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FT. WORTH, Texas – It looked like déjà vu for Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, where they started ninth, fell back through the field and then climbed to the front in the closing stages of the race.
The only difference between this weekend and last was this time Johnson didn’t have enough laps to get past leader Jeff Gordon and finished runner-up to his teammate at The Great American Speedway.
“Five more (laps) and we would have had a shot at him,” said Johnson, who jumped to second in the point standings. “But we were both driving as hard as we could. It was nice to get our car up to the front and get some clean air on it. We had to work really hard all day long to get the car right. So, I’m very proud of the team.”
Last week at Martinsville, Johnson started ninth and fell back to 27th while crew chief Chad Knaus worked on the car’s handling. The No. 48 Chevrolet got better and Johnson slowly made his way back to the front, taking the lead with 16 laps remaining and going on to win.
In Sunday’s 334-lap race, Johnson fought a tight-handling machine and fell back to 18th, pitting at every opportunity to allow Knaus to work his magic.
As the laps wound down, Johnson got better. He worked his way back into the top 10 and was running fifth when he came in for his final pit stop.
The Lowe’s crew had a strong showing and sent the three-time champion back to the track third. Johnson chased Gordon down to challenge for the win, but came up .378 seconds short.
“In another five laps we would have been racing with him,” said Johnson, who has collected top 10 finishes in his last four events. “I’m not sure what would have happened, but it was a great race all together and I’m very happy for Jeff.”
Johnson added, “We have our old style back where we just keep plugging away and we’ll get it right come the end of the race. If we look at what took place during the course of the day and how we made the car better and got to the front, we’re very proud of that.”
The Sprint Cup Series will take Easter weekend off before traveling to Arizona for the April 18 event at Phoenix International Raceway. That race will be broadcast live on FOX beginning at 8 p.m. ET.