Jimmie Johnson on NASCAR's return to racing
Power Player of the Week: 7-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson.
Jimmie Johnson crashed out of the lead on lap 90 of The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway while leading the race.
Johnson, who hasn’t won a NASCAR Cup race since 2017, was nearing the end of Stage 1 and a competition caution period at the end of the lap when he tapped the left rear of Chris Buescher’s car at the exit of Turn 2 and sent himself into the infield wall.
"What I would do to get that corner back to do it over again," Johnson said in the pits following in incident.
It was just the second crash of the race after Ricky Stenhouse hit the wall coming out of the same turn on the first lap. Johnson had started the race in eighth place and took the lead on lap 81.
William Byron inherited the lead and won the stage after Johnson’s wreck, but hit the wall due to an apparent flat tire on Lap 109 and needed a lengthy pit stop before he could reenter the race.