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By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
FONTANA, Calif.— A career came
full circle for Jimmie Johnson, who won his first NASCAR
Sprint Cup race at Auto Club Speedway in 2002 and on
Sunday claimed his fifth victory at the 2-mile track and
the 48th of his career — matching the No. 48 on his
Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
After gaining the lead in the Auto Club 500 during
a fortunate exchange on pit road, the four-time
defending series champion held off Kevin Harvick during
a 20 lap green-flag run to the finish. Harvick had
narrowed a one-second lead to .311 seconds on Lap 246 of
250 before a brush with the wall slowed his progress.
Jeff Burton ran third, followed by Mark Martin and
Joey Logano. Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer,
Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle completed the top 10.
With the win, Johnson tied Herb Thomas for 12th on
the career victory list and showed the rest of the field
that he’s back on course after a 35th-place finish in
the season-opening Daytona 500.
The key sequence came on Lap 223, when Brad
Keselowski spun his Dodge off Turn 4 after contact with
David Reutimann’s Toyota and brought out the sixth and
final caution of the race. Johnson was on pit road when
NASCAR called the caution but beat the pace car to the
scoring line at the exit.
When the rest of the lead-lap cars pitted under
the yellow, Johnson inherited the lead and held it for a
restart on Lap 231.
“They’re really good, but they’re also really,
really lucky,” Harvick said. “They have a golden
horseshoe stuck up their ass—there’s no getting around
that.”
Johnson acknowledged his good fortune after
climbing from his car in victory lane.
“Today, fortune came our way,” Johnson said. “We
hit pit road, and the caution came out and gave us track
position. We lost the handle in the second half of the
race. We were making gains coming back, but a lot of
other guys were ahead of us, and I knew it would be
tough to pass them.
“I’m not going to lie — the fact that we were on
pit road gave us track position, and I drove my butt
off. We finally got the car turning — it was just a
little too loose. The 29 (Harvick) was coming, but then
he hit the wall and let us get it.
“Yes, we were lucky today, but you don’t get lucky
and win four championships and 48 races.”
Just as intense as Harvick’s pursuit of Johnson was Burton’s battle with Harvick, his Richard Childress Racing teammate and the new Cup points leader through two races.
“I kept running the bottom, because if (Harvick)
slipped, I could get the spot,” Burton said. “But me
running the bottom, him running the top — we weren’t
slowing each other up. Just the way he was running his
fastest line, I was running my fastest line.
“I think when we were doing that, we were running
(Johnson) down. And then we got a little bit looser.
Kevin looked like he got better. When he did, I thought
he was going to win the race.”
The brush with the wall, however, ended his
prospects for victory. Harvick’s Chevy slid into the
barrier after Johnson moved up the track to block the
line he was running.
“I caught the wall there just enough to knock the
right front fender in,” Harvick said. “You know, if he
doesn’t move up, he’s going to get passed pretty easily.
He moved up and did what he was supposed to do to take
that line away. He was able to drive off. So he did
exactly what he had to do.”
Notes: Engine
troubles sidelined Juan Pablo Montoya, Martin Truex Jr.,
Ryan Newman and Marcos Ambrose. … Despite the good
fortune, Johnson’s win was hardly fluke. He led a
race-high 101 laps. … Polesitter and Daytona 500 winner
Jamie McMurray finished 17th.
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