The strategy to hang back and stay out of trouble paid off well for Jimmie Johnson when a last lap crash in Sunday's AMP Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway gave him a sixth-place finish and helped increase his point lead in the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings.
But Johnson was quick to point out a decision to pit for fuel after the red flag was the real saving grace in helping the 48 team come home with a solid finish in the final restrictor-plate race of the season.
"To be honest with you, the strategies completely backfired,' Johnson said. "The only thing that saved our butts was (crew chief) Chad's (Knaus) decision for fuel. We were in big trouble, 25th or something on that red flag. So all the credit goes to Chad and making us come down pit road and put some fuel in that thing. That was really the strategy that did it."
As Sunday's race wore on there were times when Johnson's plan to stay near the rear of the field and out of harm's way looked like it might not work out too well for the three-time champion.
"There are different stages of it," Johnson said. "I think last year with 14 to go the guys that were riding decided to run up through there and caused a wreck. So today I was waiting for that to take place and it didn't. With about 6 to go, that's the last time I remember Chad giving me a number of 6 to go. It dawned on me that we were in a bad position. There were three wide in front of me. Nowhere to go, and you're just stuck."
"You hope that your lane moves forward a little bit. If it does, you pass four cars, five cars, that's about it. Then the inside lane or middle lane comes surging forward. And I knew I was in big trouble then. You could see guys pushing and shoving, and wondering if the big wreck was going to take place, but then I'm like, I can't be conservative now and try to miss it because if this thing goes green like it looks, we're in even more trouble then. So I was asking where the 5 and the 24 were. And it had me really nervous in the closing laps where we were and what was going on and the way our strategy played out. The strategy backfired like I said earlier, it was all Chad's decision to pit."
As the last lap fireworks unfolded around Johnson with the multi-car accident that ended the race, he was somehow able to survive and come home with a top 10.
Coupled with Mark Martin and others in the Chase having bad days, Johnson heads to Texas Motor Speedway this weekend with a 184 point lead in the standings and in a pretty comfortable spot for a fourth consecutive title.
"I hate to see so many tore up cars and the big wreck that took place, but for us what really made the difference, obviously we were conservative all day long," he said. "But Chad's decision to take fuel -- there are just a few of us that took fuel, and we had the wreck and the red flag. At that point guys just started running out of fuel. The caution came back out and waved off the restart a few times. Then more guys ran out. And guys hit pit road. And we went from 25th up to, I think, 11th before we took the green."
"Had some good moves I made through that opening lap to get up to speed and all that kind of thing. Was far enough ahead to not be caught up in the wreck, because at least the car on the outside of me and right behind, me was cleaned out. And I think the guys right behind me were, too. So Chad's decision put us in position to stay out of the wreck and get a good Top 10 finish."
