NASCAR Texas Motor Speedway results: Jimmie Johnson wins O’Reilly Auto Parts 500

Shaking off an early season slump Jimmie Johnson scored his first win of the season on Sunday, capturing the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Johnson, the defending Monster Energy Cup Series champion, passed Joey Logano for the lead with 16 laps remaining, then never looked back. Kyle Larson finished second for the fourth time in seven races this season, with Logano third, Kevin Harvick fourth, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. fifth.

The victory was not only Johnson’s first in 2017, it also marked the first time he had finished better than ninth. This was the latest he had gone into a season without a top five.

Normally NASCAR’s standard-bearer, the seven-time Cup champion was hampered by a lack of execution, speed, and luck before breaking through at Texas for his seventh victory at the 1.5-mile track and 81st overall.

“I guess I remembered how to drive; and I guess this team remembered how to do it,” Johnsons said. “I’m just real proud of this team. What a tough track and tough conditions. We were really in our wheelhouse and we were just able to execute all day.”

After spinning in qualifying, Johnson had to change his flat-spotted tires and forfeit his 24th starting position and fall to the rear of the 40-car field. Once the green flag waved, however, he set about gradually working his way to front.

“Oh, probably on the second or third run I knew we were in good shape,” Johnson said. “From there, off we went. It was so tough those first 23 laps in traffic. The air was very turbulent, the track wasn’t very clean.”

Sunday was the first Cup race at Texas since the venue underwent a complete repave and changed the layout to Turns 1 and 2 that saw the banking decreased and that section widened.

The new configuration challenged drivers throughout the weekend. On Friday, Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Erik Jones were involved in separate incidents during opening practice, while Trevor Bayne crashed in final practice Saturday. But on Sunday, the track proved competitive and there wasn’t the level of carnage as expected, with just one of the eight cautions caused by an accident.

“I think the racing was better than it could have been,” Harvick said. “The track did a great job getting the race track ready. It could have been like it was all day Friday.”

Brad Keselowski finished sixth, followed by Jamie McMurray, Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott, and Kurt Busch.

Ryan Blaney dominated much of the afternoon, leading a race-high 148 laps and easily taking the first two stages. But the Wood Brothers Racing driver lost track position at the start of the decisive third stage and never recovered. Any chance of challenging for his first-career win was lost when he overshot his pit stall with 33 laps remaining. He finished 12th.

“We didn’t finish where we wanted to by a long shot, but the positives you look at was how good our car was and how our adjustments were today,” Blaney said. “The track changed a little bit, so we were able to stay on top of that while we were out front.

“But like I said, I don’t care if we lead just one lap as long as it’s the last one -- we can lead 300 something. But we just weren’t in position to have the right lap led today.”