Subscibe to our feedTeam Lowe's Racing Finishes 9th at California
FONTANA, Calif. – Jimmie Johnson crossed the finish line ninth in Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Auto Club Speedway. The result is his ninth top-10 finish in 12 starts at the two-mile track.
Johnson started the 250-lap, 500-mile event from the outside of the front row and immediately showed the strength of his Kobalt Tools Chevrolet by leading the first 74 green-flag laps.
But as the night progressed, Johnson began to struggle with the handling of his race car, unable to continue the dominance that the team had shown throughout the weekend.
“We made all sorts of changes but just never found what we needed,” said Johnson, who led both Friday’s and Saturday’s practice sessions. “We were super fast at the beginning but as the race went on and the track changed we just didn’t have the speed we needed.”
The No. 48 team continued to make adjustments to the car throughout the race. While Johnson never fell out of the top 10, he was unable to make a charge to the front.
“The car was so good all weekend, so we were really hoping for a win or a top two or three finish,” said Johnson. “But ninth is solid – can’t complain about that. We’ll take the points and look ahead to next week in Las Vegas.”
The top-10 finish moved Johnson to 19th in the Sprint Cup Series driver point standings.
For the second week in a row, Matt Kenseth went to Victory Lane. Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon crossed the finish line second.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin both experienced engine problems and finished 39th and 40th, respectively.
Las Vegas Motor Speedway is the next stop on the Sprint Cup Series schedule. The March 1 race will be broadcast live on FOX at 3:30 p.m. ET.