SPARTA, Ky — Jimmie Johnson led the most laps on Sunday at Kentucky Speedway but saw his chances of victory go away when his No.48 Chevrolet spun following a restart with 19 laps to go.
Johnson on his radio blamed the No. 20 of Matt Kenseth for slowing the restart. This is not the first time that Johnson has had trouble with a restart this season, as he had issues when he jumped a restart at Dover.
In a post race interview Johnson spoke of the restart.
“We were kind of in an awkward situation in that restart there… And then we were like three and four wide going in the corner. Then something happened with the air and just kind of turned me around. Unfortunate, but at least we rallied back for a good finish.
“The No. 20 broke the pace car speed, which you aren’t supposed to, but, they aren’t calling guys on that, so I need to start trying that in the future.”
Johnson led 182 of 267 laps — no other driver led more than 38.
Johnson’s slide sent him to pit road for a change of tires, where after he then rolled off in the 25th position. It was only a matter of laps before Johnson stormed through traffic and broke into the top ten. Johnson finished the race in ninth position.
Currently Johnson has three wins and leads the point standings by 38 over Carl Edwards.
