{"id":22151,"date":"2018-10-05T15:20:42","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T20:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=22151"},"modified":"2018-10-05T18:56:03","modified_gmt":"2018-10-05T23:56:03","slug":"jimmie-johnson-sheds-light-on-decision-to-go-for-the-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/05\/jimmie-johnson-sheds-light-on-decision-to-go-for-the-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmie Johnson sheds light on decision to go for the win"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

As Jimmie Johnson<\/strong> leaned into the microphone Friday morning during his press conference in the Dover International Raceway media center, he fully anticipated the opening line of questioning before opening practice for Sunday\u2019s Gander Outdoors 400 (2 p.m., NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe’s for Pros Chevrolet, races Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #78 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota, during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Bank of America Roval 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on September 30, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

With time to reflect on the last lap of last weekend\u2019s playoff cutoff race, would the seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup<\/a> champion still have raced hard for the victory or should he have settled in for a safe finish?<\/p>\n

As it turned out, Johnson doubled down Friday on his decision to go for the win, even though he collided with race leader Martin Truex Jr. just before the finish line. They both spun out and third place Ryan Blaney motored on by for the victory. Truex recovered to finish 14th instead of hoist his fifth trophy.<\/p>\n

Johnson recovered to finish eighth and in one of the most unique circumstances in playoff history, that put him in a three-way tie in points with Kyle Larson and Aric Almirola and only two of the three able to advance to the Round of 12. Larson and Almirola won the tiebreaker based on \u201cbest finish\u201d in the previous two playoff races and Johnson was left to race for a historic eighth championship next year.<\/p>\n

The outcry from various \u201cbackseat drivers\u2019 \u2013 racing\u2019s equivalent of a \u201cMonday morning quarterback\u201d \u2013 was typically loud and befuddled. But Johnson reiterated Friday at Dover, that under the same circumstances again, he would go for the win instead of playing it conservatively. That\u2019s what race car drivers do.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Dover2_MENCS_Johnson_100518.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Johnson, 42, stood on Charlotte Motor Speedway pit lane after the race and calmly answered all the tough questions. He did so again on Friday in a formal media conference setting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a bonsai move just trying to clean him out,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt was a very calculated move and if we both hit the brakes at the same point in time. Unfortunately, I got it wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were many consequences to follow after that. Disappointed, it\u2019s way easier after the fact is over to say, \u2018well, why didn\u2019t you?\u2019 or \u2018how come?\u2019 and all that kind of crap. But I was focused on winning a race and that is what got me there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if with time to reflect, would he change the approach?<\/p>\n

\u201cI still have to make that move,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still have to try for it.  \u2026 Looking back, I was a little lower than I typically was entering that braking zone and had a bit more steering wheel input in the car and that is why the left-front (tire) initially locked up. So I could change a couple of things, but I still .. I don\u2019t know how I don\u2019t go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The biggest thing, he conceded, is that he regrets collecting the reigning Cup champion and season-long title contender Truex in the accident.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other piece that weights on me and I don\u2019t know if it would for all drivers, but I feel bad for Martin and that No. 78 team,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI hate that my mistake affected them and could impact their season to some degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I don\u2019t like that aspect to it, but it is racing and I know in my heart that it was a legitimate attempt at winning the race and a mistake was made.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t go in there and just try to move him out of the way and wreck him and create all this havoc,\u201d Johnson said emphatically \u201cSo I\u2019ve moved on and did have a good week, but there are a couple of things that still linger and that always seems to go away when you get in the race car and start the next practice session.\u201d<\/p>\n

His 2018 championship already decided and looking ahead \u2013 something Johnson is clearly ready to do \u2013 the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has to like his chances this weekend at Dover\u2019s \u201cMonster Mile.\u201d Perhaps no other venue on the circuit presents a better opportunity for Johnson to snap a 33-race long winless streak \u2013 the longest of his career.<\/p>\n

Johnson is the all-time winningest driver at Dover with 11 trophies to date. Next closest among the competitors this weekend is championship leader Kyle Busch with three wins. Johnson has 17 top-fives and 14 top-10s in 33 Dover starts and his driver rating of 117.2 is highest by a long-shot over the next closest driver at Dover \u2013 Busch (105.5 driver rating).<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s last win? It came at Dover last spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re at my favorite race track and absolutely, do I want to win the race,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ll do everything in my power to win the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a collective group to have the car, the pit stops, the strategy and all that. And I don\u2019t know if this weekend is that weekend. But if there\u2019s a track where I can make up a tenth or two for the team, this would be one of them.<\/p>\n

And I hope I can do that and make the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service As Jimmie Johnson leaned into the microphone Friday morning during his press conference in the Dover International Raceway media center, he fully anticipated the opening line of questioning before opening practice for Sunday\u2019s Gander Outdoors 400 (2 p.m., NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). With time to reflect on the last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":22102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[63,16],"class_list":["post-22151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-jimmie-johnson","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5Lh","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/358029.jpg?fit=3378%2C2249&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22151"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22154,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22151\/revisions\/22154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}