Sunday, June 17, 2012

Seventh heaven for Johnson at Dover

Sign Up For Traffic Text Alerts Johnson wore a multi-colored wig during his celebration in Dover's Victory Lane. His Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet donned a special paint scheme promoting the upcoming movie "Madagascar." "I'm just proud of this hair," he said. "The hair really brought some speed to the Hair extensions team. I could see our engine tuner who is catching the front tires that came across on pit stops, and I got a laugh every time I came on to pit road." A Hendrick Motorsports driver has won the last four Sprint Cup races. Last month, Johnson claimed his first win of the season at Darlington and then took the checkered flag for the all-star event at Charlotte. Kasey Kahne won the 600-mile race at Charlotte last weekend. The 12-car wreck -- the biggest one this season so far -- occurred on lap nine when defending series champion Tony Stewart made contact with Landon Cassill coming out of turn two and then both drivers spun around. Regan Smith, who was running right behind Stewart, also spun, which triggered the melee on the backstretch. "I didn't actually feel (Stewart) touch me," Cassill said. "Tony is one of the most patient drivers, especially in this part of the race...He's one of the best. It's just too bad it tore up that many race cars." NASCAR stopped the Feather hair race for 20 minutes to remove several damaged cars that clogged the backstretch. There were no injuries in the incident. Stewart returned to the track later but finished 69 laps behind in 25th. "The No. 83 (Cassill) was trying to get back down to the bottom, and we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Stewart said. "It wasn't Regan's fault. He was right behind me and didn't have anywhere to go either. So it's just not a real good deal at the beginning of the race like this." Smith also came back onto the track, while Cassill's car was damaged beyond repair. "I got into the back of the No. 14 (Stewart) and started the whole thing," Smith said. "I will take full blame for that. Somehow they got checked up in front of me. I just didn't have time to get slowed up with it." Harvick bounced back from a pit road blunder which occurred just after the halfway point. He overshot his pit stall during a caution and lost valuable track position at the time. "I made a mistake on pit road there and got us back to about 20th," Harvick said. "The car was good enough to be able to drive back through the pack, and for whatever reason, we were able to adjust our car well today when we needed to, and we were able to keep up with the racetrack and keep our feather extension car better through the day." Matt Kenseth finished third, while Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Clint Bowyer rounded out the top-five. Aric Almirola placed sixth, followed by Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Kahne and Marcos Ambrose. Jeff Gordon led the second most laps with 60 and was contention to win this race until he experienced a loose left-rear tire, forcing him to make an unexpected pit stop in the late-stages. Gordon was not a factor from there, as he finished 13th. "In some ways we got fortunate today," Gordon said. "I could have stayed out there and wrecked because, it wasn't really vibrating. It was getting real loose." Despite an 11th-place finish, Greg Biffle remained atop the point standings. Biffle's advantage is only one point over his Roush Fenway Racing teammate, Kenseth. "I feel good about our position," Kenseth said. "Early in the year, you want to be as high as you can in the points. Obviously if we make the Chase, they rack up by wins, and so that's really what you look at right now." Earnhardt Jr. is third in points (-10), followed by Denny Hamlin (-22), who finished 18th at Dover, and Johnson (-33).