DOVER, Del. — We still are reaping the benefits of the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course finish between Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr. Truex was taken out of contention by Johnson in the final turn coming to the checkered flag after a miscalculation by Johnson caused the No. 48 to spin and collect the No. 78 in the process. WATCH: See what happened at Charlotte | Truex Jr.: ‘I just told him I was mad he screwed up’ Cole Pearn, crew chief for the Furniture Row Racing team, lightheartedly suggested Johnson buy the entire crew road bikes to ease the frustration. Johnson granted the request early Sunday morning prior to the Gander Outdoors 400 at Dover International Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), personally delivering them to the No. 78 hauler … but it likely wasn’t what Pearn was expecting. Well… @colepearn suggested I could buy some road bikes to ease the team’s pain from last weekend. After some careful thought and consideration, I went shopping. 😜 pic.twitter.com/663ryIqxMf — Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) October 7, 2018 And the 78 team’s response didn’t disappoint either. Somebody's got jokes… @FRRacingTeam walked into the garage this morning and found their hauler covered in pink bicycles, courtesy of @JimmieJohnson. 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/eMGsbF9oCq — Monster Mile (@MonsterMile) October 7, 2018 The bikes are being given away and apparently are flying off the “shelves” or in this case the hauler.<doc-sep>Jimmie Johnson took advice from Cole Pearn, twisted it and sent it back via 12 tiny pink bicycles Last week, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at the Charlotte Roval featured fireworks. In the closing laps of the race, Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr were in a battle for the win. Johnson looked to the outside of Truex heading into the final chicane. He was late on the brakes. When he pressed the pedal, the rear end stepped out. He wheel hopped through the entry. Johnson spun across the entry of the chicane. He rolled the #48 backwards to the exit of the chicane. Truex was there, he was nearly down with the chicane and on his way to the win. Instead, Johnson clipped Truex on his way off the final corner. Both leaders went spinning just a few hundred feet short of the finish line. As they struggled to get the cars rolling straight again, Ryan Blaney snuck in there and stole the win! After the race, Truex located Johnson in turn one. He put the bumper to him and spun him around. Truex would advance to the Round of 12 regardless. “That’s what he gets,” Truex said after the race of Johnson. 7-time champion Jimmie Johnson’s playoff hopes came to an end. A week later… This weekend, NASCAR is back at it again. Dover International Speedway hosts the opening race in the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Playoffs. Apparently, Cole Pearn and the FRR crew suggested a plan for moving on from the Roval. Their plan included an idea that avid cyclist, Jimmie Johnson could buy the team road bikes to make up for it the incident at the North Carolina road course the previous week. Specifically, Pearn was referring to mountain bikes. Johnson took his advice, kinda. On Saturday night, Johnson sent his hauler driver to the store and loaded Johnson’s Chevy Tahoe full of bikes, from the floor the roof. Well… @colepearn suggested I could buy some road bikes to ease the team’s pain from last weekend. After some careful thought and consideration, I went shopping. ? pic.twitter.com/663ryIqxMf — Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) October 7, 2018 Last night, Johnson grabbed a ladder and gifted the bikes that he just purchased. He climbed on top of the #78 hauler. Johnson then dropped at least twelve tiny pink bikes on the tongue of the Furniture Row Racing trailer late Saturday night or in the early morning hours of Sunday. This morning, Johnson posted the photos with the caption: “Well, Cole Pearn suggested I could buy some road bikes to ease the team’s pain from last weekend. After some careful thought and consideration, I went shopping,” Johnson’s tweet read. Furniture Row Racing woke up to find their new gifts on the hauler, “Good morning from Monster Mile. Who says we don’t have fun out here?” “At first, I was like, ‘Where’d these bikes come from?’ That’s when I heard that Jimmy had purchased all these bikes. Cole said he can make up for last week’s incident and get us some mountain bikes,” Chuck Lemay, the hauler driver for the #78 told Claire B Lang via Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. “Well they’re a little small wheel circumference there. I don’t think they’d work to good up in the mountain of Denver.” Ben King is a pro cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam Team Dimension Data. He saw the photos and said, “I fully expect a one lap race on these!” Jimmie Johnson got special permission from NASCAR before he pulled the prank. The garage area was closed off when Johnson loaded the bikes onto the hauler. That permission came from Buster Auton who is the Director of Transportation for NASCAR. Today, Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr will take the green. The Gander Outdoors 400 will begin this afternoon. Due to rain, the starting lineup has been set according to points. Truex will start from the third position. Johnson will start the MENCS race from 13th. Update There’s a small update to this story. A sign was later installed on the tongue of the trailer by the #78 crew. The note read: “Free bikes (tend to wheel hop).” The bikes went in a hurry. They have all been passed out to kids in the garage area. Cole Pearn and Martin Truex Jr signed the first bike that was given away. “It was an avalanche of little boys and girls coming up. We delivered them all. They are in good hands,” Chuck Lemay explained. “I was telling all the people, ‘Hey, you’ve got something very memorable from this race. That was from Jimmie Johnson.’ ” “What a sport! All Kyle did was buy us Ice Cream,” Lemay concluded. More Related: Crews Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr got into it on pit road after the driver crashed for the lead (Video) Related: 2018 Dover International Speedway – Starting Lineup Related: Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr comment after the wreck in the final lap of the Roval Related: 2018 Roval Race Results Links Jimmie Johnson | Martin Truex Jr | Charlotte Motor Speedway | Dover international Speedway | NASCAR<doc-sep>The Telegraph Two of the surprise packages of this clay-court season have been British – initially Dan Evans, who made a deep run in Monte Carlo, and more lately Cameron Norrie, who played his second final in three weeks on Sunday. Unfortunately, Norrie wasn’t able to land a maiden ATP title in Lyon. But then he was up against Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has been the dominant force of 2021 outside the slams, and now stands at No 1 in the table of most rankings points gained since January 1. Nevertheless, it had been a hugely creditable effort for Norrie to go this far, especially when you consider that he took out top seed Dominic Thiem on Thursday, and then trounced big-hitting Russian Karen Khachanov in Saturday’s semi-final, losing only two games in the process. Norrie has come to clay late in his career, but it feels like this is developing into his favourite surface. He has one of the heaviest left-handed forehands in the game, loaded with top-spin, and uses it like a miniature version of Rafael Nadal. The result has been a tally of 14 wins and only four losses since he began his European clay-court swing in Barcelona. So while the French Open, which starts next Sunday, has traditionally been a graveyard of British hopes, there are reasons to hope that this year’s event could deliver some more positive results. Norrie’s previous final in Estoril had been a nervewracking affair which he eventually lost on a deciding-set tie-break to the more experienced Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Sunday was more straightforward for Tsitsipas, who needed only 69 minutes to hammer home a 6-3, 6-3 victory. It was Tsitsipas’ second title of the clay-court sequence, after he won Monte Carlo in mid-April, taking out Evans in the semi-final along the way. He has become a serious contender to upset the establishment – specifically Nadal and Novak Djokovic – at Roland Garros over the next few weeks. “I felt in good shape from the beginning of the tournament,” said Tsitsipas afterwards. “I am proud of today’s match, I knew it would be a difficult one against Cameron, who has been showing great tennis this week. He has been winning against good players and showing what the left hand can do on clay. “It was not an easy match today. I had to handle the nerves and I am proud of my performance and the way I stayed focused towards my goal.” On this year’s results, meanwhile, both Evans and Norrie stand among the world’s 20 most successful men. Evans is at No 16 and Norrie No 14. The next challenge for them both is to convert that ATP Tour form into a deep run at a major.<doc-sep>
DOVER, Del. - Jimmie Johnson said he made a bad mistake last Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He said he felt bad about his mistake in the final chicane, where his back wheels hopped as he hit the brakes, causing him to spin into leader Martin Truex Jr. and costing both of them a shot at the win. But apparently it's now time for some laughs. Truex crew chief Cole Pearn said Sunday morning at Dover International Speedway that he was texting with Johnson earlier in the week and told him, "Twelve road bikes and we'll call it even." Then Friday morning, the team saw Johnson coming into the garage following a bicycle ride and one of Pearn's crew members told Johnson: "Sweet bike; is that what we're getting?" Johnson came through. Sort of. The Truex team had a gift waiting for them Sunday morning: 12 children's bikes sitting on the team's car hauler lift gate. Johnson tweeted: Well... @colepearn suggested I could buy some road bikes to ease the team's pain from last weekend. After some careful thought and consideration, I went shopping. 😜 pic.twitter.com/663ryIqxMf — Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) October 7, 2018 "I saw some of his crew guys when I came back from a bike ride on Friday and one of them grabbed my bike and said, 'Oh, is this my nice new bike that Cole was talking about?'" Johnson said. "As I shared that story with my team, the ideas started flowing and we landed on that one. ... It is fun to have fun at the track not take it serious all the time." Pearn laughed about it and put up a note underneath the bicycles that said: "Free bikes (tend to wheel hop)" The Furniture Row Racing team donated the bicycles to kids in the garage Sunday. "We don't have room for them on the truck, so some kids are going to walk away pretty happy," Pearn said Sunday morning. Johnson laughed at Pearn's note. "I thought it was great," Johnson said. "They were in great spirits about the bikes being placed up there and I was expecting something to come back as well. It is just good fun."