Jimmie Johnson's Fontana Victory Signals More Exciting Racing to Come in 2016
Until Jimmie Johnson captured his sixth career Sprint Cup victory in Fontana, California, NASCAR's low-downforce rules package had just been a qualified success.
Sure, the finishes had been fantastic, but what about the three hours leading up to them? Sunday's Auto Club 400 was entertaining from start to finish. It was the genuine item. It was the real deal.
Perhaps it was the two-mile track's aging, bumpy asphalt. Mostly, though, reduced downforce has made NASCAR racing, at least at its top level, perilous, pulsating and powerful again. The drivers love it, right up to the point where they lose control of their cars, and that is as it should be.
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"It was great racing," Denny Hamlin, who finished third, said. "Low downforce is obviously the way. This package is obviously something we can build on, and I can't wait until we take another chunk of downforce out of these things, and then you're really going to see some great racing."
For the past few years, races often ended with dominant winners happy and everyone else frustrated.
Another Toyota contender, Carl Edwards, faded to seventh near the end and still climbed out of his car singing praises.
"It's fun," he said. "You can really race. The guys still got out there and got some leads, but really, to me, that was some really good racing in the middle of the race and on those last restarts."
Only a perfectionist could quibble at Sunday's action. Perhaps, oh, a winning crew chief.
"People were all over the race track," Johnson's pit-road despot, Chad Knaus, said. "I think it speaks volumes about [Auto Club Speedway]. Everybody loves this track. The only thing I don't like is the back straightaway, because it's a little too bumpy, but the rest of the track is awesome.
"They run the high. The run the low. They do everything."
Johnson, the six-time champion, won for the second time this year, but more importantly, his 77th career victory surpassed the late Dale Earnhardt for seventh place all time. A seventh championship would equal the all-time standard, achieved by Earnhardt and Richard Petty.
The 40-year-old Johnson didn't reach the heights of the sport by being unable to adapt to changing conditions.
"With the smaller rear spoiler on the car, it allows the air to change directions and get back down to the ground sooner," Johnson observed. "That's allowing us to get closer to the car in front of us. There's less turbulent air in the big packs when there are 10, 15 cars in front of you.
"The air kicks off the spoiler. Before, with that massive (previous) spoiler, it just kept throwing it higher and higher. Now the air gets kicked up but comes back down quicker, and it allows us to run closer to one another."
Ah. Intimacy. Intimacy of sheet metal. And stuff.
| Number | Track | Season |
| 1 | Fontana | 2002 |
| 10 | Pocono | 2004 |
| 25 | Atlanta | 2007 |
| 50 | Bristol | 2010 |
| 75 | Texas | 2015 |
| 77 | Fontana | 2016 |
Beginning to end, it was the most exhilarating of the series' five races to date.
Entering a one-week break before swinging back east to Martinsville, Virginia, on April 3, it doesn't appear as if new rules have notably changed the balance of power. The only mild surprise in the points standings is the presence of Austin Dillon in 10th place.
The surprises have been sporadic, and Fontana was no different. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished fifth, rookie Chase Elliott sixth and A.J. Allmendinger eighth.
For all the fear and loathing of utter Toyota domination by Joe Gibbs' super stable, five races have been run and Chevrolet drivers have won three. Toyota and Ford are tied at one apiece. Sunday's top five contained two Chevys, two Fords and a Toyota. Seems normal.
Now that Phoenix is past, Kevin Harvick is back to finishing second. Out of the last 23 races in which Harvick has led the most laps, he has failed to win 15 of them. In his career, he has won 29.6 percent of his races at Phoenix and 4.6 percent everywhere else.
After leading 142 out of 205 laps, Harvick couldn't keep up with Johnson at the end. It is all too familiar.
"That was the worst it has taken off on restarts," Harvick said to Fox Sports, "but we weren't very good on restarts for four or five laps unless we were all by ourselves. The No. 48 [Johnson] was able to hang with us and we just weren't able to drive it in [to the turns] like I needed to.
"Just didn't have the front tires turning and the back wouldn't grip. Still a good day for us...we will keep at it."
The words were all too familiar, as well.
While the schedule hops a week, like unto an Easter bunny, NASCAR Version 20.16 seems similar in statistics but improved in looks. The new apps seem to have provided options to benefit competitors and fans alike.
One reason the racing is getting better is that the drivers are getting the hang of it, and each week they feel a bit more comfortable adapting to cars that require a bit more wrestling.
At a Friday media conference, the Las Vegas winner, Brad Keselowski, discussed what lies ahead.
"I think it’s definitely an improvement from last year and even, to some extent, the year before," he said, "and it’s showcasing some pretty strong results on the race track. Like anything else, it can always be better, and I’m the type of guy that is progressive-natured and wants to see it continue to get better.
"I don’t want to rest on our laurels as a sport because I think this sport has even more potential to work on the cars and open itself up to the things that most people would quantify as exciting racing, and last-lap passes for the win like we’ve seen two of the first [now five] weeks is really exciting for the sport. I think everyone can kind of rally behind that, so those doors open up a lot of times with the rules package, and I think that’s what we’re seeing.”
The sport has no room to rest in regaining ground it's lost over the past decade in attendance and TV ratings. It's OK, though, to rest on its laurels for a week.
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All quotes are taken from NASCAR media, team and manufacturer sources unless otherwise noted.
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