A curious thing about Jimmie Johnson is that there’s never a dull moment around a guy who’s supposedly dull.
Johnson put spice into an otherwise routine Saturday practice session when he spun the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet at Michigan International Speedway.
“I got loose into turn 3 and fought it for a long time and unfortunately came around,” Johnson said.
The seven-time NASCAR Cup champion, who made news Friday by signing a three-year contract extension with Hendrick Motorsports, didn’t smack a walk as he spun, but the car slid down the track banking and into the infield grass.
“The front end dug in pretty good,” Johnson said.
Soon as Johnson was off the track, crew members from multiple Hendrick teams were off and running. Guys from the No. 48 car and driver Kasey Kahne’s No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet scurried to the hauler that toted Johnson’s primary and backup cars to MIS.
Reporters covering the FireKeepers Casino 400 flooded social media with pictures of Johnson’s grass-stained car in the garage and shots of a crew member prepping the hauler in case the backup car was summoned.
Chad Knaus, Johnson’s crew chief, strode to the hauler. He talked to one crew member and then another. Then he walked back to the No. 48 team’s garage stall and said the team would repair the damage and get ready for the next practice.
“I’m pretty surprised the guys feel the damage isn’t too bad and they can get that stuff pulled back out and get the shape of the body back,” Johnson said.
He wasn’t the only one taken aback that fabricators, and not the backup car, were called upon.
“I was really surprised that they went ahead and fixed it,” Slugger Labbe, a former NASCAR crew chief who works for NBC television, said.
“It damaged the front left corner,” Labbe added. “That’s a real sensitive part of the race car.”
Big-budget teams like Hendrick Motorsports plan for everything.
Staffers with wrenches are important to their success. So are experts in body building and repair.
“They bring a lot of fabricators to the race track,” Labbe said. “It’ll be fabricators working on (the 48) now; it’s not going to be mechanics.”
Or will it?
Before morning ended, Knaus changed his mind.
Johnson’s primary car, which had compound applied by the fab team on the front left corner, was pushed aside. The backup car was lowered from the hauler, and it replaced the primary in the team’s garage stall.
Johnson ran the final practice in the backup car. The guy whose critics say has a boring personality turned 20 laps with a fastest of 196.260 mph. No spins. No grass.
He’ll start the FireKeepers Casino 400 on Sunday from the back of the 37-car field, NASCAR’s rule for going to a backup car.
Johnson started in the back two weeks ago at Dover. He won that race.
“Obviously,” Labbe said, “Chad and Jimmie do a helluva job starting last and winning races.”
Jimmie Johnson a dull guy? Not in this NASCAR world. (from)
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