Rating the Race: Phoenix – Subway Fresh Fit 500

All year long folks have been trying to figure out what’s been wrong with Hendrick Motorsports and when they would finally get their first win of the season, and Jimmie Johnson and his no. 48 Lowe’s team were able to answer those questions and put a silence on all of their critics Saturday night in Phoenix. Johnson was very strong early on, leading 109 of the first 150 laps, but had to pit under caution when many of the other cars did not after he had gotten himself off pit sequence earlier in the race. The stop shuffled him back to around the 15th position, and it wasn’t until near the end of the race that he would finally find his way back to the front.

The 8th and final caution flag of the day waived with 82 laps left on the ticker when the no. 9 car of Kasey Kahne had a tire go down just before smacking the wall. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was leading the race at the time and maintained his position coming out of the pits, followed by Mark Martin, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr, and a surging Jimmie Johnson. Mark Martin – in search of his first win since Kansas of 2005 – assumed the lead with just 38 circuits remaining, but Johnson was in third and closing in.

Johnson closed the gap to the leader to within about 1.5 seconds with twenty or so laps remaining, but the big debate for the teams was whether or not to pit for gas. Before the race, nearly every team on the track had established a pit window of about 75 laps, well shy of the 86-lap run. Martin’s team decided to call him into the pits with 10 laps left, but Chad Knauss and Jimmie Johnson decided to gamble after estimating that the 86th and final lap would be right on the cusp of their fuel window … and, it worked. Johnson cruised to the line on lap 312 to pickup the checkered flag with an 8.07 second lead over second place finisher Clint Bowyer, whom also elected to stay out on the track.

Denny Hamlin had been the first lead lap car to pit on the final stretch, pitting with 17 laps to go for two tires and a splash of fuel. His early-pit strategy paid off, as he finished in 3rd place – the first car that didn’t stay out.

Carl Edwards had perhaps the most eventful day of any of the drivers. He pitted on lap 112 during a long green flag run, but a caution came out when Joe Nemecheck spun out on lap 113. Edwards was running in the top-five at the time, but the pit stop put him a lap down. To make matters worse, his pit crew earned him a pit road penalty for leaving the box too early, which meant that Carl also had to restart at the tail end of the longest line. He later got his lap back right around the halfway point when he received the lucky dog award after Elliott Sadler’s car stalled out on him on the track. Edwards’ rebound was good enough for a 4th place effort.

Mark Martin went onto finish 5th. Jeff Burton started way back in 39th, but slowly climbed his way through the field to finish in 6th. Dale Earnhardt Jr’s car looked as though it was getting away from him late in the race, but they were able to hang onto a solid 7th place finish. Martin Truex, Greg Biffle, and Kyle Busch rounded out the top-ten.

Jeff Gordon got in trouble early in the race and went a lap down when he pitted prior to the Joe Nemecheck induced caution, but he eventually got his lap back as well and salvaged a 13th place finish.

Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart both saw their days take a turn for the worse in the closing laps of the race. During their final stops, both drivers’ cars had trouble picking the fuel back up and stalled a bit trying to get restarted in the pits. Both drivers had ran around the top-ten for the entire day, but the incident cost them both. Harvick was running in 5th when he came to pit, but finished 18th. Stewart was running 12th and finished 21st.

David Reutimann’s 17th place finish moved him inside the top-35 in owner points, while JJ Yeley – who was caught up in an earlier accident – dropped to 36th, just 3 points out of the top-35. Casey Mears and Jamie McMurray continue to throw up solid finishes and move themselves away from that danger zone. Mears finished 11th and McMurray was 16th. Sam Hornish Jr. was the highest finishing rookie in 19th. Ryan Newman – who started from the pole – blew up on lap 134 and finished in 43rd.

Grades:
the Race:  92%
the Drama:  94%
Coverage:  82%
Pre-Race:  60%

Overall Grade:  87.2%

Complete Results (from nascar.com):

Sprint Cup Series Standings (from nascar.com):