Johnson’s victory marred by tragedy
MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Jimmie Johnson’s celebration of his series-high sixth victory of the season was cut short Sunday when he learned that a Hendrick Motorsports plane had crashed on its way to the race, killing all 10 people aboard.
Shortly after the Subway 500, Johnson and Hendrick teammates Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte and Brian Vickers received word of the crash.
Eight passengers and two pilots died in the crash, a spokesman with the National Transportation Safety Board said. State police said the dead included the son and brother of Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick, two of his nieces, the company’s chief engine builder and five others.
Johnson did a burnout on the front stretch in front of the fans after winning. Upon learning that the plane was missing, several members of the Hendrick teams gathered on pit road and huddled together.
NASCAR officials learned of the crash during the race at Martinsville Speedway, but waited until it was over before telling the Hendrick drivers or race fans. The Victory Lane celebration was canceled after the news was announced.
In the race, Johnson pulled away from Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman on a restart with seven laps to go to climb four spots in the season-ending title chase, but another solid performance by Kurt Busch moved him one step closer to winning NASCAR’s first playoff championship.
“You’ve got to step up to the plate and race hard in each of these final 10 races,” Busch said after finishing fifth, his sixth top-six run in as many races since the playoff started. “We had a regular season and now we have a playoff and right now we haven’t had a bad finish.”
While Busch led a race-high 120 laps, leading contenders Jeff Gordon struggled and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was never a factor, allowing Busch to build his lead to 96 points over Gordon and 125 over Earnhardt.
Johnson is 207 points behind.
Earnhardt started the day just 24 points off the lead.
“We didn’t really need this,” Earnhardt said.
Gordon, seeking his fifth championship, started the day 74 points behind and gave his second straight dazzling show of driving, overcoming a car that ran in the mid-20s most of the day with strategy. He stayed on the track under a caution with about 150 laps to get track position, then remained in the top 10 the rest of the way and finished ninth.
Formula One
Juan Pablo Montoya won in his final race for Williams-BMW, beating future McLaren teammate Kimi Raikkonen to capture the Brazilian Grand Prix at Sao Paulo, Brazil.
In the last race of the season, native son Rubens Barrichello started from the pole for the second straight year and led early, but finished third in his best performance in 12 attempts at Interlagos.
Barrichello’s Ferrari teammate, Michael Schumacher, took seventh place.
The victory was Montoya’s fourth in his Formula One career and first since the 2003 German Grand Prix.
Champ Car
Bruno Junqueira won the Lexmark Indy 300 at Surfers Paradise, Australia, meaning Newman/Haas teammate Sebastien Bourdais will take a 22-point lead over Junqueira into the season-ending race Nov. 7 in Mexico City.
The Frenchman came into the race with a 28-point lead over Junqueira, and needed only to pick up seven points more than his teammate to clinch the title. But Junqueira earned 31 points en route to his second victory of the season and two more for posting the fastest lap during the race and for leading a lap at the 2.795-mile temporary street circuit.