CONCORD, N.C. -- Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway, the four Hendrick Motorsports drivers all finished inside the top 15, led by Jimmie Johnson's seventh-place result.
RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY
Inclement weather caused the race at Bristol Motor Speedway to span two days when the event was halted due to rain after 48 laps were completed Saturday evening.
But the final red flag for weather affected Johnson and the No. 48 team the most.
“We were up to third before the red (flag) came," he said. "Our car just wasn’t good on a green race track. It didn’t matter if it was the start of the weekend, the start of the race after the red flag for the rain -- when the jet dryers came out and blew all the rubber off, we just couldn’t go."
The final red flag came with a little more than 50 laps remaining on Sunday, and though he restarted third when the race went green again, Johnson fell outside of the top five.
"Our car was super fast about 30, 40 laps into a run," Johnson explained. "Unfortunately, we lost some track position on that final restart and just kind of sailed home for seventh there at the end. Certainly overcame a lot this weekend, so that does feel good. Just wished we would have finished a little better.”
GORDON GOT LOOSE
Jeff Gordon had made his way to the runner-up position on Lap 165, but four laps later, the No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet SS got loose and nearly made contact with the wall.
"I went up top too early on that restart," Gordon explained. "I felt the pressure from Kyle (Busch) and those guys behind me they were a little bit better than me on that short run there. I was trying to make something happen and I moved up and just didn’t work."
Gordon was able to recover, but the incident pushed him back outside of the top 15.
"I got too high and got loose and lost a bunch of positions," he said. "We fought back a little bit, but after that I don’t know if it was track position or just the way the track went, we just never quite had a handle on it.”
He continued his push toward the top 10 for the remainder of the race and ultimately finished 11th.