Jimmie Johnson Wins at Atlanta, Ties Dale Earnhardt

Originally written for CLNS Radio.

Jimmie Johnson won the Fold of Honor QuikTrip 500 from Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon after a late wreck caused the race to end under caution.

Photo courtesy Matt Sullivan/Getty Images

Johnson had to use strategy to get ahead of Kevin Harvick, who was the most dominant car all day.  When a late caution came out, Johnson’s pit crew got him out in first.  Johnson said his crew chief’s call to short-pit with 50 laps to go was what got him the victory.  

“Definitely a gutsy call,” Johnson said.  “The 4 car [of Harvick] was awfully tough and it was going to take some strategy to get by him.”

The victory was the 76th of Johnson’s career, which ties him with Dale Earnhardt.  Johnson said it was an honor to tie a legend.

“With the chaos at the end…I kind of lost sight of that,” Johnson said.  “I remembered on my victory lap coming down and had to come by and throw a ‘3’ out the window to pay respects to the man.”

“There’s a huge void in my career that I never got to race with him, but at least I was able to tie his record there.”

Harvick led a race-high 131 laps, but a bad restart at the end of the race caused him to finish sixth.  Harvick said the handling on his car changed over the last few runs.

“We had issues about the last three runs and I had to start driving the car different,” Harvick said.  “Then we had a slow pit stop and got way behind the 48 [of Johnson].  Just didn’t execute today.”

Unofficial results:

1. Jimmie Johnson

2. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

3. Kyle Busch

4. Kurt Busch

5. Carl Edwards

6. Kevin Harvick

7. Martin Truex Jr.

8. Chase Elliott

9. Brad Keselowski

10. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

11. Austin Dillon

12. Joey Logano

13. Greg Biffle

14. Casey Mears

15. Aric Almirola

16. Denny Hamlin

17. Ty Dillon

18. Paul Menard

19. Matt Kenseth

20. Danica Patrick

21. Jamie McMurray

22. Trevor Bayne

23. Kasey Kahne

24. Ryan Newman

25. Ryan Blaney

26. Kyle Larson

27. AJ Allmendinger

28. Chris Buescher

29. Matt DiBenedetto

30. Michael Annett

31. Brian Scott

32. David Ragan

33. Michael McDowell

34. Regan Smith

35. Clint Bowyer

36. Landon Cassill

37. Cole Whitt

38. Jeffrey Earnhardt

39. Josh Wise 

Photo courtesy Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images