from yesterday’s practice to today,” he said. “We are still learning this Gen-6 car and made some good improvements to it. At the end it got a little crazy, especially that last lap. Denny got a huge run, cut the corner down there and cleared us both, but I felt like I still had a chance if I just hung on on the outside around turns 3 and 4 and I was able to do that and just kind of beat him back to the finish.”
Johnson admits not expecting Hamlin to be to his inside like he was, saying that he thought he was going to be in a bad spot three-wide with Hamlin and Keselowski.
“The clean line turns away from me, so I was looking out my window, and I could see a lot of the 11,” he added. “I thought, well, I’m not sure really what’s going to happen here, sure not going to let off, and the 2, gave him some room, and we all rolled in there without wrecking. When I first heard that we were three wide I was pretty concerned that I wasn’t going to have a clean lane to race in.”
With this being the first race at Phoenix with the new Gen 6 car, there were a lot of questions as to how it would run and the lack of passing that was seen throughout the course of the race. However, Johnson says that this race was no different than any race on this configuration of the track, and added that the race at Las Vegas should show the potential of the car with side-by-side racing.
“The garage area and the teams and owners and the competition side of NASCAR have worked so hard to make these cars equal and we keep changing and jumping through hoops, new chassis, new bodies, new this, new that,” he added. “The cars are equal and when they’re equal you’re going to have a situation like this. What we need now is the racetracks to consider the asphalt they’re putting down and even reconfigure the lanes so that we have somewhere to race.”
There are already questions with how they change the product, even with Denny Hamlin mentioning that they should change the tire compounds. However, what Johnson says, is it’s important for them to leave the car for a good 10, 20 years as they can build into having some good racing with this car.
“I think we have a great product,” he said. “It’s going to continue to get better. One of the things that we’ve all recognized over the years is the faster we go the narrower track gets the harder it is to pass.”
With leading the points and having five championships, there are drivers who have spoke of wanting to beat Johnson at every opportunity. Keselowski said during Nationwide Series qualifying that he wants to beat Johnson in practice, in qualifying and in every race.
“I’m well aware that with the success that I’ve had over the last eight or 10 years that there’s a lot of bull’s eyes on me,” he said. “I’m kind of afraid to sleep at night sometimes. I know those guys are all gunning for me, and that’s a huge honor, it really is, to have the garage and then the reigning champion thinking that way about me.”
As Johnson leads the standings early, there is one thing entering the minds of many – he could get his sixth championship this year. The last time Johnson won a Daytona 500 in 2006, he won the championship.
“Well, we’ll take it one week at a time,” he said. “That’s a cool stat and I want to keep it alive, keep it going.”
