Jimmie Johnson scratched another item off his bucket list—but not without unintended help from Marcos Ambrose.
Johnson inherited the lead in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway when Ambrose failed to keep up with the pace car during the final caution of the 110-lap race and pulled away from Robby Gordon in the final five laps to earn the first road-course victory of his career.
Ambrose had opened a lead of more than two seconds over Johnson when Brad Keselowski spun and stalled in Turn 7 to bring out the seventh caution on Lap 103. Attempting to save fuel during the caution laps, Ambrose lost power and slowed, and his No. 47 Toyota failed to refire.
Johnson won for the fourth time this season and the 51st time in his career, breaking a tie for 10th on the all-time list with Junior Johnson and Ned Jarrett. The victory was the 15th on a road course for Hendrick Motorsports, the most for one organization. NASCAR.com
“I thought he broke or something,” Johnson said. “I don’t know what was going on, but unfortunate for him because he was the fastest car there at the end. And I know he’s kicking himself for whatever went wrong there. You’ve got to maintain pace car speed, and [NASCAR] said he had to go in back of [Kasey Kahne], and I said, ‘Okay, I’ll take this’.”
Ambrose restarted seventh, but could not make his way to the front during the final five laps, as he finished sixth.
“It’s my bad; I just feel really disappointed,” Ambrose said. “I should’ve had the motor cranked up, and it would have never been an issue.”
“It feels really good, because I’ve been working so hard,” Johnson said. “Hendrick Motorsports has been working so hard to get better at this stuff. We’ve tested again and again, and we’re getting better. I’m getting better.”MiamiHerald.com
Robby Gordon had his best race of the season, his Toyota finishing second ahead of NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader Kevin Harvick’s No. 29 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Defending Infineon winner Kasey Kahne finished fourth, ahead of Johnson’s teammate, Jeff Gordon.
Chad Knaus, Johnson’s crew chief, said Ambrose “clearly had the best race car today, especially on the short runs. I hate it for those guys.”
The race was filled with the fender-rubbing action typically seen when 3,400-pound stock cars race around a road course. But the biggest crash came as the field was accelerating to take the green flag for a restart on Lap 67.
In the back of the pack, several drivers were caught in a chain-reaction collision as they approached the start-finish line, including Sam Hornish Jr., Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin, who has won a series-high five races this season.
The wreck required a red-flag period in which the rest of the field was parked for 21 minutes while crews cleaned up the debris.
Another multicar crash occurred early in the race, collecting Kyle Busch, A.J. Allmendinger, Clint Bowyer and Jamie McMurray. Busch fell more than 30 laps behind the leaders while his car was repaired and he finished 39th, but he’s still third in the Cup standings, 141 points behind Harvick. Chicago Tribune
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon - Race-Results
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