Johnson bumps Busch, wins New Hampshire

? Kurt Busch tried to bump-and-run past Jimmie Johnson for a victory.

What he really did was anger the four-time Cup champion.

“I thought, ‘I don’t care if I win this race or not,'” Johnson said. “I don’t care if I finish this damn thing. I’m running into him and get by him one way or another.”

Johnson paid back Busch with a poke of his own in the final stretch to surge ahead with two laps left and win the Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday for his fifth victory of the season.

“For sure, that’s what the fans want to see,” Johnson said.

Busch grabbed the lead with seven laps left when he nudged Johnson in the left rear and out of the way. Johnson ran down Busch and quickly got side-by-side to energize what had been a lackluster race on the 1.058-mile track.

Johnson put a little bump on Busch to move him up the track, allowing the No. 48 to slip underneath for the victory. His five wins tie Denny Hamlin for the series lead.

“I’m not good at doing that stuff,” Johnson said. “Usually I crash myself in the process. So I tried it once and moved him. The second time I moved him out of the way and got by him.”

Busch said his intention was to pass Johnson cleanly until he realized he could just push him out of his path. Johnson said he’d be surprised if Busch tried to purposely wreck him.

“If that’s his intentions, that’d be the first time in nine years racing with him I’d experienced that,” Johnson said. “It definitely changes the way I race with him from that point on. I hate that he felt I wasn’t going to wreck him, because that was my goal, to wreck him.”

“Strike that from the comments, he didn’t really mean that,” Johnson crew chief Chad Knaus interjected.

Johnson didn’t believe there would be further retaliation.

“He didn’t wreck me, so at the end of the day I guess I didn’t owe him,” Johnson said.

The four-time defending champion pulled away to win his second straight race after taking the checkered flag last week on the road course at Infineon Raceway.

It was a bump off the track that Johnson was most concerned about — his wife’s baby bump.

Johnson dedicated the victory to his pregnant wife, Chandra, who is at home and due with their first child around the time of the July 10 race at Chicagoland Speedway. Johnson used Aric Almirola as his standby driver.