Jimmie Johnson Lucks Into Win at NASCAR Sprint Cup Auto Club 500

#48 WINS 48: Jimmie Johnson celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 500 at Auto Club Speedway at Fontana, California. (Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)

By James Fish

James Fish

alias for Chris J

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February 22, 2010Updated: February 23, 2010

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Jimmie Johnson caught a lucky break by entering pit road at the right time to take the lead late in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Auto Club 500 at Fontana. California, Sunday afternoon, a lead he never relinquished. Johnson’s first Sprint Cup win came at Fontana, and Sunday’s win marked his 48th Sprint Cup win in car #48.

Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick were closing on him quickly in the final laps, but both made mistakes which dropped them back. Burton and Harvick raced each other to a photo finish for second place, but Johnson was a second and-a-half ahead as he crossed the line.

Matt Kenseth, in the #17 Crown Royal Ford, leads a group of cars around a turn at Fontana Auto Club Speedway during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 500. (Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

“Today fortune came our way—we hit pit road and the caution came out and gave us track position,” Johnson told a FOX-TV reporter after the race. “We lost the handle kind of the second half of the race we were making gains coming back but and it would be tough to pass them.”

Jimmie Johnson in the #48 Lowe's/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet and Kevin Harvick, in the #29 Shell Pennzoil Chevrolet, treaded the lead several times during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 500. (Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Johnson and Harvick battled for the lead from lap 29 until a yellow flag on lap 92, when Harvick began dropping back. Johnson held the lead until the next caution on lap 141, when Johnson also began dropping back.

Johnson and Harvick began to make progress in the final third of the 250 lap race, and by the next caution on lap 223, Harvick was second and Johnson fourth.

Johnson was heading down pit road on lap 223 when Brad Keselowski spun into the wall in Turn 4. Johnson finished his pit stop and raced back onto the track before the pace car came by, making him first on the track when everyone else headed for the pits.

“I’m not going to lie; the fact that we were on pit road gave us track position and I drove my butt off when we finally got the car turning—it was a little too loose,” Johnson said. “The 29 [Harvick] was coming but then he hit the wall and he let us get it.”

Johnson was not the fastest car on the track for the final 21 laps, but he drove hard, fighting to keep ahead of Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton. This pair wasted some time racing each other, and then settled down to catch Johnson.

Jimmie Johnson crosses the finish line to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 500. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images for NASCAR)

On lap 245, Burton slipped a bit sideways and had to slow, while Harvick closed the gap to Johnson to three-tenths of a second. On the next lap Harvick caught Johnson and latched right onto his tail, looking for a way by.

Jeff Burton, in the #31 Caterpillar Chevrolet, leads Joey Logano, in the #20 The Home Depot Toyota, during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 500. (Stephen Dunn/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Harvick had the faster car but he was running out of laps, and running out of patience: on lap 247 Harvick pushed just a bit too hard and clipped the wall with his right front fender. He kept control but lost a lot of momentum.

“The 48 saw me coming there and he moved up.,” Harvick explained. “I just lost the nose of the car and got in the wall there and just knocked the right front fender in.”

Both Burton and Harvick raced to catch Johnson, but they were out of time. Harvick beat Burton the finish line by .06 seconds.

19-year-old Joey Logano started 19th but finished fifth, much better he did last year in his rookie season.

“This feels like a win compared to a year ago when we ran 35th or 40th here,” Logano said. “I was very pleased with the way we ran today. When you see the front of the pack, that makes it a lot more fun.”

NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series continues with the Shelby American at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 27, 2010.

Tickets can be purchased online at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway ticket page, and travel arrangements can be made online through MyRacetravel.com.

	#	Driver	Make	Sponsor	pts/bns	laps	status
1	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe's / Kobalt Tools	195/10	250	Running
2	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Shell / Pennzoil	175/5	250	Running
3	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	Caterpillar	170/5	250	Running
4	5	Mark Martin	Chevrolet	GoDaddy.com	165/5	250	Running
5	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	The Home Depot	155/0	250	Running
6	2	Kurt Busch	Dodge	Miller Lite	155/5	250	Running
7	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Crown Royal	146/0	250	Running
8	33	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	Cheerios / Hamburger Helper	147/5	250	Running
9	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Old Spice / Office Depot	138/0	250	Running
10	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	3M	134/0	250	Running
11	82	Scott Speed	Toyota	Red Bull	135/5	250	Running
12	83	Brian Vickers	Toyota	Red Bull	132/5	250	Running
13	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Aflac "You don't know quack"	124/0	250	Running
14	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	Interstate Batteries	126/5	250	Running
15	00	David Reutimann	Toyota	Aaron's Dream Machine	118/0	250	Running
16	77	Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge	Auto Club	115/0	250	Running
17	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Tracker	112/0	250	Running
18	98	Paul Menard	Ford	Energizer / Menards	109/0	250	Running
19	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	Furniture Row Companies	106/0	250	Running
20	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	DuPont	108/5	250	Running
21	12	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	AAA Insurance	100/0	250	Running
22	36	Mike Bliss	Chevrolet	Wave Energy Drink	97/0	250	Running
23	6	David Ragan	Ford	UPS	94/0	250	Running
24	19	Elliott Sadler	Ford	Stanley	91/0	249	Running
25	43	A.J. Allmendinger	Ford	Best Buy	88/0	249	Running
26	38	David Gilliland	Ford	Taco Bell	85/0	249	Running
27	71	Bobby Labonte	Chevrolet	TaxSlayer.com	82/0	249	Running
28	13	Max Papis	Toyota	GEICO	79/0	249	Running
29	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Freight	81/5	248	Running
30	34	Travis Kvapil	Ford	Long John Silver's	73/0	248	Running
31	37	Kevin Conway *	Ford	Extenze	70/0	247	Running
32	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	Amp Energy Juice / National Guard	67/0	238	Running
33	7	Robby Gordon	Toyota	Warner Music Nashville / Whitney Duncan	64/0	230	Overheating
34	9	Kasey Kahne	Ford	Budweiser / Team USA	61/0	221	Running
35	47	Marcos Ambrose	Toyota	Armor All	58/0	170	Overheating
36	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	Haas Automation	55/0	148	Engine
37	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	Target	57/5	140	Engine
38	26	Boris Said	Ford	Sacred Power / Southern Pride Trucking	49/0	67	Rear Gear
39	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	NAPA Auto Parts	46/0	64	Engine
40	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	FrontRowJoe.com	43/0	48	Rear Gear
41	66	Dave Blaney	Toyota	Prism Motorsports	45/5	43	Engine
42	55	Michael McDowell	Toyota	Prism Motorsports	37/0	40	Engine
43	09	Aric Almirola	Chevrolet	Phoenix Racing	34/0	34	Engine