Full Throttle

Almost as regular as the Santa Ana winds blow through Southern California, Jimmy Johnson won his third straight fall race at Auto Club Speedway finishing ahead of teammate Jeff Gordon to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Pepsi 500.

Johnson, carrying the colors of his own foundation on the No. 4 Hendick Motorsports Chevrolet, survived a five-lap shootout to take the points lead for the first time this season. With six races remaining in the Chase, NASCAR’s version of the championship playoffs, Johnson leads teammate Mark Martin by 12 points, a 30-point swing in the standings.

There were 29 lead changes among nine drivers. Johnson, who raised more than $500,000 his week for his San Diego-based Jimmie Johnson Foundation, led 10 times for 126 laps. In his three fall wins at ACS, Johnson has led a total of 375 laps out of 750.

Following a eight-car crash late in the race that brought out the red flag, Johnson pulled away from the field with five laps to go to record his fourth victory at the Fontana facility, and 45th in 285 Cup starts.

“What an awesome car, what an awesome day,” Johnson said upon climbing out of his car in victory lane. “The caution at the end really had me nervous. I didn’t know what to do on the restarts.”

The win was Johnson’s fourth at the 2-mile oval and sent a message to the rest of the contenders he has no plans of giving up his regained spot atop the series easily.

The native Californian took his time drinking in the moment, doing several burnouts and goofing off along the back straightaway before NASCAR officials reminded him he needed to make a stop in Victory Lane.

“I just wanted to have a little fun with it,” Johnson said.

“What else can you say? They’re the best out there,” Gordon said. “They’ve won the last three championships. They’re going to be hard to beat for this one. Really, unless they make a mistake, I don’t see how they lose it.”

Juan Pablo Montoya was third, his fourth straight top-five finish. All that consistency, however, hasn’t helped Montoya make up any ground on Johnson.

“We have four or five in a row and I’ve been losing points to the leader,” said Montoya, who trails Johnson by 58 points. “(You’re not) going to make any points on anybody. Everybody that runs good is going to be there. You just got to make sure you don’t lose any.”

Mark Martin, who started the day with an 18-point lead over Johnson, was fourth and now trails Johnson by 12 points heading into Saturday night’s race at Charlotte.”

Tony Stewart rallied from an early pit-road speeding penalty to finish fifth.

Gordon briefly slipped by Johnson in the later stages but held out no real hope of catching him.

“He’s unbelievable out there,” Gordon said. “From where I was at, he ran away with it today.”

Johnson, however, wasn’t ready to proclaim the Chase over with six weeks left.

“We got maximum points today … but I don’t want to think about it,” he said.