Jimmie Johnson eliminated at Talladega: ‘We had a chance and came up short’

History will have to wait another year, as Jimmie Johnson failed to advance out of the second round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

A six-time NASCAR Cup champion, Johnson would have tied Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt with seven titles. But Johnson couldn’t deliver a win when he needed it the most, finishing 24th Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.

“Disappointed we didn’t advance,” Johnson said. “But truthfully the way the last two races went, today was an opportunity for us, and we were kind of playing with house money and just didn’t get it done.

“We qualified second and ran up front all day. And it’s so hard to win one of these races. You can’t come in here and say you’re doing to dominate Talladega and win the race. We dominated it. We just didn’t lead the lap that counted.”

Although consecutive poor finishes at Kansas Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway placed Johnson in a sizeable points hole, a victory would have transferred him to the third round of the Chase.

Facing a must-win scenario at Talladega, Johnson nearly pulled off the feat. He was dominant, leading a race-high 84 laps while continually fending off challengers with bold moves that saw him swoop back-and-forth between the top and bottom grooves.

But Johnson faded in the closing stages, when he was unable to complete a pass of Brad Keselowski for the lead. Without a drafting partner Johnson dropped down the running order, and with it, his playoff hopes vanished.

“I tried going to (Keselowski’s) outside,” Johnson said. “I looked up and I had no friends in the mirror. If I had known we were going to have a second green-white-checkered (overtime finish), I would have stayed in line. That would have shuffled the order around and I wouldn’t have been behind him, and maybe we would have had another shot at it.”

Johnson refused to lament Sunday’s lost opportunity. He attributed his early Chase exit to mediocre stretch of races, which included substandard finishes at Kansas and Charlotte.

Prior to Talladega, Johnson hadn’t led a single lap since Aug. 17 at Michigan International Speedway and his last victory came in June. That dip in performance has been the source of much consternation between Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus.

“Today I went down swinging, and I take pride in that,” Johnson said. “Am I disappointed in our Chase? Absolutely. In the last two weeks, people have tuned on the radio and there have been plenty of articles have been written this week. Frustration was high between Chad and I and the fact that we haven’t been able to produce like we wanted to.

“Today we went down swinging. We had a chance and came up short.”