Jimmie Johnson, Chase Elliott crash during NASCAR Cup practice at New Hampshire
LOUDON, N.H. — Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Chase Elliott both were forced to back-up cars after crashing early in the first practice session Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Johnson, the seven-time and defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion, lost control of the No. 48 Chevrolet first through Turn 3, causing heavy damage to his right front wheel.
"I had a good first lap and entering Turn 3 for my second lap just got in there with a lot of speed anticipated it sticking, didn’t quite stick ... came around and it got the fence," Johnson said. "Definitely not the way we wanted to start; frustrating, but we will take it and go figure it out”
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Elliott, who is racing this weekend without suspended crew chief Alan Gustafson and car chief Joshua Kirk because of an illegal aerodynamics modification to the No. 24 Chevrolet at Chicago last week, crashed in similar fashion.
“It looked like about the same thing (as Johnson)," Elliott said. " I don’t know just got kind of loose into Turn 3 and got up the track and ran out of room. I hate it. That is not what we needed. We are behind this weekend now, so that is never good, but it’s Friday, so we’ve got another day and a half to get things turned around and try to get it fixed.”
Johnson enters the weekend seventh in the driver standings, 20 points in front of the 12-place advancement cut line. Elliott is eighth, 18 points from jeopardy.
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