(Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)
After German and Scots-Irish settlers found themselves in disagreement over where to settle their city, Concord, North Carolina was settled in 1796. One hundred and sixty four years later, what is now known as Lowe's Motor Speedway was built, and the city has since become the hub of NASCAR racing-- and the track itself has become Jimmie Johnson's personal playground.
Of his 16 career starts at the track, the points leader coming into Saturday night's NASCAR Banking 500 has five wins, eight top fives and 12 top tens, and has an average top ten finish (9.1).
With his qualifying lap of 192.376 mph, not only did the defending champion win his third pole of the season, he also set one of the fastest laps in the COT.
Johnson and teammate Mark Martin shared the front row, and led the field to the green flag under the lights-- and under a threat of showers-- at 7:49 p.m. Eastern time.
The front four cars immediately pulled away from the rest of the field, with Martin passing his teammate to take over the lead. Kasey Kahne never let the leaders out of his sight, running side by side with Johnson and taking second.
Trouble early for Sam Hornish, Jr. who spun off turn two to bring out the night's first caution. There was no lucky dog.
On the outside, Martin lost the lead upon the restart on lap seven to his teammate, who in a repeat of his dominating performance last week pulled away from the No. 5's side by side battle with Kahne.
Near the entrance of pit road on lap 10, the No. 77 of Hornish, Jr. once again found himself around. He would go a lap down making repairs to his Dodge.
On lap 14 Johnson was able to pull away from the mostly single file field. Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano ran side by side for sixth and seventh, with Logano taking the spot. Meanwhile, Juan Pablo Montoya ran eighth, 10 spots up from his 18th starting position on lap 20.
Chaser and former champion Tony Stewart, though, was going the other way. By lap 23 his No. 14 Old Spice Chevrolet was back to third.
While Johnson paced the field, Kahne began catching Friday night's Nationwide Series race winner Kyle Busch for third, and on lap 34 Denny Hamlin passed Ryan Newman for sixth.
Johnson's over two second lead was erased on lap 35 as caution came out for the third time during the NASCAR Banking 500 for light sprinkles. The field would come down pit road.
Picking up seven spots by taking just two tires, Matt Kenseth won the race off pit road, followed by Johnson, Busch, Martin, Newman and Hamlin. Also taking two tires were teammate Casey Mears and Harvick. Trouble for rookie Logano, who slid through his pit and fell all the way back to 38th . Keselowski also had problems on pit road, in the form of speeding. He was forced to start at the tail end of the field.
Choosing the outside, Kenseth was able to hold the lead on lap 43, but remained in a side by side battle with the No. 48. As they continued to race side by side, making slight contact as Johnson got loose, Kenseth was able to clear the points leader as Martin fell back to fourth.
Chasers Kahne and Brian Vickers ran side by side for blank, nearly colliding on lap 47 before the No. 9 Dodge, running the new R6 engine, was able to take the spot and pull away.
Stewart, meanwhile, continued to lose spots, running 17th on lap 52 as Johnson took the lead-- and pulled away-- from Kenseth. Stewart would drop two more spots by lap 56.
Former back, it was Megatron vs. Optimus Prime, and evil prevailed as Gordon took the ninth spot from the No. 39 of Newman.
After running through his pit box earlier, Logano had made strides on track and ran in 25th after passing Elliott Sadler and his pink machine on lap 57.
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