Johnson Salvages Ho-Hum Season With Strong Win

BY ESPN

Just like that, Jimmie Johnson has a seventh championship within reach.

Johnson salvaged a ho-hum season with a strong win Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway that moves him into the third round of the playoffs. The elimination format had not been good to the six-time champion since its 2014 inception: He was eliminated in the second round of the inaugural year, then bounced out of the first round last season.

Johnson snapped a career-worst 24-race losing streak while winning for the first time since March.

"I just knew it was taking way too long," he said of the drought.

He has quietly turned it up through the first round of the Chase and became an official title contender on Sunday, a day in which nearly half the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship field had trouble.

Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick both had engine issues. Austin Dillon and Chase Elliott were in crashes. Joey Logano had tire problems, and Martin Truex Jr. had an electrical issue as he left pit road after the final pit stop.

Five Chase drivers finished lower than 30th, and Harvick, the 2014 champion, is last in the standings.

Johnson, meanwhile, has a record eighth victory at Charlotte and a spot in the round of eight drivers. He doesn't have to worry about tire trouble, mechanical breakdowns or a wild ride at Talladega Superspeedway in the elimination race later this month. Johnson is through to the third round, and many of the top names are in trouble.

Hamlin was running second when his engine blew with 25 laps remaining. As the cars left pit road, Truex seemed poised to restart in second, but he appeared to stall and instead restarted 16th.

Although Truex salvaged his day and finished 13th -- lowest of the Chase drivers still running at the end of the race -- Hamlin wound up 30th.

Dillon was 32nd, Elliott 33rd, Logano 36th and Harvick 38th.

Logano Claims Xfinity Series

Joey Logano turned what could have been an awful 800 miles of racing into two small victories, one that earned him a trophy, the other a breather in the championship standings.

A tire problem in the Hurricane Matthew-postponed opening race of the second round of the Chase cut Logano's day short by 120 miles. His 36th-place finish in the Sprint Cup race on Sunday would have been horrific for his championship chances if not for problems to nearly half the title-contenders.

With a rare reprieve in the more important championship race, he turned his attention to the Xfinity Series race. It was the final race in the opening round of this series' inaugural Chase, and Cup star Logano came away with the win. Four drivers were eliminated from the Xfinity Series' playoffs, among them Ty Dillon, who came up a point short of advancing.

"That was a good recovery from the first part of my day," Logano said after the Xfinity Series win. "I feel a lot better than I did about three or four hours ago."

The race had been dominated by Kyle Larson until a late restart gave Logano the chance to get by him. Larson led 165 of the 200 laps and at one point had lapped all but one car in the field.