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Jimmie Johnson

Jimmie Johnson finishes 24th at Talladega, out of Chase

Mike Hembree
Special for USA TODAY Sports
Jimmie Johnson has never finished a season lower than sixth since becoming a full-time driver in 2002.

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Six-time won't be Seven-time for at least another year.

Jimmie Johnson finished 24th in Sunday's Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway and failed to advance to the third round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Another championship this season would have tied Johnson with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr. for the all-time lead in titles.

"We had a fast, fast race car today," Johnson said on pit road after the race. "I'm disappointed that we didn't advance, but, truthfully, the way the last two races went, today was an opportunity for us. We were kind of playing with house money and just didn't get it done."

Sunday's race results produced a sudden slamming of the door in Johnson's face because of the new Chase elimination procedure, but he said his finishes at Kansas (40th) and Charlotte (17th) in the past two weeks would have doomed him under the previous Chase format.

"Last week and the week before, the frustrations and emotions that went with those weeks was really the peak of it," he said. "Today we had a fast car. Today we ran up front. We had awesome pit stops. We had a shot to win. We just didn't get the golden ticket.

"I'm definitely disappointed, but we'll dig in deep and finish up the year strong and look forward to 2015."

Johnson led 84 laps – easily the best of the day – but didn't have the strength to challenge in the wild pack over the closing laps.

"It's so hard to win one of these races," he said. "You can't come in here and say, 'I'm going to dominate Talladega and win the race.' We dominated it. We just didn't lead the lap that counted."

Johnson had failed to lead a lap in the previous eight races.

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