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Daytona 500

Burdened by his bad rap as a wild restrictor-plate driver, and with his crew chief banned from the race for cheating, Jimmie Johnson flew under the radar for most of Sunday’s Daytona 500.

Then at the end he soared out of nowhere, unleashed the strongest car in the field, and won.

But after he’d held off Ryan Newman and Casey Mears in a 7.5-mile overtime caused by a late caution, Johnson had to fight of a long drafting line of reporters who hammered him as to whether this win was tainted.

“Not at all,” Johnson said. “This is the opposite of that. If you think about what we overcame, and the pressure that’s on any team in any sport if they’re faced with something like this, this is a huge, huge statement.”

This was the NASCAR equivalent of an NFL team winning the Super Bowl without its head coach.

Crew chief Chad Knaus had been ejected from Daytona International Speedway a week ago after their Chevrolet failed inspection after qualifying. Johnson’s time trial was disallowed. NASCAR allowed the same car to return to racing, but only after the infraction–a mechanism that changed the rear window angle and improved aerodynamics–was corrected.

Chief engineer Darian Grubb replaced Knaus as the boss in the pits.

“Chad broke the rules; he’s admitted that,” Johnson said. “He was in Charlotte watching the race today. We’re serving our penalty. And we stepped up today and won the biggest race in our sport. And it’s something I’m very proud of.”

He did it by changing his driving strategy for plate racing. Last year he had drawn fire from Dale Earnhardt Jr. and others for recklessness. This time he went conservative and lay back in the field until the crucial time, the final 20 laps.

“I’ve been aggressive before and made some mistakes that caused wrecks,” Johnson said. “Today I just wanted to sit and ride and take care of things.”

Then with 13 laps left in the regulation 200, Johnson passed Newman for the lead just before a caution came out, and stayed out front the rest of the way.

Newman mounted the only challenge–and it was nominal–to Johnson on the last lap of overtime, and made another run at Johnson’s team, verbally, after the race.

“I think a lot of Jimmie Johnson and his talent, but I’m pretty sure at least three out of his last four wins . . . have had [issues] with the cars being illegal. It’s not necessarily good for the sport.”

Told of Newman’s remarks, Johnson shot back, “I kind of view it as jealousy–he didn’t have a crew chief working as hard to make his car as good. . . . I’m disappointed that Ryan’s got to make statements and try to tarnish what we’ve done.”

Just after the white flag signaling one lap to go in overtime, Newman pulled out trying to pass for the lead, hoping fellow Dodge driver Mears would go with him and give an aerodynamic shove.

But Mears was being challenged from behind by Elliott Sadler and had to stay inside–directly behind Johnson–and wound up giving Johnson the help.

“I knew Ryan was going to try to get a run on me,” Johnson said. “When he went up to the top [of the track], I stayed committed to the bottom and then I saw one of my friends from off-road racing, Casey Mears, behind me. And I knew at that point I was in good shape.”

“I’d signaled Newman that I would go with him,” said Mears, nephew of four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears. “But by the time he pulled out [to pass], the 38 (Sadler) had a strong run on me, and I had to stay inside or else I’d get freight-trained.”

Mears wound up second, Newman third and Sadler fourth.

The highly anticipated duel between Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart did materialize, but much earlier than expected–only about a quarter of the way through the race–and both suffered from it.

Battling for the lead, Gordon slid up and clipped Stewart as he tried to pass on Lap 48, and both their Chevys scraped the wall and had to pit for extensive repairs under caution.

Stewart came back strong, but Gordon’s troubles doubled with a transmission problem.

Then Stewart’s notorious temper did him in. He intentionally wrecked Matt Kenseth just past the halfway point, and both were penalized for aggressive driving.

Stewart was sent to the back of the field and Kenseth ordered to pass through the pits, losing precious time.

“Tony took me out intentionally–no two ways about that,” Kenseth said.

“Tony’s worried about people’s lives (he’d spoken out last week about the dangers of bump-drafting), and now he’s gonna wreck you on purpose at 190 [m.p.h.].”

Stewart by no means denied his intent to retaliate for what he considered an earlier offense by Kenseth.

“I guess Matt didn’t think anything when he got me sideways over in [Turn] 2, either,” Stewart said.

Stewart’s car was battered just enough that he had to struggle back up through the field to finish fifth. Gordon was 26th.

Before the race, Johnson read a faxed statement from Knaus to the crewmen.

“It was something to get them fired up for the race,” said Johnson, who quoted Kraus’ letter: “`I believe in you guys; I’ve trained you well; do your jobs today.’

“And everybody did.”

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Daytona results

C–Chevrolet; D–Dodge; F–Ford; P–place; S–start

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P S DRIVER C LAP EARNING

1 9 Jimmie Johnson C 203 1,505,124

2 14 Casey Mears D 203 1,095,766

3 18 Ryan Newman D 203 796,116

4 3 Elliott Sadler F 203 684,076

5 15 Tony Stewart C 203 537,944

6 37 Clint Bowyer C 203 411,683

7 35 Brian Vickers C 203 347,583

8 7 Dale Earnhardt Jr. C 203 377,694

9 23 Ken Schrader F 203 328,897

10 25 Dale Jarrett F 203 326,983

11 27 Kasey Kahne D 203 307,347

12 10 Mark Martin F 203 292,383

13 20 Robby Gordon C 203 269,558

14 28 Kevin Harvick C 203 302,244

15 11 Matt Kenseth F 203 302,549

16 19 Martin Truex Jr. C 203 297,816

17 43 Terry Labonte C 203 268,558

18 30 Michael Waltrip D 203 274,241

19 33 Bill Elliott C 203 257,758

20 42 Kirk Shelmerdine C 203 272,008

21 29 Brent Sherman D 203 274,766

22 34 Dave Blaney D 203 271,241

23 4 Kyle Busch C 203 281,833

24 24 Mike Wallace D 203 266,533

25 31 Kevin Lepage F 203 254,683

26 2 Jeff Gordon C 203 334,879

27 40 Travis Kvapil C 203 265,455

28 32 David Stremme D 203 263,358

29 22 Reed Sorenson D 203 262,908

30 17 Denny Hamlin C 203 254,833

31 16 Greg Biffle F 203 258,758

32 1 Jeff Burton C 202 302,603

33 38 Joe Nemechek C 200 279,453

34 39 Sterling Marlin C 200 248,713

35 8 Bobby Labonte-a D 197 294,674

36 26 Jeremy Mayfield D 197 278,049

37 6 J. McMurray-a F 196 287,183

38 13 Kurt Busch-a D 187 280,366

39 12 Kyle Petty D 173 256,833

40 41 Hermie Sadler-b F 169 245,633

41 36 J.J. Yeley C 157 279,833

42 21 Jeff Green C 156 253,153

43 5 Carl Edwards-a F 78 269,882

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a-accident; b-engine failure

Cautions: 11 for 39 laps

Winner’s avg. speed: 142.667 m.p.h.

Time: 3:33.26

Lead changes: 32 among 18 drivers; Burton 1-18; E.Sadler 19-23; Gordon 24; Kenseth 25-26, 58-80, 83-84, 91; Earnhardt Jr. 27, 86-90, 92-103, 109-112, 114-115, 142-143, 158-163; Stewart 28-47; McMurray 48; Newman 49-57, 164-177; Ku. Busch 81; Kvapil 82; Harvick 85; Martin 104-107, 127-141; Johnson 108, 121-125, 156, 187-203; Biffle 113; Ky. Busch 116-120; Elliott 126; Vickers 144-155, 178-186; Lepage 157

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ehinton@tribune.com