Jimmie Johnson explains why the bottom lane at Bristol was so strong

Jimmie Johnson finished 3rd at Bristol, his best finish of the 2018 season

Over the past few weeks, Jimmie Johnson has stated that the speed was showing improvement in his car. However, the results weren’t there to back up the statement.

Until Monday at Bristol Motor Speedway where Johnson finished 3rd to Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson. Previously, Johnson had a best finish of 12th which came 5 weeks ago at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“Definitely a strong race car. We’ve been talking about our cars performing better, driving better and creating speed in the last 3 weeks or so,” Jimmie Johnson says from the Bristol Motor Speedway media center. “To finally back it up with a solid finish is exactly what we needed.”

“To see my teammates with positive comments about their cars and some good results yielding from all that. We definitely have it rolling the right direction.”

Hendrick Motorsports at Bristol: Jimmie Johnson (3rd); Alex Bowman (5th); William Byron (18th); Chase Elliott (29th – Accident). Chase Elliott was involved in a stage 1 crash that ended his chance at contention.

“Specifically with the #48… Last week, we had some speed in our car. We just had some bad luck on track and on pit road.”

“In most situations, momentum does carry you up or down. If things seem to be going wrong, they continue for awhile. At some point it will turn around, you just don’t know when.”

“I can’t explain why or how but it takes a little while to get the momentum rolling in the right direction. The last two days was a big step in the right direction for us.”

Bob Pockrass: Why do you think the bottom held for so long?

“I felt probably the 40-50 lap mark, the top would start to come in. The long green flag run we had, two runs from the end — It was working pretty good up there.”

“I just think on the short run and as cold as it is… there’s just enough grip to use the shortest way around to create lap time.”

“Once the tires wore off, then you’d move up. If you put us in yesterday’s temperatures, I think we would have been up higher a lot sooner.”

The race was basically divided in half over a two day period. Typically, the traction compound will wear off the bottom lane at Bristol after about 200 laps. However, just ahead of the re-fire on Monday, track officials put down a new layer.

Dividing the race in half, plus cold temperatures allowed the ‘old Bristol’ to return for the duration of the 500 lap race. Jimmie Johnson came into Bristol Motor Speedway as the defending race winner.

More

Related: April 16th 2018
Bristol race results

Related: March 2018
Jimmie Johnson details upcoming changes to the Hendrick Motorsports shop

Related: March 2018
Does Jimmie Johnson need a sponsor to race?

Related: March 2018
Lowe’s will not return with Jimmie Johnson in 2019

Related: December 2017
Jimmie Johnson cuts back vacation; Excited for new Camaro body

Related: August 2017
New Camaro body images released

Links

Jimmie Johnson | Bristol | NASCAR

Categories

Tags