Ultimately, Jimmie Johnson’s 15-year NASCAR Playoffs streak ends this year. (Photo Credit: Stephen Conley/TPF)
On lap 105, history was made but not in grand fashion for seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson. A big crash in Turn Two sent Johnson out of the race. This extinguished his hopes of making a run at the 2019 championship along with snapping a 15-year Playoff appearance streak.
Johnson showed a lot of promise and speed throughout the race, running in the top-10 most of the day. However, during the pit stops under caution between Stages 2 and 3, Johnson found himself restarting in seventh alongside Kurt Busch on the ensuing restart.
As the final stage went green, Johnson needed to gain 17 points on Ryan Newman, Daniel Suarez, and Clint Bowyer. Despite the tough margin, it wasn’t impossible to make the Playoffs.
As the field raced through Turn One, Kurt Busch slid high, catalyzing a three-wide battle with Johnson and William Byron. Johnson lost control of his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet while running seventh, backing hard into the outside wall and destroying his car. In the end, Johnson took out Parker Klingerman, Daniel Hemric, and others in that wreck.
“We were going to have a strong day, Johnson said. “It’s disappointing. The No. 1 car had some issues on the restart and I just needed to go.”
Johnson added he got below the white line and spun despite the impressive run that they compiled at Indy.
“The Hendrick Motorsports team has seen improvement over the last several weeks,” Johnson said. “I’ve been sleeping easier recently with the last several weeks. We’ve had strong race cars and now, I’m just waiting on the results to show up.”
Certainly, while Johnson’s Playoffs streak ended in disappointment, he looked towards an optimistic prospect.
“Our goal now is to win a race,” he said with confidence.
