Johnson Wins at Darlington, Gives Hendrick 200th Win

Johnson's win gave Rick Hendrick his 200th win as an owner

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Darlington Raceway is known as "the track too tough to tame," but Jimmie Johnson had little trouble doing just that, holding off Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart to capture Saturday night's Bojangles Southern 500.

Johnson grabbed the lead in the closing laps and made it look easy as he cruised to the checkered flag and his third win at Darlington. The former five-time Sprint Cup champion also snapped a 16-race losing streak.

"There really was a lot of drama," Johnson said. "In a fuel mileage race, when you see that 14 (Stewart), you always second-guess yourself because he's so good at it. I was really concerned. I was just pacing myself based upon what he was doing and hoped I had saved enough (fuel).

"There are a lot of hungry drivers out there that want to win this race. This race is so special, so great and Darlington is such an awesome race track."

The win gave Rick Hendrick 200 career Cup victories as a team owner.

"This is special, without a doubt," Johnson said. "You've got to love that man (Hendrick). He just said, '200's reached; let's go get 250.'"

Kyle Busch finished fourth, followed by Martin Truex Jr. Rounding out the top 10 were Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne, Marcus Ambrose and Joey Logano.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 17th, while Danica Patrick wound up 31st in only her second Sprint Cup race.

After an almost sedate first two-thirds of the race, things began to heat up around Lap 235 of the 367-lap event as drivers who had sat back early on to watch how the race would unfold suddenly and collectively began to make aggressive moves to the front, a trend that continued all the way to the checkered flag.

Of note, Jeff Gordon's string of bad luck this season continued on Lap 193, when he made contact with Denny Hamlin, prompting an unscheduled pit stop for fresh tires. The damage initially appeared minor and Gordon was able to get back on track after a pit stop to change tires, while Hamlin's car suffered no damage and continued on.

Just over 10 laps later, Gordon was forced to pit road again when the left rear tire on his Chevrolet went flat, causing him to go two laps down to the race leaders. The seven-time Darlington winner eventually was forced to take his car to the garage so crew members could repair an issue that caused that second flat tire.

Meanwhile, Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kahne pushed his way up through the pack to assume the lead, but he eventually gave it up as his car's handling went away.

Greg Biffle, who has led the Sprint Cup points standings for the past eight weeks and started from the pole in this race, was in command from the start. He led the first 48 laps before pitting for fuel on Lap 49. Biffle's biggest challengers were Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kahne and Johnson.

Busch took over the lead and held the rest of the field at bay for 23 laps before Biffle, who was seeking his third Sprint Cup win at Darlington, regained the top spot.

Biffle gave up the lead for a second time on Lap 99 for his second pit stop, with Hamlin briefly taking over the top spot of the 43-car field before Johnson found his way to the top of the leaderboard and remained in command as the race transitioned from the first third to the middle third. Johnson came into Saturday night's action not having won a race in his last 16 starts.

Patrick, making only the second Sprint Cup start of her stock car racing career, chose to race conservatively, essentially feeling her way around the 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval that has the reputation of being one of the toughest tracks in the sport.

Patrick qualified 38th and worked her way up to 20th during the first series of pit stops, but by Lap 75 she had fallen back to 34th place, one lap off the lead. By Lap 115, she had fallen to two laps off the lead lap.

-  The Sports Xchange

Southern 500 Results

Hendrick Shuffles Crew Chiefs for the 24, 5 & 88; Cites Complacency

By David Caraviello
NASCAR.COM

Rick Hendrick knew the world would be watching when he brought Dale Earnhardt Jr. into his race organization and, before he retires, the championship car owner wants to give NASCAR's most popular driver every tool he can to try to win races and contend for a championship. This week brings another step in that process, as Earnhardt assumes the crew chief and the team that once supported Jeff Gordon.

As part of a massive personnel swap intended to bolster his entire organization, Earnhardt will now work with Steve Letarte, whose crew chiefed Gordon for the past five seasons and never missed a Chase. Gordon will be paired with Alan Gustafson, who was previously Mark Martin's crew chief, while Martin will work with Lance McGrew, who for most of the past two years was teamed with Earnhardt.

Only Jimmie Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus, who together have won the past five championships in NASCAR's premier division, will remain together. It's more of a driver change than a crew chief change -- Hendrick said the people at the shops will all remain the same, the only differences being the driver, car number, and sponsor. Which means that Earnhardt, 25th and 21st in points the past two years, will be inserted into the group that had been working around Gordon.

"When your confidence is shaken and you just get to the point where you need something to give you that feeling you can do it, and you've got faith in the guy you're working with, sometimes the frustration sets in and it just can't work," Hendrick said Wednesday. "That doesn't mean Dale wasn't a good driver, or Lance wasn't a good crew chief. It just got to the point where it wasn't working, and we needed to do something different. I've seen this many, many times, you make a switch and you get a new lease on life and everybody gets excited."

But Hendrick was quick to point out that these moves weren't made for Earnhardt's sake, rather to bolster an organization that had grown somewhat stagnant despite winning its fifth consecutive title. He began thinking about making changes following the recent Sprint Cup race weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, after which he called crew chiefs and engineers together for a meeting that lasted three hours. In it, Hendrick quoted Winston Churchill: "It's not enough to do what's best. Sometimes you have to do what's required."

And what was required were changes. Hendrick admits his team fell behind after NASCAR moved from the rear wing to the spoiler. The organization's cars simply weren't as good as they had been in 2009, when Johnson led Martin and Gordon in a Hendrick sweep of the top three points positions. The result was a reshaping at Hendrick, which will now have the Nos. 48 and 88 teams working out of one building, and the Nos. 24 and 5 out of another. The Johnson and Gordon teams had been joined at the hip since the No. 48 team's founding.

"I think, in a nutshell, our whole organization after last year winning the championship and finishing 1-2-3 in the points ... we just got complacent, and other teams were stronger, and we were not where we needed to be," said Hendrick, who officially announced the changes Tuesday afternoon.

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