HAMPTON, Ga. \u2013 With wrecks erupting behind him, Jimmie Johnson took the checkered flag in overtime under caution in Sunday\u2019s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway\u2014and then he remembered.<\/p>\n
![\"Jimmie](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/AMS_022816_012.jpg?resize=300%2C201\")
Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, takes the checkered and yellow flags to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 under caution at Atlanta Motor Speedway on February 28, 2016 in Hampton, Georgia. Photo by Matt Sullivan\/NASCAR via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n
Almost lost in the euphoria of Johnson\u2019s second straight victory at the 1.54-mile track was the realization that, with his 76th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory, he had tied the late Dale Earnhardt for seventh on the all-time wins list.<\/p>\n
But as the No. 48 Chevrolet rolled around the track on its victory lap, heading in a clockwise direction a la Alan Kulwicki, the six-time champion thrust his arm out the driver\u2019s side window with a three-finger salute to the crowd, acknowledging the bond he now shares with The Intimidator.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s such an honor,” Johnson said. “With the chaos at the end and the crash and wondering about overtime and how it worked these days, I kind of lost sight of that.<\/p>\n
“I remembered it on my victory lap coming down, and I had to come by and throw a \u20183\u2019 out the window to pay my respects to the man. There\u2019s a huge void in my career that I never had a chance to race with him, but at least I was able to tie his record.”<\/p>\n
![\"Jimmie](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/AMS_022816_16.jpg?resize=300%2C200\")
Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on February 28, 2016 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n
Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran second to his teammate, followed by Kyle Busch, who started 39th after his qualifying time was disallowed because the rear toe of his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota exceeded NASCAR\u2019s tolerances.<\/p>\n
Polesitter Kurt Busch was fourth, and Carl Edwards came home fifth.<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s fifth victory at Atlanta probably wouldn\u2019t have occurred had crew chief Chad Knaus not made a strategic call that wrested control of the race from Kevin Harvick, whose dominant No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet led a race-high 131 of the 330 laps.<\/p>\n
As soon as Johnson hit the fuel window that would get him to the end of the race, Knaus brought the No. 48 Chevy to pit road for four tires and gas on Lap 276, nine laps before Harvick pitted from the lead. With the nine-lap advantage on fresh tires\u2014not to mention issues with the left front tire that cost Harvick more than three seconds on pit road\u2014Johnson was 13.631 seconds ahead of Harvick\u2019s No. 4 when the green-flag pit stop cycle was completed on Lap 287.<\/p>\n
![\"Jimmie](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/AMS_022816_14.jpg?resize=300%2C200\")
Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, celebrates with a burnout after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on February 28, 2016 in Hampton, Georgia. Photo by Kevin C. Cox\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n
“Definitely a gutsy call,” Johnson said. “It was just a great team effort. The No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) car was awfully tough and it was going to take some strategy to get by him. When he told me to whip it as hard as I could there (after the lap 276 pit stop), I just felt like I was going to take too much life out of the tires. But, it worked. And I got rolling around the top and got to where I got this Lowe\u2019s Chevy in Victory Lane.”<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t easy. Harvick cut into Johnson\u2019s advantage, reducing it to 5.1 seconds before the speeds of the top two cars leveled out. When Ryan Newman blew a left rear tire and spun at the end of the frontstretch with two laps left in the regulation distance of 325 laps, the eight lead-lap cars came to pit road for tires.<\/p>\n
Johnson held the lead, with Harvick second and Kyle Busch third. But on the overtime restart, Harvick had trouble in the outside lane and Johnson surged ahead, pursued by Kyle Busch and Earnhardt.<\/p>\n
![\"Jimmie](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/AMS_022816_12.jpg?resize=300%2C200\")
Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, leads Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet, during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on February 28, 2016 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n
A wild wreck on the backstretch caused the caution that ended the race under yellow five laps beyond its scheduled distance.<\/p>\n
“We had issues about the last three runs,” said Harvick, who suffered late-race brake problems and finished sixth. “I had to start driving the car different. It just required a little bit different handling. And then we had a slow pit stop there.<\/p>\n
“We got way behind, and the No. 48 was way out front, and I had to drive the car really hard and got the right rear (tire) burned up. We just didn\u2019t execute today, but everybody on our Jimmy John\u2019s\/Busch Chevrolet hung in there all day, and we\u2019ll keep at it.”<\/p>\n
Notes:<\/strong> Rookie Chase Elliott finished eighth in his first race experience with NASCAR\u2019s 2016 lower-downforce rules package. … The race stayed green for the first 210 laps, a track record from the start of a Sprint Cup event. The caution that ended the race was the third of the afternoon. … After his second straight third-place finish, Kyle Busch leads the series standings by three points over Daytona 500 runner-up Martin Truex Jr. Harvick is third, four points behind Busch.<\/p>\n NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race – Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 1. (19) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 330. Average Speed of Race Winner:\u00a0 155.863 mph. [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”5″ gal_title=”Sunday Atlanta”] Story and photos courtesy of NASCAR HAMPTON, Ga. \u2013 With wrecks erupting behind him, Jimmie Johnson took the checkered flag in overtime under caution in Sunday\u2019s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway\u2014and then he remembered. Almost lost in the euphoria of Johnson\u2019s second straight victory at the 1.54-mile […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":361,"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-364","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-5S","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/AMS_022816_012.jpg?fit=4751%2C3189&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364\/revisions\/371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAtlanta Motor Speedway
\nHampton, Georgia
\nSunday, February 28, 2016<\/p>\n
\n2. (16) Dale Earnhardt Jr, Chevrolet, 330.
\n3. (39) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 330.
\n4. (1) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 330.
\n5. (7) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 330.
\n6. (6) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 330.
\n7. (9) Martin Truex Jr, Toyota, 330.
\n8. (24) Chase Elliott #, Chevrolet, 330.
\n9. (17) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 330.
\n10. (5) Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Ford, 330.
\n11. (8) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 330.
\n12. (26) Joey Logano, Ford, 330.
\n13. (14) Greg Biffle, Ford, 329.
\n14. (15) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 329.
\n15. (27) Aric Almirola, Ford, 328.
\n16. (12) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 328.
\n17. (18) Ty Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 328.
\n18. (21) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 328.
\n19. (13) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 328.
\n20. (25) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 328.
\n21. (2) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 328.
\n22. (3) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 328.
\n23. (11) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 328.
\n24. (4) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 328.
\n25. (23) * Ryan Blaney #, Ford, 328.
\n26. (20) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 327.
\n27. (22) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 326.
\n28. (31) Chris Buescher #, Ford, 326.
\n29. (35) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 326.
\n30. (34) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 325.
\n31. (10) Brian Scott #, Ford, 324.
\n32. (33) David Ragan, Toyota, 323.
\n33. (32) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 323.
\n34. (30) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 323.
\n35. (28) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 322.
\n36. (29) Landon Cassill, Ford, 321.
\n37. (36) * Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 318.
\n38. (38) Jeffrey Earnhardt #, Ford, 313.
\n39. (37) * Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 312.<\/p>\n
\nTime of Race:\u00a0 03 Hrs, 15 Mins, 38 Secs. Margin of Victory:\u00a0 Caution.
\nCaution Flags:\u00a0 3 for 13 laps.
\nLead Changes:\u00a0 28 among 8 drivers.
\nLap Leaders:\u00a0\u00a0 Kurt Busch 1-39; M. Kenseth 40; C. Edwards 41; C. Whitt 42; Kurt Busch 43-63; M. Kenseth 64-77; Kurt Busch 78-79; J. Johnson 80-83; M. Kenseth 84-115; K. Harvick 116-117; M. Truex Jr 118-134; K. Harvick 135-150; J. Johnson 151; K. Harvick 152-154; M. Truex Jr 155-164; K. Harvick 165-183; J. Johnson 184-185; Kyle Busch 186; K. Harvick 187-211; M. Truex Jr 212; K. Harvick 213-251; M. Truex Jr 252; K. Harvick 253-255; M. Truex Jr 256-258; K. Harvick 259; M. Truex Jr 260-261; K. Harvick 262-284; Kyle Busch 285; J. Johnson 286-330.
\nLeaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):\u00a0 K. Harvick 9 times for 131 laps; Kurt Busch 3 times for 62 laps; J. Johnson 4 times for 52 laps; M. Kenseth 3 times for 47 laps; M. Truex Jr 6 times for 34 laps; Kyle Busch 2 times for 2 laps; C. Edwards 1 time for 1 lap; C. Whitt 1 time for 1 lap.
\nTop 16 in Points: Kyle Busch – 78; M. Truex Jr – 75; K. Harvick – 74; C. Edwards – 73; D. Hamlin – 70; J. Johnson – 70; Kurt Busch – 69; J. Logano – 64; A. Dillon – 63; A. Almirola – 55; B. Keselowski – 54; M. Kenseth – 51; R. Stenhouse Jr – 50; K. Larson – 49; R. Newman – 48; K. Kahne – 46.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"