Drama in Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Cheater or champion? Such is the stigma Jimmie Johnson still had to bear after winning his first Daytona 500 just 10 days after his crew chief was kicked out for illegally altering his car.

Johnson won a two-lap shootout Sunday to claim the victory, capping a roller-coaster week that saw NASCAR send Chad Knaus home after he cheated during qualifying.

Just moments after Johnson crossed the finish line, his rivals were wondering if the win was legitimate.

“This could still be the first opportunity for NASCAR to pull away a victory if the thing is illegal,” third-place finisher Ryan Newman said. “It’s disappointing. I think a lot of Jimmie Johnson and his talent, but I’m pretty sure at least three of his last four wins have had conflictions with the cars being illegal.

“You know, it’s not necessarily good for the sport.”

After a three-plus hour inspection, NASCAR finally cleared Johnson’s car. It doesn’t change the perception of his team, but Johnson thinks it’s overblown.

“This is a huge statement and something that I’m very proud of,” he said with a bottle of champagne sitting on his lap. “We know that there are rules, a set of rules. Chad broke the rules. He’s admitted that. He’s in Charlotte watching the race. He missed the event. We’re serving our penalty.”

There’s probably more to come. Johnson has indicated that the team expects NASCAR to suspend Knaus an additional three races. The team will probably also be docked points, knocking Johnson off the leaderboard.

The team has a history of misdeeds and questionable conduct.

NASCAR accused Knaus of cheating following Johnson’s win in Las Vegas last March when his car failed post-race inspection. Knaus was suspended for two races, but appealed and had the penalty reduced to probation.

Then, following a September win Dover, Del., the No. 48 Chevrolet again failed inspection. Only this time NASCAR said Knaus had exploited a loophole in the rule book, and the sanctioning body quickly closed it.

So with Knaus out of commission for the foreseeable future and lead engineer Darian Grubb acting as temporary head coach, the Hendrick Motorsports team will try to work its way out from the dark shadow the crew chief’s actions have cast on them.

Johnson took the first step by scoring the biggest win of his career, then deflecting Newman’s criticism.

“There’s been a lot of hating on the 48 team over the last year,” Johnson said. “I kind of look at is jealousy, and (Newman) doesn’t have a crew chief in there working hard enough to get the job done.”

Johnson’s latest troubles started shortly after he posted the fifth-fastest time in trials and his car went through post-race inspection. NASCAR said it discovered a blatant attempt at cheating when it found an alteration that had been made after the car passed an initial inspection.

Knaus was kicked off the property, his motor home removed from the lot. And although Johnson claimed Knaus was back in North Carolina, competitors wondered if the crew chief wasn’t hiding somewhere inside Daytona International Speedway and communicating with the team via cell phone.

It probably didn’t matte,r because Johnson was intent on winning The Great American Race on his fifth try.

“I knew deep down inside my heart that this team could still win,” he said. “There’s no doubt that not having Chad here was a huge handicap, but everybody stepped up. I am just so proud of this team.”

Johnson stayed calm and avoided trouble in a wild race that saw Tony Stewart eliminate three contenders: Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth and himself. Then Johnson worked his way to the front, staying in line and waiting for his chance to pounce.

It came with 14 laps to go when he squeezed past teammate Brian Vickers to grab the lead just as a caution came out. Johnson was at the front of the field on the restart, the lead driver in a single-file pack of cars sprinting toward the end.

From his rearview window he could see Dale Earnhardt Jr. slicing his way through the field, making a last, desperate push to mark the five-year anniversary of his Dad’s death with a win at the track where he died.

But Jamie McMurray wrecked with seven laps to go to bring out one final caution. It set up an overtime finish, but no one was able to challenge Johnson.

Earnhardt was the first driver to pull out of line and make a run at Johnson, but got no drafting help and had zero chance of catching him. Then Newman took his shot. But just like Junior, he didn’t get any assistance and could only squeeze back into place.

There were no more challenges to Johnson, who won when a final accident brought out the caution and allowed him to cross the finish line under a yellow flag.

Casey Mears, part of the three-man team that won the 24 Hours of Daytona sports car race earlier this month, was second, and Newman, who was trying to give Roger Penske his first Daytona win in 33 tries, finished third.

Stewart was fifth, rookie Clint Bowyer was sixth and Vickers was seventh. Earnhardt wound up eighth after leading a race-high 32 laps. Ken Schrader and Dale Jarrett rounded out the top 10.

Johnson stayed under the radar – and away from Stewart – to pull out the victory.

Earlier this week, Stewart forced NASCAR to crack down on bump drafting and aggressive driving when he warned that someone could be killed in the 500.

Then he became the first Cup driver to be penalized under the new watchdog policy.

He began his day by hitting Gordon – a heavy favorite to win a second straight 500 – early in the race to eliminate him from contention.

Then Stewart took out a second potential winner when he made a hard left turn into Kenseth.

It wasn’t clear if Stewart’s contact was intentional, but it severely damaged Kenseth’s car and NASCAR quickly penalized Stewart by ordering him to the back of the field. The punishment dropped him from fifth to 34th.