Originally published Sunday, February 21, 2010 at 7:49 PM
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Jimmie Johnson credits luck for NASCAR victory | Auto racing
Jimmie Johnson, who has won the last four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships, realizes he got lucky Sunday in the Auto Club 500 in Fontana, Calif.
FONTANA, Calif. — Jimmie Johnson, who has won the last four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships, realizes he got lucky Sunday in the Auto Club 500.
The fortunate break for Johnson in his victory at Auto Club Speedway came because he was already in the pits when a late caution flag came out. Johnson passed the scoring line at the end of pit road before leaders Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick were able to cross the start-finish line.
That split-second kept Johnson on the lead lap, and allowed him to regain the lead when several other cars pitted under yellow. Johnson stayed in front the final 20 laps after the restart.
"Yeah, the deal on pit row, there's no way around it, we got lucky," Johnson said after his 48th career victory. "We were running 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 and it was up to me to kind of hang on to it."
Greg Biffle of Vancouver, Wash., finished 10th and Kasey Kahne of Enumclaw was 34th of 43.
Note
• A fan died after being hit by a tire from Antron Brown's crashing dragster at the NHRA Arizona Nationals in Chandler. The woman was watching a first-round run at Firebird International Raceway when Brown's dragster went out of control and its left-rear tire and wheel came off. The woman's name was not immediately released. Brown was not injured.
Rain delayed the event and finals are to be completed Monday.
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