On a day when several championship contenders experienced setbacks, Jimmie Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports team executed flawlessly to win Sunday’s rescheduled Sprint Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
NASCAR Charlotte 2016 results: Jimmie Johnson wins Bank of America 500
Johnson rolls in wild playoff race, advances to semifinal of Chase.
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Johnson was the only one of 12 Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff drivers not to have an issue of some sort, whether on the track or on pit road. Leading a race-high 155 laps, the six-time series champion was never seriously challenged and outran second-place finisher Matt Kenseth by nearly 1.5 seconds.
Kasey Kahne finished third, followed by Ryan Newman in fourth and Kyle Larson in fifth. Completing the top 10 were Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, and Jamie McMurray.
Charlotte was the first race of the Chase’s quarterfinal round, and Johnson’s victory guarantees he’ll transfer to Round 3. He’s never made it past the second bracket since NASCAR went to a knockout playoff format prior to the 2014 season.
Not as comfortable as Johnson are the 11 other Chasers, all of whom dealt with an array of problems on Sunday. Kenseth and Keselowski were penalized for infractions on pit road. Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., and Kevin Harvick suffered mechanical failures, while Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott, Carl Edwards, and Joey Logano sustained varying degrees of damage in assorted accidents.
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