Jimmie Johnson wins record-tying seventh at Dover; more bad luck for Jeff Gordon

The month of May seems to have woken up a sleeping dragon in Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus. They won Sunday’s FedEx 400 on Sunday afternoon at Dover, leading a dominating 286 laps (of 400) en route to winning their second race of the season.

Hendrick Motorsports has experienced a resurgence since winning race No. 200 at Darlington. Since ending their 16-race slump, the super-team has won the Pit Crew Challenge (Johnson), Sprint All-Star Race (Johnson), Coca-Cola 600 (Kasey Kahne), and now Dover on Sunday.

The win solidifies Johnson as a legitimate championship contender, propelling him to fifth in the standings, only 33 points behind leader Greg Biffle, who finished 11^th.

“It’s way too early to talk championship,” Johnson said. “We are doing the things right now that will win one, but we need to do this in September and so on...First we have to make the Chase. And I think two wins puts us in a nice position.”

I never bought the hype that Hendrick was somehow off the pace this season. They could have easily won races at Daytona, Martinsville...before breaking through in the Southern 500. But racing is 80 percent momentum, and now Hendrick teams have it. Jeff Gordon is the defending race winner at our next track in Pocono, making the chances pretty high that the team’s streak will increase to four.

Speaking of Gordon, his continued bad luck this season may have reached a high-point at Dover. It appeared as if on two occasions that he had the winning hand, passing Johnson for the lead on lap 212 and holding it until lap 244. It was at this point that he complained of a vibration and was forced to pit under green, falling two laps down.

And yet, Gordon’s car was still the fastest on the track, again passing Johnson to get one of his laps back the hard way, and reassuming the lead once the leaders had to pit. It was on this occasion that Gordon and crew chief Alan Gustafson unearthed yet another possible race-winning strategy, requiring that the race stay green the rest of the way.

Gordon’s problem occurred at such a time when he could have made it the rest of the way on one more stop, while the leaders needed two more. But naturally, Gustafson’s plan was foiled when NASCAR threw a phantom debris caution (the cause was never shown on TV) on lap 339 - trapping Gordon a lap down and relegating him to a 13^th place finish.

Another recurring theme of the 2012 season has been the lack of cautions and carnage, but that may have ended on lap 13 as Landon Cassill and Tony Stewart triggered a 14-car pileup on the backstretch - the largest accident of the season.

Stewart was surprisingly understanding, blaming the accident on his poor qualifying effort (he started xxth) and the difference of speed between all the different cars in the back. Stewart and Juan Montoya (also involved) were working their way to the front while many of the cars in the back of the pack were falling back or preparing to start and park.

Everyone seems to agree that the accident was just the results of short track racing. In any case, Sunday’s accident and desperation of teams trying to get in Chase position should make the summer races a little more interesting than in years past.

Sorry for the late post. I ended up with a pretty bad case of the flu on Sunday night and the Kurt Busch news broke on Monday, pushing the Cup race recap back until today. Thanks for reading and your continued support of the website!

You can find the complete finishing order and an updated points report below. See you guys next weekend at Texas and Pocono!

Interesting facts: The Monster Mile was not good to Chase contenders as Stewart and Montoya were caught up in the big lap 14 accident, while Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch DNF’d due to mechanical failures.

Tip of the cap to FOX, who ended their 13-race commitment on Sunday and to pit reporter Dick Berggren who retired from television after the race. Berggren will still be a fixture at race tracks, reporting for his numerous print endeavors, but it’s truly the end of an era for NASCAR television.

TNT Sports will broadcast the next x races, the TNT Summer Series, before handing-off to ESPN for the rest of the season, including the Brickyard 400 and Chase for the Championship.

The updated championship standings can be found here.

Matt’s race notes can be found here.