Updated Oct. 13
It appeared to be the perfect set-up for another victory for Jimmie Johnson.
Second on a restart with 32 laps to go ... against a leader on old tires ... at Lowe's Motor Speedway ... during the Chase.
In that scenario, my money is on Johnson every time.
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| Burton, with his wife, Kim, live it up after Saturday's win. (Getty Images) |
And Johnson's late season dominance over the years has been well documented with 12 victories in 44 Chase races (Greg Biffle is next best with six) before Saturday night. None of that mattered much to Jeff Burton. The old-school veteran hung tough, staving off the two-time Cup champion and cruising to his second victory of the year.
"We didn't come here to race Jimmie Johnson," a defiant Burton said. "We came here to try to beat 42 other guys. Jimmie Johnson and that team are the point leaders, and they certainly set the bar pretty high. But we didn't come here to focus on them.
"We understand that we've got to beat them. But the only way we can beat them is for us to pay attention what we're doing. It's more rewarding internally for what we've accomplished rather than the feeling we get for knocking them off their perch."
Johnson not only failed to win, but he faded out of the top five. He still managed a sixth-place finish, which is great for most, but not this driver ... at this track ... at this time of the year.
"I was certainly frustrated slipping back through the field," Johnson said. "You don't know how important those points are going to be till the end of the year. Watching each guy go by, counting them as they go by, is no fun."
So did we witness some chinks showing in the No. 48 team's armor or was it a mere hiccup?
"Had to take a lot of chances today to get the result that we did," said Johnson, who entered the race with a 72-point lead over Carl Edwards and left 69 ahead of Burton.
"I don't like putting myself in that situation. Almost lost the car a handful of times. So that frustration of being on pins and needles out there, trying to run as hard as you can, watching positions slip by and things like that, all just keeps adding up.
"It will take a little while to get it out of my system."
Power Rankings after Lowe's:
| POWER RANKINGS | ||
| Current | Driver | Previous |
| 1 | Tony Stewart | 1 |
| It's only fitting that he won the race after hogging the lead most of the night. | ||
| 2 | Jeff Gordon | 2 |
| He was having issues with blistering tires before getting tangled up in the big mid-race wreck. | ||
| 3 | Jimmie Johnson | 3 |
| Earns his first top five and just his second top 10 in seven races at Daytona since winning the Daytona 500 in 2006. | ||
| 4 | Kurt Busch | 4 |
| Continues to knock on the door for a win at a restrictor-plate track. He has finished fourth or better in four of his past five trips to Daytona. | ||
| 5 | Carl Edwards | 6 |
| No doubt he was having flashbacks to Talladega. "It was a crazy, crazy finish," Edwards said. "I thought I wanted to be up there racing with those guys, then I saw that [Kyle Busch wrecking] and I was just fine with where I was at." | ||
| 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 7 |
| He now has eight top 10s on the season with five coming in the past seven races. | ||
| 7 | Denny Hamlin | 11 |
| He and Stewart were the class of the field. But with Stewart snagging the win, Hamlin had to settle for his third top-five finish in the past four races. | ||
| 8 | Mark Martin | 5 |
| Since picking up his third win of the year back at Michigan, Martin has followed with finishes of 35th, 14th and 38th. | ||
| 9 | Ryan Newman | 8 |
| He has hit a little bump in the road with four consecutive finishes of 17th or worse. | ||
| 10 | Kyle Busch | 10 |
| Wreck in the last lap left him with his fifth finish outside the top 10 in the past six races. | ||
| 11 | Greg Biffle | 9 |
| Never a factor at any point, spending just 14 laps in the top 15 all night. | ||
| 12 | Kasey Kahne | 12 |
| The sensational image of his collision with Kyle Busch notwithstanding, Kahne was able to leave Daytona with a 15th-place finish and move up one spot to 12th in the standings. | ||
| 13 | David Reutimann | 13 |
| After starting at the rear of the field because of an engine change, he had managed to work his way into the top 15 before being collected in the mid-race big one. | ||
| 14 | Matt Kenseth | 14 |
| Gets a much-needed top 10 after four consecutive finishes of 16th or worse had him tumbling down the standings. | ||
| 15 | Clint Bowyer | 15 |
| He had just joined the top 10 when he became a victim of the mid-race carnage. | ||
