Barreling toward the finish line with eight cars separated by seemingly just feet while rocketing along at 190 mph, Jimmie Johnson edged Clint Bowyer to the finish line in Talladega to tie NASCAR’s closes-ever finish in remarkable fashion.
Johnson hooked up with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who pushed the five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion to the finish line first in a tandem-drafting battle to win by just 0.002 seconds.
Johnson’s miniscule margin of victory tied NASCAR’s previous record, held by Ricky Craven when he edged Kurt Busch to the line by 0.002 seconds at Darlington Raceway in 2003.
The final lap of the race turned into an eight car battle, with drivers paired up in tandems pushing one another to the finish. With Mark Martin pushing Jeff Gordon and Bowyer hooked up with Kevin Harvick in the middle of the track, Johnson and Earnhardt, Jr. dove to the inside of the track while Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle went high. Precariously driving along the yellow line at the bottom of the track – any pass below the yellow line is illegal at Talladega – Johnson and Earnhardt, Jr. used momentum exiting Turn 4 to push ahead of the pack, albeit by just about one foot, to edge ahead and claim the win.
Perhaps more remarkable than the winning margin was Earnhardt, Jr.’s act of selflessness; while the win marked the first win of the season for Johnson and ended a 15-race losing streak, the second-place finish by Earnhardt, Jr. allowed his much-maligned winless streak to stretch to 101 races.
With just laps remaining and knowing their partnership was quicker with Johnson in front, Earnhardt, Jr. decided he would push Johnson in the final laps, forgoing an opportunity for the win.
“I can’t thank Junior enough,” Johnson said after the win. “He made the decision that my car was faster leading. And the way these things are finishing up, the lead car’s going to get the win. He was more worried about the team having a good performance than anything.”
So when Earnhardt, Jr. ran up to Johnson’s car to celebrate post-race, Johnson handed Earnhardt, Jr. the checkered flag from his car’s window.
“That just came to my mind,” Johnson explained. “He was like, ‘Man, I don’t want that.’ But I told him, ‘I have to give you something for the push and working with me.’ He just said, ‘That’s what teammates do.”’
But with the finish, Earnhardt, Jr. jumped to third in the standings and his teammate Johnson moved into second. And while he would certainly like to end his winless streak, Earnhardt, Jr. is competitive again in 2011 after struggling for two years and it feels like we can expect him to compete for a win again, if not a championship, before the year is out.
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