Johnson bumps and runs to Cup victory

LOUDON, N.H. - Don't make Jimmie Johnson angry.

You wouldn't like him when he's angry.

Kurt Busch did that Sunday when he bumped Johnson out of the lead with seven of 301 laps left in the Lenox Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

All Busch got out of it was a return hit on his bumper as Johnson rallied to retake the lead with two laps left and held off Tony Stewart for his fifth Sprint Cup Series win of the season.

"I knew what my thought process was: 'Wreck (him),'" Johnson said of his mindset in the final laps. "The end result was like: You can't do that, you'll wreck yourself; you'll look like a fool.

"He didn't wreck me and at the end of the day, I guess I didn't owe him a visit to the fence, so it worked itself out."

It certainly worked to Johnson's advantage.

He started the season with three wins in the first five races and appeared well on his way to a fifth consecutive series championship.

But Johnson and his No.48 team stumbled just as Denny Hamlin's soared and until last week, Hamlin led Johnson five wins to three.

Johnson rebounded with an unexpected road-course win last week and held his temper in check Sunday long enough after a late-race bump to claim victory No.5.

"I don't think we really went anywhere," Johnson said. "You know, there are certain tracks that we're looking for a little speed at and that's just the way it always goes. It was easy to overreact because we had some poor finishes and that was due to over-aggression.

"I need to drive the car to its ability, give (crew chief Chad Knaus) and the guys a chance to work on it, bring the car home in one piece."

What perplexed Johnson and Knaus the most after Sunday's race was trying to discover the true intent of Busch's actions.

In describing the incident, Busch said, "The thought was 10 points winning would look a lot better stacked in our deck than his chip count.

"Driving down into Turn3, I saw my window, and it was a perfect time to go for it, because our car was good on the short run."

For all intents and purposes it seemed Busch's actions were intentional. Busch also said he didn't believe Johnson would retaliate.

If so, that will not sit well with Johnson.

"I hate that he felt I wasn't going to wreck him because that was my goal, to wreck him," Johnson said. "I don't want people to think, 'Oh, I can knock the No.48 out of the way because he's not going to wreck me.'

"That's the last thing I want people to think."

Much like last weekend at Sonoma, Calif., Johnson was hardly the most dominant car at New Hampshire. He was fast in practices Saturday and qualified 10th, but he led only nine laps in the race.

Kasey Kahne led the most laps (110) but his engine blew on Lap 236, cutting his day short.

Jeff Burton took control late, but when a caution came out on Lap283 for a wreck involving Juan Pablo Montoya and Reed Sorenson, Burton elected to remain on the track while all of the other lead-lap cars pitted for new tires.

On the restart on Lap 288, Johnson - on two new tires - passed Burton for the lead in the first turn.

After that, it was only Busch's bump-and-run that stood between Johnson and his 52nd career win.

With Johnson back on track - or perhaps he was never off-track - Knaus insists the team still has plenty of room to improve.

"We had a good race car but I think he can be much, much better when we come back (in September)," he said. "We are always experimenting and trying to improve.

"Have we caught the (Joe) Gibbs (Racing) cars? I don't know that we ever lost touch with them.

"Are were trying to improve our product? Absolutely."