#48-Jimmie Johnson didn’t lead until the last 13 laps, but pulled off the win in the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, for his 4th win at LMS in a row, 5th in the last 6 races there, 4th of the season and 18th win of his career. Johnson is the first driver to sweep the races at a track in 2005, winning both Cup races at LMS this season. It was a wild race with a ton of tire problems with most of the problems with the right front, three drivers were leading when they lost a right front, #5-Busch, #20-Stewart and #9-Kahne. The win vaults Johnson into a tie for the points lead with Stewart, although Stewart is the leader with 5 wins over Johnson’s 4. The top-10 Chasers are now within 142 points. #97-Kurt Busch finished 2nd, followed by #16-Greg Biffle, #01-Joe Nemechek and #6-Mark Martin. #11-Denny Hamlin, only in his 2nd race, finished 8th and was running in the top-5 until a few laps to go. The race started a little late as NASCAR waited for NBC to finish up with the USC-Notre Dame college football game which lasted until 7:43pm/et, the race was scheduled to start at 7:20pm/et. Due to the tire problems NASCAR mandated a minimum tire pressure for the tires that Goodyear posts in its tire notes and PRN radio said that NASCAR said that teams caught not maintaining the minimum air pressure will lose points. There was an event record 15 cautions for 83 laps and 17 drivers led a lap with 35 lead changes.
For my race rundown, laps led, DNF’s, caution info, Lucky Dogs and some notes, see my Charlotte/LMS Race Info/Rundown Page.
