FONTANA, Calif. – In a surprising move, the Hendrick Motorsports crew of Jimmie Johnson decided to forgo Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying after the team pulled out a backup car following a spin in the opening practice session on Friday at Auto Club (Calif.) Speedway.
Johnson, the reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion was on a mock qualifying run when he lost control of his No. 48 Lowes Chevrolet in the exit of Turn 4. Johnson attempted to save his car, but he came across the infield grass which disintegrated his front splitter on the nose of his car.
“We had a tough practice session and mid-pack was probably going to be our goal anyway,” said Johnson. “So, to take our lumps here, at a track that’s really wide with a lot of lanes, a long race; we’ll just take our lumps and get the car right where we can take advantage of the precious minutes that we have in Saturday’s practice session and go from there. Pit road is going to be a problem. We’re not going to have a great pick there. We’re definitely not in a position we want to be in, so we’d rather take the time now and make sure we get everything right and get this car right; and also kind of control our risk factor.
“If I was to tear this car up again in qualifying, we’d be heading next door to the No. 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr., for example) to pull out their back up car. Put a wrap on it. Change the seat and interior and a lot of other things. So, we just felt like it would be best to get everything right and just get prepared for tomorrow and start at the tail end. I think my record shows that I can make up plenty of spots and pass plenty of cars and we’ll just make it exciting coming from the back.”
Before the incident, Johnson, the defending champion of the Auto Club 400 timed in 24th fastest overall.
“It’s not the way we wanted to start the weekend. But, the only way we’re going to get better without testing is just to keep trying harder in practice and swing harder. We know we got the race-side in a respectable spot but just need to start better on Fridays.”
Johnson described while the damage looked minimal, upon further review there was more damage done then first thought.
“In order to get the car right for the tolerances and inspection, there was just no way,” added Johnson.
“The right front splitter structure and the whole nose structure was folded under probably a good half-inch, or three-quarters of an inch. It didn’t look too bad from the outside, but once you lifted the hood and looked inside, the ductwork was kind of blown out of it and the inlet for the brake ducts and all of that. So, there was enough damage that it was best to bring the backup out. I just lost it. The turn into Turn 3 landed, the car was pretty loose there in general.
“You, as a driver, may tighten it up and you pull your seatbelts tight and just pray for the best. And I shot it off in there in Q-trim and just rotated around on me. I, unfortunately, was in the gas pretty hard trying to stay out of the outside wall and drove the car back down into the grass indirectly. And looking back on it, I should have just locked them down and I could have stayed out of the grass and we wouldn’t be in this position.”
Despite the damage to the team’s primary car, crew chief Chad Knaus elected to use their backup car rather than repair the primary, but the team was unable to get the car back on track before the first and only Cup practice session schedule for Friday ended.
As a result, Knaus said the team will not participate in time trials. Johnson will start 37th in Sunday’s Auto Club 400 based on his car owner points earned thus far in 2017.
“Unfortunately, we crashed the Lowe’s Chevrolet in practice today,” Knaus said. “We crashed on our third run and had to pull out the backup car and didn’t get back out on the track. I just felt it was wiser to get the car prepared correctly rather than qualify poorly. I wasn’t comfortable putting Jimmie in a position where he would have to hustle a car that he hasn’t turned a lap in yet.
“We are all the way out here on the west coast, and brought two race cars. If we were to crash this car, we would have to pull a car from a teammate and it would be a very difficult obstacle to overcome. We want to be prepared to put the best racecar on the track for our driver, Lowe’s, Chevrolet and all of our sponsors. So, we are going to take the time to do that by working on it this afternoon.”
Johnson stood by Knaus’ decision.
“Yeah, I mean it’s kind of the only good thing we have left going for us,” Johnson said of the decision to forgo qualifying. “Let’s just get this car right, also manage our risks, in qualifying you are on the edge trying to create speed. If we crash this car, I’m going to have to go to one of my neighbors, one of my Hendrick neighbors here and pull out their back-up car and we are going to have to wrap it, change the interior, change the seat.
“I mean it’s not easy feat. So, we are definitely behind the eight ball here. It’s not a position we want to be in and we are going to make sure we get the back-up car right and take advantage of the precious minutes that we have in tomorrow’s race practices.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
