Daytona 500 2012 Live Results: Jimmie Johnson Reacts To Early Crash

Jimmie Johnson was knocked out of the Daytona 500 on the second lap of Monday night’s race when Elliott Sadler spun him on the frontstretch, triggering a six-car collision.

Here’s what Johnson had to say after the crash:

ON THE WRECK: That side hit was hard. We were all just trying to make our lane work. A lot of energy in the lane. I was kind of pushing the No. 78 (Regan Smith) a little bit. I could feel some help from behind. Just turned me around. Sent me down to the inside lane and back up to the outside lane.

When I was sitting in the middle of the racetrack, I knew at some point someone was going to come along unfortunately. David Ragan had nowhere to go. I unfortunately got drilled by him pretty hard.
I’m just really, really bummed to start the season this way. For all the hard work that has gone into getting this Lowe’s Chevrolet ready for tonight; we didn’t get to complete two-and-a-half miles of green flag racing. So, I’m pretty bummed.
ARE YOU OK? I’m ok. I’m just really bummed out for this whole Lowe’s team. To work as hard as everyone did at Hendrick Motorsports to get this Lowe’s Chevrolet and to have it barely complete two-and-a-half miles of green flag racing is pretty sad. Disappointed, but nothing I can do about it now. We’ll just go on and go to Phoenix and set our marks on winning that race.
DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT HAPPENED? We were all just getting up to speed and I had some help from behind that got me out of control. From there on I was just spinning.