Jimmie Johnson wins 2016 Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway

A decisive strategy call and a superb restart propelled Jimmie Johnson into a tie with the Dale Earnhardt for seventh all-time on NASCAR’s career wins list by taking Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The victory was Johnson’s 76th premier division, second in a row at Atlanta and fifth overall at the Georgia track. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second, Kyle Busch finished third, Kurt Busch fourth and Carl Edwards fifth.

On his celebratory lap, Johnson held three fingers in the air paying tribute to Earnhardt’s iconic car number.

“It’s such an honor,” Johnson said. “I had to come by and throw a 3 out the window to pay my respects to the man. There’s a huge void in my career that I never had a chance to race with him, but at least I was able to tie his record.”

Earnhardt Jr. said his late father would have admired Johnson as a competitor, but would have hated racing against him. Johnson, a six-time champion, is the only driver in history to win five consecutive titles and a seventh would tie the all-time mark shared by Earnhardt Sr. and Richard Petty.

“Knowing dad and knowing Jimmie’s character, they would have gotten along tremendously and dad would have thought the world of him,” Earnhardt Jr. said. ”... How can you not like Jimmie? He’s just a good guy that never stepped over the line with anything he’s ever said or anything he’s ever did, so I think it’s awesome to praise him.

“I’m glad if he’s going to win and tie that record, I’m certainly glad that I got to run second.”

Harvick led a led a race-high 131 laps and was second to Johnson on an overtime restart, but spun his tires and was unable to get going, allowing Johnson to pull ahead on the white flag lap. Harvick slid to finish sixth. Martin Truex Jr., rookie Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completed the top 10.

Johnson seized control of the race from Harvick when crew chief Chad Knaus short-pitted Johnson with less than 50 laps remaining, which vaulted him into the lead when Harvick pitted and had a slower stop a few laps later. When Harvick returned to the track he was 13 seconds behind Johnson and could not overcome the deficit.

“Definitely a gutsy call, it was just a great team effort,” Johnson said. “The No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) car was awfully tough and it was going to take some strategy to get by him. When (Knaus) told me to whip it as hard as I could there, I just felt like I was going to take too much life out of the tires. But, it worked.”

As intended, the season-debut of the low downforce aerodynamic rules package produced a stimulating event featuring increased side-by-side racing and tire wear, emphasizing drive skill in wrestling ill-handling cars.

Many drivers lauded the package post-race. Earnhardt Jr. called it a “throwback,” something reminiscent from NASCAR’s heyday in the 1980s and ‘90s.

“I loved it,” Earnhardt said. “We were sliding around and driving the hell out of the car. I had a blast. Man, it was so much fun.”

The opening 209 laps were run caution-free. Three yellow flags for 13 laps slowed the proceedings.