In the closest contest in NASCAR “Race for the Chase” history, Jimmie Johnson became the NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion for an unprecedented fifth consecutive year, driving his Bosch-powered Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. No one in the history of NASCAR racing has ever achieved this milestone until now. While legendary drivers Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr. both were 7-time champions, neither received this prestigious award five years in a row.
With NASCAR’s 2010 Race for the Chase undecided going into the tenth and final “Chase” race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Johnson overcame pit stop miscues to finish second to Carl Edwards, sealing his championship points status. Denny Hamlin entered the race with a razor-thin fifteen point lead, but he would finish no higher than 14th; while Kevin Harvick finished third, shy of the points needed to overcome Johnson’s total.
Bosch is a long-standing sponsor of Hendrick Motorsports, including Jimmie Johnson and his teammates Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Bosch supplies purpose-built spark plugs, starters and alternators for Hendrick as well as other NASCAR teams, and also provides technical assistance and other support.
Extraordinary evidence of Bosch’s contribution to Johnson’s unprecedented achievement lies in the fact that each of the eight Bosch spark plugs in his winning Chevrolet fired flawlessly more than a half-million times during the course of the 400-mile race at Homestead-Miami … a testament to Bosch engineering and innovation.
Winning five consecutive Sprint Cup championships is an extraordinary achievement for Jimmie Johnson and the entire Hendrick Motorsports organization. It is also a testament to the performance and durability of Bosch automotive products.
Wolfgang Hustedt is Motorsports Manager for Bosch, and he explains the value of Bosch’s motorsports involvement. “Bosch works closely with Hendrick engineers as well as many others at virtually all levels of motorsports in product and systems development,” he notes. “There is no tougher proving ground than race tracks in the U.S. and around the world. Our products are constantly run under the most rigorous conditions possible, and the things we learn are, more often than you may think, transferred to OE and replacement parts for everyday passenger vehicles.”
Jimmie Johnson’s Bosch-powered Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet carried him to 23 top ten finishes in the 2010 season, nine of them consecutive. His record this year included two poles, six outright wins, and 17 top-five finishes.
Bosch is a proud supporter of the Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association’s (AASA) Know Your Parts education and awareness campaign. This initiative promotes the importance of quality brand name aftermarket parts backed by full service suppliers to preserve the industry’s good reputation. For more information, visit www.AASAKnowYourParts.org.
For more information on Bosch Automotive Products, visit www.boschautoparts.com.
