Jimmie Johnson measured his competition in the closing laps and then pounced on Monday afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway, passing Kevin Harvick for his final lead of the day and driving off to victory in the rain-delayed Food City 500. The seven-time champion kept the #48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in front over the final 21 laps to notch his 82nd career win and second in “Thunder Valley.”
With his victory 16 days ago in Texas, Johnson is now the first driver with back-to-back wins in the Cup Series since Brad Keselowski doubled up at Daytona and Kentucky last summer. Johnson’s margin of victory over runner-up Clint Bowyer was 1.1 seconds. Harvick held on for third place with Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano completing the top five. Pole sitter Kyle Larson led a race-high 202 laps and finished 6th.
A quartet of notable drivers placed well outside the top thirty. Kyle Busch (who finished 35th), Danica Patrick (36th) and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (38th) were sidelined by accidents. Keselowski finished 34th after losing time while his crew was solving steering issues on the #2 Team Penske Ford.
The race was originally scheduled to be run on Sunday, but heavy rain in northeastern Tennessee moved it to Monday. Larson started from the pole and dominated much of the first half, leading 202 laps before yielding to Martin Truex, Jr., who led all but seven of the next 123 trips around the high-banked half-mile. Johnson then began to assert himself and led 81 of the final 107 laps. The race was slowed by nine cautions for 76 laps.
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– story by John Singler
www.mrn.com
Concord, North Carolina
