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Jimmie
Johnson does a victory burn-out after his win Sunday at Martinsville. CNO
photo courtesy of nascar.com
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Johnson first to get second win in 2013
following victory at Daytona
nascar.com
MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Jimmie Johnson made eight the easy way.
Leading 347 of 500 laps in Sunday's STP Gas Booster 500 at Martinsville
Speedway, Johnson racked up his eighth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at
the .526-mile short track and the 62nd win of his career. For the
second straight event at Martinsville, Johnson won from the pole.
Clint Bowyer ran second, followed by Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne and Kyle
Busch.
The first repeat winner through six 2013 Cup races, Johnson regained
the series lead by six points over sixth-place finisher and defending
champion Brad Keselowski.
If a victory at a short track can ever be called a walk in the park,
Johnson enjoyed a Sunday stroll from start to finish. At no point in
the race did he run below fifth.
"I think the fact that we had just such a calm weekend was the biggest
part," Johnson said. "It's easy to start chasing things here and get
yourself off track. We always race well, and fortunately here you pit a
lot and you can make big changes to your race car to get you in the
ball game.
"We've won races where we were just terrible to start the race, having
no fun. (Crew chief) Chad (Knaus) is throwing spring rubbers in the car
and the track bar is coming up or down, wedge in and out, all those
huge, huge changes, and we get ourselves in contention.
"I don't know where we were -- someone said the worst I was on the
track today was fourth [actually, fifth]. We just executed from the
first laps in practice to where we were at the end of the race, and
that was fun. We weren't chasing a setup or track conditions or a
variety of things that we've done in the past."
Danica Patrick ran 12th in her first visit to Martinsville, her
career-best Cup finish at an open-motor race track. Patrick was the top
finisher from Stewart-Haas Racing.
NASCAR red-flagged the race on Lap 487 after the brakes failed on Kurt
Busch's No. 78 Chevrolet SS and sent the car hard into the Turn 1 wall.
The car rolled along the fence, spewing flames from beneath the hood.
Busch had the presence of mind to trigger his fire extinguisher before
he exited the car and climbed from the driver's-side window, apparently
none the worse for the flames.
After the stoppage, Johnson led the field to a restart on Lap 493 with
Bowyer beside him in the outside lane. But Johnson pulled away over the
final eight laps to beat Bowyer to the finish line by .628 seconds.
For the rest of this story, click here
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