Tire issues spoil a potential 1-2 finish for Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon at Fontana - MotorSportsTalk

Following Sunday’s Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson likely looked at each other and asked one another, “What the heck just happened?”

Starting from the pole, Johnson dominated by leading a race-high 104 of the event’s 206 laps (six additional than scheduled due to a green-white-checker situation) and appeared headed to a track record sixth win at Fontana.

Didn’t happen, though. Far from it, in fact.

Even though Johnson and Gordon were running 1-2 with 20 laps to go, that was far from where each would finish Sunday.

While in the lead with seven laps remaining, Johnson was among several drivers in the race that experienced a flat tire – and for Johnson, at the worst time possible – ultimately leaving him with a disappointing 24th-place finish, the last car on the lead lap, negating all the momentum he had earned throughout the race.

“Yeah, we did an awesome job as a race team,” Johnson said. “We did everything we could to win the race today, unfortunately something out of our control let us down.

“I had that feeling I thought we were going to win here at my home track once again and it’s just a bummer it didn’t work out.”

Gordon, meanwhile, led 23 laps, hung around the top 10 for most of the day, took over the lead when Johnson’s flat tire brought out the caution, but ultimately wound up 13th due to the race’s final restart, which quickly went from good to bad for him.

“The closing laps were pretty much a typical restart for me,” Gordon said. “I got the inside lane which was absolutely the worst lane for me.

“I got actually a decent restart and it just didn’t go well. I went to the inside of the No. 18 (Kyle Busch), he swerved left that put him in the middle, me on the bottom three- or four-wide and it just went downhill from there.”

NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said after the race that there didn’t appear to be a common thread in the failure of so many tires, and that the sanctioning body felt it was more an issue of overly aggressive setups on many of the cars in Sunday’s race rather than the Goodyear tires they rode upon.

But that didn’t stop Gordon from taking an uncharacteristic swipe at Goodyear.

“I don’t know where to begin with the disappointment for this Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet team,” Gordon said. “They gave me the most incredible race car today and it is just so disappointing for it to end like that.

“I hate the caution came out. I hate Goodyear was not prepared today for what happened. They are so good at what they do and that is just uncalled for. We were having a tire issue there on that last long run and I just backed off. When I saw the No. 48 had issues, I was just hoping we would make it to the end. I was just going as slow as I possibly could, trying to maintain the lead and cars were just blowing tires left and right all around me.

“It’s unfortunate that was happening, but most importantly that the caution came out because we did not need that restart.”

The other two Hendrick Motorsports drivers, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne, had respective respectable and terrible days, with Earnhardt finishing 12th, while Kahne finished a season-worst 41st.

Ever the optimist, Johnson tried to find a silver lining in what wound up being a grey day for his team Sunday.

“This No. 48 is fast and we will come back next week to a very strong race track for this Lowe’s Chevrolet and hopefully get the job done there.”

You can bet on that. For as good as Johnson has been at Auto Club Speedway coming into Sunday’s race (5 wins, 12 top-5 and 14 top-10 finishes in his first 19 career Cup starts there), he’s virtually unstoppable at Martinsville Speedway.

Johnson will make his 25th career Cup start at the half-mile, paper-clip shaped bullring in southern Virginia this coming Sunday. He’ll bring with him an amazing record of eight wins, 17 top-5 and 21 top-10 finishes.

Think about that for a second: Johnson has finished outside the top-10 at Martinsville just three times in his 24 starts there to date.

Let’s just hope his tires hold up this time.

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Jett Lawrence remains perfect in the Pro Motocross series after recording another perfect round at Hangtown in Rancho Cordova, California. In his second start on a 450, Lawrence won his second National with his fourth consecutive moto win. It is getting increasingly difficult to find the right superlatives to describe the exploits on the reigning 250 West Supercross champion.

“The track was so brutal out there,” Lawrence told NBC Sports Jason Thomas. “The bike handles amazing even when it’s not too friendly. You had to be really patient; you couldn’t take too much. I didn’t eat enough before that second moto. I kind of lost energy halfway through, but luckily I could use technique and balance and just keep that flow going.”

Lawrence leaves Hangtown with an 18-point advantage over Ferrandis in the 450 Motocross standings, but perhaps more importantly, he climbed to 19th in the SuperMotocross standings and should he stay there, he has an automatic invitation to the Main events in the SMX Championship.

“On this track, you just have to manage,” Lawrence continued. “If you try to take too much and not respect the track, it will bite you very quickly. It was humbling on the first few laps. I got kicked on the cutout at the start of the third section, the tabletop going to the left. I had to get my focus because the boys were coming.”

Still in his first few races since returning from a concussion suffered at Houston in the Supercross series, Dylan Ferrandis finished second with results of third in Moto 1 and second in Moto 2. While Ferrandis was happy with the result, he remains hopeful that he will contend for victory shortly.

“The first moto was very hard for my physically, Ferrandis said. “I got arm pump and when you get arm pump your body gets tired. But I’m very happy because we made a big change for the second moto. We tried stuff every session today and in the last moto the bike was much better, but unfortunately I wasn’t sure what I could do with this bike because the track was very hard and difficult to pass.”

RESULTS: How they finished in the 450 Overall at Hangtown

With the rash of injuries at the end of the Supercross season, the podium was filled with heartwarming stories. Cooper Webb returned to action last week in Pala and failed to make the podium. He is steadily improving with a third-place finish in Hangtown. after finishing with a 4-2.

“It’s incredible what seven days can do,” Webb said. “Last week I felt like I was going to get lapped in the second moto. This week, I could see the leader. It was nice. I fought hard, learned how to suffer again there and that felt nice.

Moto 2 wasn’t pretty for Lawrence. On several occasions in the opening laps, he nearly high sided as he rode the front wheel through the ruts. The reward was worth the risk. By the halfway point, Lawrence had 4.5-second lead over Webb, who was embroiled in a tight three-rider battle for second with his teammate Aaron Plessinger pressuring him and Ferrandis ready to take advantage if those made contact.

It took 20 minutes for Plessinger to get around Webb and once he did, he trailed Lawrence by four seconds. But then, with three minutes remaining, Plessinger crashed and had difficulty restarting the bike, handing second back to Webb who has seven seconds behind Lawrence. Plessinger fell to fourth with results of third and sixth.

Adam Cianciarulo rounded out the top five with a 5-4.

Heartbreak for Aaron Plessinger as he was charging forward 💔#ProMotocross #SuperMotocross #HangtownMX pic.twitter.com/vQtKIsuhVg

— Pro Motocross (@ProMotocross) June 4, 2023

Last week Hunter Lawrence won the overall with a 3-1. He repeated that feat in Hangtown in an exact replica of his Fox Raceway results last week. In Moto 1, Lawrence got off to a slow start and lost 10 seconds in the opening laps. Forced to overcome a sixth-place position in the race at the end of Lap 1, he once again caught the riders ahead of him when the field hit heavy traffic. For the second week, scored another 3-1 for the Hangtown National win.

“The start was crucial’ I knew I had to go,” Lawrence told NBC Sports’ Jason Thomas. “They laid a lot of water down, so I didn’t want to be behind any longer than [I was]. First hot one of the year, was a bit of a wakeup call, so I’m happy to get out of here safe and healthy.”

Lawrence’s third-place finish in Moto 1 featured a fierce battle for final spot on the podium when he caught Spain’s Guillem Farres and France’s Tom Vialle. With Lawrence hailing from Australia, the international nature of the sport was highlighted.

Lawrence left Hangtown with a 10-point advantage over Haiden Deegan in the Pro Motocross championship battle.

Click here for 250 overall results

Justin Cooper finished second in both motos to finish second overall. Hangtown represented a huge improvement from Fox Raceway where he finished fifth overall with a 5-4 finish in the two motos. Cooper pressured Haiden Deegan in the second half of Moto 1 and he earned the holeshot in the second moto and stayed within three seconds of Lawrence in that race.

“He was following me a little bit, checking out my lines, seeing where he was better,” Cooper said. “It’s disappointing to give up the lead like that but it was way better than last weekend. I will definitely take two seconds. I want to be on the top of the step. I feel like I get close to the top step but I never get it done. That’s building up the frustration – the fire. I really want to get one of these wins, so it’s time to start digging.”

Haiden Deegan earned the first holeshot of his career in Moto 1 and rode away from the field, building a four-second lead in the opening laps. Cooper trimmed the lead at the halfway point and for a while it leveled off at two seconds. Then Cooper made another charge with three to go and closed to within a second. Deegan was biding his time, however.

“I was saving a little. I knew at the end Justin was going to try and put a charge on. I let him get up close and then sent it super hard at the end to break him a little at the end.”

Deegan’s first moto win comes in only his fourth National and he remains perfect in regard to podiums this year.

“This was a dream since I was a little kid, to win,” Deegan said. “And in my fourth race, it’s gnarly. I was just sending it. I was getting a little tired at the end becasue I left my mouth open the whole time. It’s unreal; I’m so hyped. I wanted to win bad and I proved it to you guys.”

Chaos erupted in turn 1 in Moto 2 Jeremy Martin went and another rider ran over his arm. Michael Mosiman crashed further down the track on that same lap. Both riders were helped off course by the Alpinestars Medical team.

Deegan grabs his first 250 Mx moto win!1️⃣#ProMotocross #SuperMotocross #HangtownMX pic.twitter.com/1FH5s1ZHfn

— Pro Motocross (@ProMotocross) June 3, 2023