Jimmie Johnson raced into historic territory Sunday, scoring the 50th Sprint Cup victory of his driving career by winning a non-sellout Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Five races, three wins. Victories at a two-mile track (Auto Club Speedway), a 1.5-mile track (Las Vegas Motor Speedway) and a high-banked half-mile (Bristol).
All cylinders were clicking in the No. 48 camp Sunday in the Food City 500, and Johnson knocked down one of the few remaining barriers in his career by winning at Bristol for the first time while reaching 50 career victories faster than anyone but Jeff Gordon, Darrell Waltrip and David Pearson?
The final 10 laps of the race were run under green and during the last caution period, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Stewart pitted for two tires; Kurt Busch and Johnson took four and definitely the four-tire cars were clearly stronger. Johnson sprinted from sixth to first in only three laps and beat Stewart to the finish by .895 of a second.
Johnson quoted: "We have worked so hard for this. I thought we were in trouble. But the four tires were everything. Every win is extremely special. But when a track kicks your butt for so long and you finally can win at that track, there's just something really unique about that. That's what I experienced today."
The failure to win was especially painful for Busch, who finished third. He led 278 laps. On the final restart, he was bottled up behind two-tire traffic and didn’t get a shot to challenge for first.
"We were solid all day. We just got beat by the luck of the draw on the restarts. It’s luck on which lane is going to go. I thought we had them beat. I’d rather lose to any of the other 41 cars but that No48 car. I feel exhausted. I feel disappointed."
Although BMS is one of the most popular tracks in NASCAR, for the first time in 56 races is not a sellout. The facility, which seats 160,000 and typically is packed, had tens of thousands of empty seats at the beginning of Sunday’s race.
