With 13 of 325 laps remaining, Jimmie Johnson wasted no time pulling away from the rest of the field to collect his 71st career win, and make the Chase by winning the 56th Annual Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Kevin Harvick finished second followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth. Martin Truex Jr., AJ Allmendinger, Brett Moffitt, Brad Keselowski an Ryan Newman rounded out the top 10. Truex Jr., put the Furniture Row Racing team fifth in the point standings, there best position in the 10 year history of the team out of Denver, Colorado.

“This thing was just bat fast,” Johnson stated from Victory Lane.

Jimmie Hendrick celebrates his 71st Sprint Cup Series vicotry, his 4th at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and his first in the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Johnson is now the second driver to claim a spot in the Chase for the Championship. (Credit: Rich Iceland)With 13 of 325 laps remaining, Jimmie Johnson wasted no time pulling away from the rest of the field to collect his 71st career win, and make the Chase by winning the 56th Annual Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Kevin Harvick finished second followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth. Martin Truex Jr., AJ Allmendinger, Brett Moffitt, Brad Keselowski an Ryan Newman rounded out the top 10. Truex Jr., put the Furniture Row Racing team fifth in the point standings, there best position in the 10 year history of the team out of Denver, Colorado.

“This thing was just bat fast,” Johnson stated from Victory Lane.

Johnson's final challenge occurred over the final 13 laps, which still failed to heat up his crew chief.
“There was no sweating, I could tell you that,” stated Chad Knauss, referring to the weather conditions. “I was freezing today.
“I was nervous, for sure. Dale (Jr.) had a super fast car. He was obviously very aggressive on the restarts. He had his plan before the green flag ever flew of what he was going to do.  You could see that materializing before we got to the start/finish line.
“I had concerns, but, man, getting down through three and four, Jimmie just rocketed through three and four. Once we got the lead, I felt like as long as it stayed green, we'd be able to maintain it.
“But, man, you never know.
Johnson was as confident as his crew chief.
“I felt like if I got clean air, I was going to be in good shape. When Junior was able to get to my outside, I didn't know what was going to happen down the backstretch,” said Johnson. “I felt like I could run out through three and four.  I tried it and made it. It definitely took a big commitment throttlewise to get that done.”

“Jimmie ran great today.,” proclaimed Kevin Harvick. “It was a lot of fun racing with him. All in all a great day.”

Despite his second place finish Harvick was accepting of his second place finish. The records show he started second, but in reality the #4 Jimmy John's/Budweiser Chevrolet started outside the top 33 after losing an engine in Saturday's practice.

“It was a lot of fun, to be honest with you,” said Harvick. “As a driver, you look at this place that you have options. You know you can pass people. There's a lot of places you go to you're going to get stuck, you're going to have the aero push, have a harder time with it than you will here.

“It was a lot of fun coming up through there. Jimmie was right up in front of me coming up through the pack. We made it to 13th or 14th on the first run in about 20 laps.\

Wrecker tows Jeff Gordon's #24 3M Chevrolet to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series garage following an accident on the backstretch on lap 252. Gordon has now been involved in a wreck in both of the races startig the 2015 seaason, his final as a driver in NASCAR: (Credit: Rich Iceland)“It was fun. I was looking forward to it.”

Harvick and Johnson started 43rd and 37th, respectively.

Jeff Gordon was the victim of disaster for the second race of the season when he was caught up in a accident on lap 257. Denny Hamlin got loose and turned sideways in the middle of the track. In all Hamlin, Jamie McMurray, Gordon and Ryan Newman were involved.

“I saw the No. 11 (Hamlin) going sideways. I had him cleared. I stood on the gas and went by him; but I guess he might have clipped the No. 1 (Jamie McMurray) and it turned the No. 1 back into me. After that I was just along for the ride,” explained Gordon after walking healthily out of the infield care center. It looks like maybe the No. 31 (Ryan Newman) came down in trying to avoid the No. 11 and got into the No. 1 and then he clipped me in the left rear and sent me down the back straightaway.

“It wouldn’t have been too bad except that I found that one spot where there’s no SAFER barrier. I can’t believe it. That’s amazing to me. Anyway, hopefully soon that will get fixed. It was a pretty big impact. I hate it for this team. We were struggling. We didn’t have the 3M Chevrolet that I thought we were going to have, but we weren’t giving up on it. We were going to make gains and we finally got ourselves in the top 10 and I think we had a shot of getting into the top five. But obviously it’s not the way we want to start our season.”

Gordon officially finished 41st and now sits 36th in the driver point standings.

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