Jimmie Johnson Barely Wins the Camping World RV 400

by Bruce E. Simmons :

Woes before It even Starts At Kansas
Jeff Gordon starts the race very sick and a back up driver sits in the wings, waiting.
Jeff Burton stays on pit road when everyone else pulls off due to a bad tach that the crew fixes. Burton heads to the back of the pack. That's from 37th to 42nd.

Race Start:
Jimmie Johnson leads the pack to the green flag. Clint Bowyer in the No. 07 Chevy gets black flagged for passing on the start before the start / finish line.

Lap 17: Matt Kenseth in the No. 17 Ford takes the lead from Jimmy Johnson while Bowyer is still on the lead lap, barely in front of the leader.

Lap 27: It's reported that Kyle Busch's engine is failing. Seems too early, but when Juan Pablo Montoya and Sam Hornish passed him, I started to believe it.
Lap 42: Martin Truex Jr. takes the lead from Kenseth.
Lap 44 top 10: 1, 17, 83, 48, 19, 5, 24, 8, 84 21

Lap 50 starts green flag pit stops.
Brian Vickers parks it almost sideways as he comes across the nose of the 99 car and slows the 20 car trying to exit their pits. Valuable time lost.
Waltrip stayed out and led a lap before pitting. The beleagured No. 18 does the same.
21 and 77 cars too fast on pit road.

Lap 71 sees Jimmie Johnson take his lead back from Truex Jr..

lap 75: Caution for debris off the No. 12 Dodge of Ryan Newman repainting the outside wall. Kyle Busch is saying that his car is coming back to him as if whatever the problem was got "burned away".
Loose tire on pit road. No one hits it, but Dave Blaney slams into the No. 31 car, and bounces into the No 99 car.

Lap 80 restart: 5, 1, 24, 48, 19.
Lap 94 caution for Kyle Petty spinning ... all by himself. Scott Riggs drive shaft came apart.
The No. 18 car is back on the lead lap.

Lap 99 restart and the top 10 leading them to the green flag:
5, 8, 31, 19, 48, 16, 24, 1, 88 & 9.
Mears (5) did not pit. 8 & 31, two tires only.
Lap 117 caution for Joey Logano adding his car colors to the wall in his HOF No. 96 car.
20 car to the back of the pack for speeding.

Lap 122 restart: 1, 28, 07, 16, 31
Lap 123 caution - Kenseth wants to see who's behind him and spins it through the corner of turns 1 & 2.

Lap 126 restart: 1, 48, 07, 16 & 24
Lap 130 caution for Tony Stewart mowing the infield with his No. 20 Home Depot lawn mower. Tony, there are cheaper ways to mow the grass. He bounced off the No 83 car of Vickers. (the 20 and 83 have been having pit issues today.)

lap 134 restart: 1, 48, 16, 07, 24
Lap 150 top 10: 48, 1, 16, 99, 24, 88, 31, 29, 07, 6, 5, 26, 19, 11, 17 (So I can't count!)
92 laps to go, green flag pit stops start. stop, start... commence..
75 to go: 99, 48, 16, 1 & 24. Stewart makes costly stop to repair his splitter.
Caution with 49 to go as Travis Kvapil adds his distinctive paint scheme to the wall.

Restart with 45 to go: 48, 99, 24, 31 & 16
Caution, 42 to go: The NO. 6 car bumps the No. 55 car and he dances down the front stretch in a slide.

Restart 38 to go: 48, 99, 24, 31, 16
Truex has issues and pits. Broken shifter.
I think we just heard the radio communication of the No. 1 car and I heard "It's F*d up...". Not sure... volume wasn't quite loud enough with a truck going by outside.

22 to go: It's 48 and 99 out front, followed by the sick boy in the No. 24 car.
12 to go: Waltrip LF tire evacuates from the car, but all the debris is on the inside line of the track... mostly. NASCAR keeps it green.
10 to go: 48, 99, 24, 16, 17

with 2 to go: The No. 99 Ford reels in the No. 48 Chevy to within 2 car lengths.

In the last lap headed into turn 3, Carl Edwards passes Jimmie Johnson as if he's standing still, but hits the turn too fast and slides up into the wall, leaving the Office Depot colors on the wall and Jimmie goes back inside him and takes the win by a few car lengths!!

Now that was fun to watch!

The top 10 finishers:
Jimmie Johnson,
Carl Edwards,
Greg Biffle,
Jeff Gordon,
M Kenseth,
K. Harvick,
J. Burton,
D. Ragan,
A.J. Allmendinger,
E. Sadler.

Carl Edwards says
"... in the video game, you can hit the wall and still win!! It didn't work out quite like the video game."
Before you smack down on it, I know which "game" he's talking about and all the physics in this "game" which is called more a simulation than a game is dead on.

With that said, LOL... I kind of expected more from Carl than employing simulation tactics!

Interview of Kyle Busch:
Reporter: "What are you feeling right now?
Shrub-bub: "I think it's pretty self explanatory out there." Wah!!

Actually, despite picking on him, I don't blame him for the short draw of the luck he's got going, I understand his take... today.

For the complete results, see Cup Series Results