Jimmie Johnson defended his Labor Day weekend win at the Auto Club Speedway by dominating (or embarrassing) the Pepsi 500 field on Sunday. Johnson, a California native, set sail around the two-mile facility leading 228 of the 250 laps.
"This is a big credit to the hard work that has been going in to this race team trying to get our stuff where it needs to be,” Johnson said. “These guys have been working hard and it has been paying off and tonight was a showing of that. It was a good performance.”
The win was the 36th of his career and his third this season. Johnson currently sits third in the point standings and after adding up accrued bonus points, will remain there behind leader Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards once the points reset following the next event on the short track in Richmond. Johnson, the defending race winner at Richmond, is in a good position as he eyes his third straight Sprint Cup championship.
"We have been doing the right things and those guys (Busch and Edwards) have been getting the credit they deserve,” Johnson added. “The only way we can be a part of that is go out and do that and we did that tonight. I am very happy.”
"We are coming off a good day and we have had some bad days but we have still been competitive. I feel like we are very well rounded and I am excited for the Chase."
While Johnson tried his best to lead every lap in front of his home state crowd en route to the win, he did fall a few circuits short after two-tire pit calls and slower stops on pit road set him back, albeit temporarily.
Greg Biffle, who has yet to win this season, led only a dozen laps as he spent the majority of his evening chasing Johnson, but his No. 16 team gift wrapped the lead for him late in the running after Marcos Ambrose hit the wall on lap 219, allowing the final round of pit stops to take place under a caution flag.
Quick work on pit road gave way to a change atop the leaderboard as Biffle’s Ford just edged out Johnson’s Chevrolet at the exit of pit road. Biffle however, didn’t hold the position for long, getting passed by Johnson on lap 223. The race remained green through the finish and Johnson checked out to a 2.076-second lead over Biffle, who now has two runner-up efforts this season.
"The 48 was phenomenal,” Biffle explained. “We see that happen every once in a while, a guy gets it set up right. My guys, what a phenomenal job. I feel bad. I let them down. They were the fastest guys on pit road tonight and I've never had that before in my life. He just beat me around the corner just a little bit but I'm pretty excited."
Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top 5.
Uncharacteristic this season, neither Edwards nor Busch led a single lap on Sunday. Edwards entered the California event with two straight series victories under his belt. Both drivers headed to California with a fresh six-race probation ruling from NASCAR hanging over their heads following post-race conduct in Bristol.
They stayed out of trouble and raced clean, with Edwards finishing sixth and Busch seventh.
Busch and Edwards had already secured their spots within the Chase and following Sunday night’s run Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton were also mathematically locked in.
Biffle sits sixth in the current standings and is poised to make his return to the 12-man Chase contention after a two-year absence.
Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart, Kenseth, Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin sit seventh through 11th, respectively, in the standings.
The final slot for the Chase remains up for grabs with next weekend’s race in Richmond being the cutoff. Kasey Kahne, Clint Bowyer and David Ragan all have a realistic shot at the 12th position and all had solid runs in California, keeping things tight.
Kahne finished eighth, leading Bowyer in 10th and Ragan, who finished 13th.
Bowyer has the advantage entering Richmond with a 17-point lead over Ragan. Kahne is also still in the thick of things, trailing the 12th spot by 48 markers.
"It's going to be a battle right down to the end,” Bowyer, who won the Richmond spring event, said. “Anything can happen in Richmond. But nonetheless, there is a little bit of confidence knowing you're coming off a win there.”
While the excitement of the night was tracking the Chase contenders, the 500 miles of racing were pretty quiet, action-wise, behind Johnson.
There were eight caution flags throughout the event with the race being slowed twice for non-racing related circumstances. Rather than on track incidents or debris from a racecar being the problem, the yellow flag waved on laps 21 and 161 after pieces of the track’s lighting system gave way and fell on the racing surface.