Five-Time Stumbles Again...This Time in the Pits

Lee Spencer, FOX Sports

INDIANAPOLIS--It seems that the only time a team beats Jimmie Johnson is when he beats himself.

On Sunday, Johnson led 73 of the first 132 laps at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. When he drove onto pit road for the No. 48 team’s final pit service on Lap 133, commentators touted it as “the money stop.” At that point, Johnson appeared destined to convert the 20th running of the Brickyard 400 into a record-setting fifth victory.

But the Lowe’s Chevy sat in its pitbox for what seemed like an eternity to Johnson. The 17.2-second four-tire stop was uncharacteristic for the five-time champion team. Although Johnson had a comfortable lead prior to pitting, the miscue opened the door for the No. 39 Stewart-Haas Racing team to outrun the No. 48 crew for the second time in as many days.

Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus had shown his hand. Newman’s crew chief Matt Borland didn’t have to worry whether two tires would be a gamble. Time was on his side – 6.8-seconds to be exact after both cars returned to the track. While Johnson whittled the lead down to 2.657-seconds over the final 27 laps, Newman’s advantage was just too great to overcome.

“Stuff happens,” Johnson said. “Everybody scans us. When you're the dominant car, they're going to do the opposite of what you do. I think I pitted before them, so it was an easy call for them to do the opposite. The 2 (tires), gave them the track position they needed. With the mistake, they had good track position.”

Still, with a 75-point lead in the Sprint Cup standings, it’s hard to feel sorry for Jimmie Johnson. While a fifth Brickyard win would have broken the record he currently shares with Jeff Gordon, a victory for the season would have also raised his total for 2013 to five.

But the Indy loss is not the first race the No. 48 Hendrick team gave away this season.

Johnson led the second most laps at Las Vegas and couldn’t close the deal at the end. At Dover, he was black-flagged from jumping the restart after leading 143 of the 400-lap race and finished one circuit off the pace in 17th. Restarts bit “Five-time” again at Kentucky last month, when Johnson accused eventual winner Matt Kenseth of breaking the speed of the pace car. Johnson uncharacteristically lost his patience – and his concentration on the racetrack – as he screamed, “The 20 should be penalized for stopping everybody on that (expletive) restart”.

Kenseth wasn’t, however, and Johnson went from leading 182 laps to finish ninth.

“We win as a team, lose as a team,” Johnson said. “There's been some late race mistakes on my behalf that have taken race wins away from us. Granted not a major event like this. But we win as a team, lose as a team. We still ended up second. We have a lot to be proud of over the course of the weekend. We'll do the best to let it roll off our shoulders by (Monday) afternoon.”

By the time the Chase rolls around, the Knaus-led crew will have all of the kinks out the program in time for the 10 races that matter the most. Yes, this is the part of the season where the No. 48 team prepares its equipment and personnel for the playoffs. And with a driver who has won 32 of his 64 career wins on tracks in the Chase, it’s not surprising that Johnson is confident that the “six-pack” will be his come November.

SAY WHAT?

Ryan Newman shot back at comments made by Kyle Busch after New Hampshire when he replied to why he wasn’t more excited after his first Brickyard 400 victory:

“Ogres don’t have emotion, you know that,” Newman said.