Johnson rides in the back, gets fuel, increases lead

Whatever slim chance the rest of the Chase for the Sprint Cup field had of making major inroads into Jimmie Johnson's points lead pretty much ran out of gas in the closing laps of Sunday's Amp Energy 500.

Mired at the back of the pack with only a handful of laps remaining, Johnson was almost certain his conservative strategy was about to backfire in a big way. Instead, just before NASCAR officials threw the red flag to extricate Ryan Newman from his destroyed car on Lap 184, Johnson was able to duck onto pit road for a splash of fuel.

Once again, it was crew chief Chad Knaus who came to the rescue.

"To be honest with you, the strategies completely backfired," Johnson said. "The only thing that saved our butts was Chad's decision for fuel. We were in big trouble—25th or something on that red flag—so all the credit goes to Chad and making us come down pit road and put some fuel in that thing. That was really the strategy that did it."

Fellow contenders Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon and Juan Montoya thought they had enough fuel for the remaining distance, but when the engines were refired, they found that wasn't the case. Up and down pit road, many crew chiefs realized the same thing, and several cars rolled or were pushed to their stalls for refueling. So when the race restarted, Johnson suddenly found himself in the top 10.

And when Kurt Busch was tapped by Brad Keselowski, setting off a 13-car melee on the frontstretch just as the white flag was unfurled—collecting Martin, Gordon and Montoya in the process—Johnson not only escaped Talladega's clutches, but piled up a bigger lead on his closest competition.

"I'm still in shock," Johnson said. "I can't believe that it worked out. I can't believe that many guys ran out of fuel and put themselves in that position. We almost stayed out."

Not bad for a guy who realized his wait-and-see strategy wasn't working to his satisfaction as the laps wound down.

"With about six [laps] to go, that's the last time I remember [Knaus] giving me a number of laps to go," Johnson said. "It dawned on me that we were in a bad position."

At that point, Johnson knew his options on the track were becoming extremely limited.

"They were three-wide in front of me, nowhere to go and you're just stuck," he said. "You hope that your lane moves forward a little bit. If it does, you pass four cars, five cars, that's about it.

"Then the inside lane or middle lane comes surging forward. And I knew I was in big trouble then. You could see guys pushing and shoving, and wondering if the big wreck was going to take place. But then I'm like, 'I can't be conservative now and try to miss it because if this thing goes green like it looks, we're in even more trouble.' "

At the finish, Johnson's focus was split between the points battle and making sure his Hendrick teammates were OK, especially Martin, whose car flipped before landing on its wheels.

"I do feel bad that the guys crashed coming to the finish and we've got wrecked cars," Johnson said. "I was really concerned for Mark, because when I looked in the mirror, I saw the No. 5 roof number tumbling and flipping and then it hit the outside fence. I hate to see things take place that way."

This was the race that Johnson and Knaus had targeted on their racing calendars well before the start of this year's Chase as a bellweather. On Friday, Johnson admitted he'd be happy to come away from Talladega Superspeedway with the same lead over Martin that he had coming in. Things couldn't have turned out much better, as he's now 184 points ahead of Martin, 192 in front of Gordon and 239 clear of Montoya with three races remaining. Still, Johnson isn't taking anything for granted.

"I'm not going to let up and lose focus to the job I need to do and allow the championship to be in the forefront of my mind until it's mathematically locked up," he said. "I can still lose 165 points next week if I miss a shift and blow the engine at the start of the Texas race and Mark has a perfect day.

"So with all that in mind, yes, I am feeling much better about things. I was so concerned about this race. I thought I was going to lose points with about three or four [laps] to go. So to have it turn around and leave with points, I didn't expect it.

"It's a very, very good situation we're in."