Jimmie Johnson got his 71st big NASCAR trophy and an added $330,000 for winning Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. When it came time to kick it in, he was riding a missile, everyone else a Radio Flyer wagon.
But what about the fans who roused themselves early on a weekend morning, with rain pattering on their windows and a chill breeze blowing against their doors — and still thought it a wonderful day to go watch some car fights?
Where is their trophy? Where is their payoff? Every blessed one of them wrapped up like burritos deserved a medal for their bravery, an automotive version of a Croix de Guerre at least.
Only enough of them came out to half-fill — maybe — the cliff of seats bordering the Atlanta Motor Speedway frontstretch. A tribute to their constitution, but not a happy sign for the continuing health of this place so long as it gets stuck with this calendar square.
What a cruel trick on a once towering venue to make it spend its one event of the year on this wintry date (it fell on Labor Day just a year ago). When you attempt to race anything other than ATVs in Atlanta on the first of March, it is hardly headline material when weather gets in the way. The uncertain conditions cost this race a 55-minute delay, any hope of a vibrant walk-up at the gate and untold discomfort in the seats.
What was needed by way of repayment was a great, breathless race, here on the first weekend after the Daytona 500 now that restrictor plates were cast aside. At Atlanta, a driver can pass without forging NATO-like alliances. At Atlanta, the cars do not all collect in great metallic clots.
No such luck Sunday, which oddly was more compelling at the start than at the finish. Because of a massive breakdown in Friday’s qualifying, many of the top cars did not even see the track for that formality and found themselves starting at the rear of the field Sunday. What resulted was a sprint to the front in the first 25 laps that featured some of biggest hoots.
Now, surge forward to the final 13 laps, and the last restart following the last yellow flag. Some of the names most familiar with the front were there again, promising a high-profile showdown.
But then Johnson squirted free on the restart, leaving Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. seconds behind him – which at these speeds might as well have been light years.
No sweat, right?
“No sweating today. I was freezing out there,” said Chad Knaus, Johnson’s crew chief.
Where last week’s Daytona 500, won by 24-year-old Joey Logano, was an homage to the next generation, Atlanta treated its veterans more kindly.
No kid stuff this time, not with Johnson, 39, Earnhardt Jr., 40, and Harvick, 39, leading the way. None of these geezers were quite to the stage where they attached plastic flowers to their cars or kept their left blinkers on for the duration of the race. They have a few more months of relevance left them.
OK, there was one notable exception.
For the second straight race in the Jeff Gordon Retirement Tour, the No. 24 car ended the day in pieces. Unlike Daytona’s last lap episode, this time Gordon got caught in a wreck 68 laps from the finish. And for good measure crashed into one section of infield wall not covered with a Soft Wall barrier. Instead of getting rocking chairs on this last lap around the sport, Gordon is collecting bruises.
The theme on the track was that of the return of a king. Six-time Cup champion Johnson spent the end of last season on the outside looking in during the chase to the championship. This was unacceptable, like the Pope watching a service from the other side of the stain glass window.
Everything seems right again in this neck of the Hendrick dynasty. Johnson didn’t win until the 12th race of last season, so here at the second, he’s way ahead of pace. It was his third victory at Atlanta in 24 races, which makes his .166 batting average almost worthy of the Braves.
Johnson was mightily relieved to get this win out of the way. Oh, the horrible weight of fame and fortune.
“No questions like, ‘Are you going to win this year?’ It’s nice to dodge that. But we’ll have to win again in six to eight weeks, or we’ll get asked (about winning) again.”
But honestly, Johnson had no room to be anything but gleeful Sunday. He had the warmest seat in the place.
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