California native Jimmie Johnson accelerated
his bid for a record fourth straight Sprint Cup Series championship with a
convincing victory Sunday at his hometrack -- Auto Club Speedway.
Johnson, from nearby El Cajon, moved underneath Hendrick Motorsports teammate
Jeff Gordon and took the lead with six laps remaining in the Pepsi 500. Just
after Johnson made the pass, an eight-car pile ensued in turn one, which
halted the race for 22 minutes. Chase contenders Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers
were among those drivers involved in the incident.
After the final restart with three laps to go, Johnson easily held off Gordon
to score his fifth victory of the season and the 45th of his Cup career. He
also won at California for the fourth time, including the last three fall
races here.
Johnson took a 12-point lead over fourth-place finisher Mark Martin with six
races remaining in the Chase.
"Awesome, it's what we want," Johnson said after claiming the points lead for
the first time this season.
Johnson overcame a lug nut issue during an early-race pit stop to lead 126 of
250 laps.
"It's such a long race and so much takes place," he said. "It was just a solid
day all along."
Gordon finished in the runner-up spot for the second race in a row and moved
to fifth in the championship standings.
"I had a couple of good restarts, but [Johnson's team] is in another category,
and we got to find out what we're missing," Gordon said.
Juan Pablo Montoya came in third after leading 78 laps earlier in the race. He
is now 58 points behind the lead.
"This car was good all day," said Montoya, who is the only driver to record
top-five finishes in the first four Chase races. "We were really good when it
was cloudy, but when the sun came out, we started sliding too much."
Tony Stewart, last week's winner at Kansas, overcame a one-lap deficit to
complete the top-five. Stewart received a pass-through penalty for speeding
off of pit road during the mid-stages. He is now 84 points down.
Only 105 points separate the top-five drivers heading into next Saturday
night's race at Charlotte.
Chase driver Carl Edwards finished sixth, followed by David Ragan, Kurt Busch,
another title contender, Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick.
Several Chase competitors endured a frustrating race at California, most
notably Denny Hamlin, who finished 37th. Hamlin led the field for a restart on
lap 189, but bumped into Montoya while trying to block him. He spun before
hitting the inside wall at the end of pit road.
"I just made a rookie mistake," Hamlin said.
Hamlin fell three spots to ninth in points (-219).
With 11 laps remaining, Busch got loose and made contact with the wall. Busch
then bumped into Kahne, who spun and collected Greg Biffle. After the restart,
Elliott Sadler bumped into the back of Dale Earnhardt Jr. to trigger the
multi-car pileup.
Kahne, who was running among the top-10 late in the race, ended up finishing
34th, while Vickers settled for a 29th-place effort. Biffle held on to finish
20th.
Still suffering from the flu, Kyle Busch managed to start the race, but was
relieved by David Gilliland during the first caution. Gilliland parked his
No.71 Chevrolet shortly before he hopped in Busch's No.18 Toyota.
"The car was decent, so I'm really proud of the effort from these guys, and I
appreciate them sticking behind me, but I'm sorry I had to get out," said
Busch, who had to start from the rear of the field due to an engine change.
Gilliland drove the car to a 24th-place finish.
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