Jimmie Johnson's All-Star Race strategy didn't work as planned
Jimmie Johnson started on pole for the third and final segment of Saturday night's Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Johnson finished 12th in the Segment No. 2, and after a random draw determined the top-11 cars had to come down pit road for a mandatory four-tire stop, he assumed the top spot for the final 13-lap dash for $1 million.
But, old tires on his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet proved to be no match against those with new ones.
"Those guys just came so fast," Johnson said after getting passed in Turn 1 on the restart. "I felt like they way that everything has gone, if I could have got the lead and got a lap or two under my belt and maintained it, I could have kept it. When they came by us on new tires, they came by us in a damn hurry."
Johnson thought he might have had a better shot to maintain the lead if there was more of a cushion between him and those who made stops.
"It would have been nice to have a lap or two, so maybe third row -- fourth row," Johnson said. "I think I would have had a better chance if I would have cleared Kyle (Larson) and got down in front of him at the bottom of (Turns) 1 and 2. We kind of fought for space into Turn 1, and neither of us ran the corner flat. By the time we got to Turn 2, they were on both sides of me just blowing by me."
As it turns out, the plan from the start was for Johnson to stay below 11th-place at the end of the second segment.
"That was the strategy all along," said Johnson "We thought that was really going to be it. That was the plan, it just didn't work."
The strategy also struck Johnson as kind of odd.
"It's definitely different," Johnson added. "I guess if they didn't have the big pileup on the frontstretch, it would have played a little better into our strategy. But with them lining up second row on new tires, it wasn't was the best thing for us."
