Jimmie Johnson grabbed his 48th Sprint Cup win for his #48 car at Auto Club 500 in Fontana Speedway.
However, Johnson got lucky when he went in for green flag pit stops. As he was leaving the pits on lap 226 the caution came out. He managed to get across the timing line at the end of pit row before race leader Jeff Burton crossed the timing line while still on the track. This let Johnson stay on the lead lap.
Then on the following lap when the leaders came in for pits under yellow, Johnson cycled into the lead. Then it was a matter holding off Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick in his back.
Does this guy always seem to get lucky or what?
Johnson entered the race with the most wins at Auto Club Speedway – 4 – and has now obviously increased that lead to 5. Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth are the only other multiple winners at Fontana, having 3 wins.
“The deal on pit road, we got lucky,” Johnson admitted. “We were in our pit box and the caution came out. We were able to just beat the 31 car [of Burton] off of pit road where the scoring line is at the end of pit road.
“You know, [we] certainly got lucky. We were running third or fourth or fifth at the time, so it’s not like we totally backed into this thing.”
“We got a really nice gift with the way things worked out, then it was kind of up to me to hang onto it.”
BY CHRIS KASTA
