CONCORD, N.C. -- Just as Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600 appeared to be playing into Lowe's driver Jimmie Johnson's hands, a blown engine clobbered the two-time defending Sprint Cup champion and the three-time winner of NASCAR's longest race.
After getting to the front of the field with a fuel-only pit stop under caution on lap 331, Johnson had just surrendered the lead to Kyle Busch on lap 347 when smoke began to fill his cockpit. After completing four more laps, Johnson brought the crippled No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet to the garage.
Kasey Kahne won the race after a flat tire erased Tony Stewart's five-second lead with three laps left in the 400-lap marathon at 1.5-mile Lowe's Motor Speedway. Greg Biffle ran second, followed by Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The engine failure relegated the Lowe's Chevy to a 39th-place finish, dropping Johnson three places in the series standings to ninth, 367 points behind Busch, who extended his lead over second-place Jeff Burton to 94 points.
"Let's go out there and have a nice, smooth, consistent day and let everything shake out at the end, man," crew chief Chad Knaus radioed to his driver after the command to start engines. "Double check your steering wheel, double check your belts. You are on stickers (new tires)."
"Coming to green here," spotter Stevie Reeves said as the cars rolled through turns 3 and 4 on the final pace lap. "Pace car's down. All right, get ready. Green flag!"
Johnson started 10th and immediately began to move up. After passing Mark martin for the eighth position on lap 5, he told the crew, "We've got ourselves a horse, boys."
The race began with a green-flag run that lasted until lap 61. As Johnson crossed the start/finish line on lap 25, Knaus told him, "Twenty-five laps on the tires right now."
"The center's very comfortable, a little on the tight side," Johnson said, describing the handling characteristics of the Lowe's Chevy. "On corner exit, it wants to buzz the tires a little on new tires, but it's settled in now."
"You and the 2 (Kurt Busch) are consistently the fastest cars on the track, catching those cars up ahead of you," Knaus replied on lap 26, after Johnson had moved up to fifth in the running order.
"The last couple of laps it got really tight," Johnson radioed on lap 31.
"Settle in," Knaus responded. "Twenty laps away from pitting."
Johnson continued his march to the front, passing Brian Vickers for the top spot on lap 47. Six laps later, Knaus ordered the Lowe's Chevy to the pits for a green-flag stop, and after the field cycled through, Johnson was still in the lead.
"Nice pit in, nice pit out," Knaus complimented his driver for getting on and off pit road expeditiously. "Good job."
"Starting out snug, but comfortable," Johnson radioed on lap 57, referring to adjustments made during the first pit stop. "The 'free-off' is much better than we had at the beginning."
Johnson subsequently described his handling as tight on lap 60, then reconsidered. "I'm not sure 'tight' is the right word. It's just comfortable to drive."
"Is that a complaint?" Knaus asked facetiously.
"I should have said it with more enthusiasm, because this is a great car, boys," Johnson replied.
Lap 61 brought the first caution of the race, after Robby Gordon's Dodge scraped the wall in turns 3 and 4. Johnson restarted in the lead on lap 67 but soon lost three positions.
"They're all moving back to the top now," Reeves told Johnson on lap 73, referring to the cars running ahead of the Lowe's Chevy. "That's when you started eating them up (on the earlier run)."
But on lap 77, Johnson lost the fourth position to Vickers.
"What you got there, bud?" Knaus asked.
"Loose in, tight in the center," the driver replied.
"OK, bud, stay ahead of that 16 car (Biffle) and keep your track position," Knaus told Johnson on lap 81, with the Lowe's Chevy still running fifth. "We'll get you fixed up on the next pit stop."
"When we come in the next time to pit, we'll pull that (spring) rubber on the left rear, if you think that will help," Knaus promised on lap 96.
"I don't think that's a bad idea," Johnson replied.
"Keep diggin', buddy, about seven seconds behind the leader, we're going to pit you in seven (laps)," Knaus radioed on lap 110.
"Start watching for hand signals," Reeves warned. "Some of the lapped cars are starting to pit."
"It's really, really tight in the center," Johnson said of the handling.
"Ten-four, bud," Knaus replied. "Start trying to back up that entry and keep your speed up for the next couple of laps."
Johnson brought the Lowe's Chevy to the pits for a green-flag stop on lap 119, and after the field cycled through, he was running fourth on lap 123.
"It's trying to turn, but it's still bound up," Johnson said on lap 142, running seventh, 7.427 seconds behind Vickers, the leader at the time.
"We'll keep working on it," Knaus promised. "We'll be better at the end."
On lap 161, Kurt Busch slammed the wall in turn 2, bringing out the second caution of the race and providing an opportunity for a pit stop under caution.
"We can take a little bit of the bar load out of it, or we can raise the panhard bar a little bit," Knaus suggested as the Lowe's crew prepared for the stop.
"Let's try the wedge," Johnson said, preferring the first option. "It was just a little tight to get racy."
"The thing is, you were just as fast as those guys (the leaders), except the 83 at the end," Knaus pointed out. "They just got away from us."
The Lowe's Chevy restarted second on lap 167 and held the position until Juan Pablo Montoya's spin on the frontstretch on lap 168 brought out the third caution.
After a restart on lap 175, with Johnson still second in the running order, Vickers clobbered the turn 2 wall after breaking his left rear wheel in a wreck that also damaged the Ford of David Gilliland.
"Twenty laps on tires there," Knaus said. "I'll bet there's going to be some gas-only's (on the next pit stops)."
"I don't know what to do," Johnson replied. "I've got a bad cramp in my hamstring."
"Somebody get him a banana," Knaus told the crew.
The cramp was the least of Johnson's worries, however, after a four-tire pit stop dropped him to 11th (with many other lead-lap cars taking fuel only or two tires).
"Was it better that run?" Knaus asked before the field took the green flag on lap 193.
"Ten-four, that adjustment was pretty balanced throughout," Johnson answered.
"You're sitting 11th now," Knaus told his driver. "There'll be 207 laps to go when you take the green."
The green-flag run, however, lasted less than a lap as Michael McDowell's spin off turn 2 brought out the fifth caution.
"As of now, the track is completely shaded," Knaus told Johnson, as the cars rolled under the yellow flag. "Over the next 40 minutes the temperature's probably going to drop 10 degrees, so there'll be a pretty dramatic shift in the characteristics of the race track."
After restarting 11th on lap 202, Johnson radioed five laps later, "Too neutral, I think."
"Get in there and ruffle some feathers and get by those guys, bud," Knaus encouraged his driver after the Lowe's Chevy took over the 10th position. "We'll be better if we get out in some clean air."
Johnson took his crew chief's advice and soon moved up to eighth.
"It's tight off (the corner) now," Johnson said on lap 223 after NASCAR called a caution for debris on the frontstretch.
"Get a good stop now, Jimmie," Knaus said as the Lowe's Chevy prepared to pit. "That will help a lot. You were gaining on 'em. I know it wasn't fun to drive, but everyone else is complaining, too. We'll get you fixed up."
J.J. Yeley's brush with the wall in turn 2 on lap 243 caused the seventh caution of the night.
"I feel like late exit the car will be tight as the night goes along, but I felt like I was starting to run some really good laps," Johnson told Knaus, who called for a fuel-only pit stop on lap 245, hoping to gain track position.
"Jimmie, we only took on, like, four gallons of fuel there, so it's not going to affect the handling at all," Knaus said after the stop. "Did the banana help?"
"I never saw the banana, but I haven't cramped up again, so I'm OK," Johnson replied. "I don't know what it was. I'm not dehydrated."
Johnson restated fourth on lap 249 but soon lost touch with Kyle Busch, who was leading at the time.
"Keep diggin', bud," Knaus exhorted on lap 271. "We're 10 seconds back from the leader now."
On lap 287, Johnson lost the sixth position to David Ragan.
By lap 297, Earnhardt had opened a three-second lead over second-place Stewart, but the right rear tire blew on Earnhardt's No. 88 Chevy, affording another opportunity for a pit stop under caution.
Johnson came out of the pits sixth for a restart on lap 306, with Stewart in the lead, but the field stacked up behind the No. 20 Toyota on the frontstretch, triggering a five-car pileup.
"Ninety-one laps to go when you take the green," Knaus radioed on lap 308, with Johnson holding the fifth position.
"My leg's freaking cramping again," Johnson said on lap 318.
"It started getting better, now it's getting a little snug," the driver added on lap 328. "I just don't know how to pick up three-tenths."
"It's track position," Knaus responded. "We've just got to get up there, man."
That's exactly what the Lowe's crew did under a caution for Patrick Carpentier's spin on lap 329. After a quick, fuel-only stop, Johnson rolled off pit road with the lead on lap 331.
The Lowe's Chevy held the top spot until lap 347, when Kyle Busch completed a pass for the lead entering turn 3.
Two laps later, Johnson radioed, "I'm blowing up. There's smoke in the cockpit."
"Bring it in," Knaus instructed.
After examining the blown engine in the garage, Knaus said tersely, "Put it on the truck," indicating Johnson's night was over.
