Jimmie Johnson prevailed in Monday’s rain-delayed Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in a fantastic short-track battle where half a dozen drivers had legitimate chances to win before the seven-time champion sealed the deal.

Here are five takeaways from the Bristol race:

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Bristol officials applied VHT Trackbite a/k/a the “Grip Strip” along the bottom of the track to try and bring in a second racing lane. Drivers had to hit the bottom perfectly to get extra grip. And, as the bottom of the track took rubber, it went from being super grippy to somewhat slick with the rubber build-up.

The end result was tremendous racing all through the field, but especially late in the race, when a handful of drivers were battling for the victory. It was the best racing by far at Bristol in a very, very long time. In fact, it was one of the best races of any in a very, very long time.

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At times the four JGR Toyotas were fast and Matt Kenseth finished in the top five, but Kyle Busch had two right-front tire failures and the team that won 26 races in 2015-16 is now o-for-8 this year.

Conversely, JGR’s quasi-teammates at Furniture Row Racing continued to show more speed in their cars than JGR did.

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Clint Bowyer was pissed off that he finished second to Jimmie Johnson and that’s a beautiful thing. After two years in NASCAR purgatory with two teams about to go out of business, Bowyer has found a great new home at Stewart-Haas Racing and his much-coveted victory can’t be far behind.

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It was a tough outing for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had an oil leak in his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet that wound up with him going into the wall and out of the race after just 218 laps. It’s been a challenging year so far for the 14-time NASCAR Most Popular Driver who has not had fast cars and good fortune in the same race many times so far this season.

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Two weeks ago, heading into the Texas race, people were openly speculating about Jimmie Johnson’s struggles. Well, Johnson won at Texas, a track he excels at, and now he’s won at Bristol, a track that historically has been a place where he has not been the dominant driver.

Johnson now has 82 career wins and this year could well pass NASCAR Hall of Fame members Cale Yarborough (83 wins), Darrell Waltrip (84) and Bobby Allison (84) to move into fourth overall behind only Richard Petty (200), David Pearson (105) and Jeff Gordon (93).