Right where he left off

Jimmie Johnson, who won eight races in 2004 and finished second in the standings, takes the lead with 16 laps left.

By BRANT JAMES
Published February 13, 2005

DAYTONA BEACH - Jimmie Johnson did not grow complacent in the offseason. Neither did Hendrick Motorsports' restrictor-plate engineers.

Three months after missing his first Nextel Cup championship by eight points and finishing second in consecutive seasons, Johnson used a slick pit stop and some drafting help to hunt down Ryan Newman with 16 laps left Saturday to win the Bud Shootout, the non-points premiere of the Nextel Cup season.

Newman was second, 0.199 seconds behind, followed by Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle.

"Not a points race, but it's pretty nice to finally get in Victory Lane here," Johnson said of Daytona International Speedway.

Johnson, who won four of the final six races last season, never had won at a restrictor-plate track. He and teammate Gordon might have provided evidence that Hendrick has overtaken Dale Earnhardt Inc. at its specialty, building engines that excel on the superspeedways of Daytona and Talladega. Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose Shootout history includes a win in 2003, two runnerup finishes and a sixth, struggled with mechanical problems before rallying as high as fourth. He finished seventh.

After taking the lead, Johnson was able to hold off the field with defensive driving and the help of Gordon, who would not help Biffle pass. Racing was aggressive, but there were no cautions.

"If they would have gone down through the grass, I was going to go there because I wasn't looking out the windshield," Johnson said. "I was all in the mirrors trying to use the brakes and use the guys behind me in a way to keep them back there and myself up front."

Johnson had not been a slouch at restrictor-plate tracks. He claimed the Daytona 500 pole as a rookie in 2002, has another at Talladega and has four top-five finishes at the two tracks.

Biffle was the dominant car much of the race, leading a race-high 44 laps. His No.16 Ford was prominent in the outcome as Biffle bump-drafted Johnson past Newman in Turn 1 for the final lead change. Running third behind Johnson and Gordon with four laps left, Biffle appeared ready to make a move to regain the lead when Roush Racing teammate Kurt Busch snuggled in behind, but Biffle got loose and fell off the pace.

"I was trying to help Biffle move forward," Busch said. "When you get that close on old tires - (I) had gotten the 16 loose before in the trioval and I wanted to push him going down into 1 so we could get a nice draft - but it didn't turn out. The cars were a bit loose, and we were all sliding for life."

The Shootout began with a 20-lap segment, followed by a 10-minute maintainance intermission, then a 50-lap session. Newman and crew chief Matt Borland made their grab for victory when they elected to take two tires on a Lap 45 pit stop. Newman's No.12 Dodge rocketed off pit road and into a 0.75-second advantage over Johnson while the rest of the lead pack took four tires.

"I knew they were catching me," Newman said. "I asked Matt how fast they were catching me, and he said "About seven tenths a lap. Okay?' I said, "No, it's not okay, but I understand.' It was one of those situations where we had to run as hard as we could."

Newman did, but a pack of cars working together runs harder at Daytona.

"If four or five more cars took two, that would have worked itself out, there would have been a pack," Johnson said, "but when everyone else took four, Ryan was a sitting duck."

Earnhardt, driving No.8 Chevrolets that basically are the repainted No.15s of teammate Michael Waltrip, was 18th of 20 by the end of the first session and complained to new crew chief Pete Rondeau that he thought he had a spark plug wire coming loose.

"We changed everything we could during the break," Rondeau said.

Four laps into the next segment, after radioing Rondeau that his car was "junk," he began to march through the field. Earnhardt moved into seventh on Lap 30 and fourth after one more lap around the 2.5-mile track, but he bogged down in traffic and never threatened for the lead.

[Last modified February 13, 2005, 01:08:17]