Jimmy Johnson celebrates another victory at Auto Club Speedway as he carries the checkered flag in his car heading from turn one to turn four as he lights up the tires for the fans after winning the Pepsi 500.

This is Johnson’s third fall race at Auto Club Speedway in a row that he has won. The last two years, California was a major turning point for him to capture the Championship. With this race, Johnson is back on top of the point’s race in the Chase.

Johnson, with this win, takes over the Chase lead over Mark Martin by 12 points and 3^rd place Juan Pablo Montoya by 58.

The race started with Denny Hamlin on the outside front row to start the race, set a tone that the outside line would not be the line to restart the race over the next 500 miles or 250 laps.

Hamlin would lead the opening 11 laps where a methodical Johnson overtook Hamlin for the lead for the first time of this race. Johnson, Hamlin along with Juan Pablo Montoya would be the major players of the race. They would lead 225 of the 250 laps ran today, Johnson the most with 126.

The three would seem to trade the lead anywhere from 5 to 30 laps. There were times when one of the three was in front, the separation would stretch out anywhere from 3 to 6 seconds on the average.

A key turning point of the race would be on lap 191 where on a restart, Hamlin leading would see the Virginia native pull a defending move on Montoya with a cross over move that would back fire on Hamlin.

Hamlin would clip the front of Montoya’s car, causing Hamlin to spin out, slamming the inside wall to bring out the next caution flag. Hamlin would take his car to the garage, return to the track 25 laps down, without a front end on his car.

Montoya would battle with Jeff Gordon for the second place position in the closing laps of the event with less than 10 to go. Trouble would hit the drivers on the field with 5 to go as Dale Earnhardt Jr. would get tagged from behind by Elliott Sadler as the drivers battled for position heading into turn one.

This sparked off an eight car incident that involved all four Richard Petty cars of Kasey Kahne, Sadler, Reed Sorenson and A.J. Allmendinger. The accident would collect Jeff Burton, Brian Vickers as well. Earnhardt would return to a deficit of one lap after waiting through a 25 minute red flag as NASCAR would clean the track.

When the green flag came out, Johnson, along with teammate and car owner Jeff Gordon would battle for the lead along with Mark Martin, Montoya and David Ragan. Johnson would clear the challengers and not look back over the next two laps to see the checkered flag in his sights and Montoya fighting Gordon in his mirror. Gordon would finish second, Montoya third.

Overall it was a pretty fair race as the race saw only three cautions within the first 185 laps. The trouble came down to the last 55 laps where 5 more cautions came out.

Our hard charger award would go to David Ragan, who started 31^st to get a finish of 7^th place. The missed it by that much theme would hit Hamlin from his pole start to finish 37^th, many laps down.

This was a hard hit for Hamlin. This race may have sealed his fate not to be in contention for the Chase win. Hamlin would drop three positions in the Chase, 219 points out.

Jeff Gordon moves up two spots in the Chase, 105 points from the lead.

PRE RACE CHATTER

The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings started with drivers bunched closely together points-wise. Three races into the Chase, little has changed.

Going into Sunday’s Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway, the man everyone is trying to catch continues to be Mark Martin (No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg’s Chevrolet), as he is 18 points ahead of second-place, Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet), the three-time defending series champion. Martin has posted a series-leading and career-high seven poles plus five victories.

But don’t be fooled, the rest of the top 12 are not letting Martin just walk away with the title.

A total of 190 points separate first place to 11th in the Chase standings, and only 99 points separate first to sixth – the closest points margin after the first three races of the Chase since the format’s inception in 2004.

And to boot, three different Chase contenders have won the first three races of the Chase – (Martin, New Hampshire; Johnson, Dover; and Tony Stewart (No. 14 Office Depot Chevrolet), Kansas).

“It just shows that you're going to have to be on for 10 weeks to win this thing, and if you have a bad day, there's going to be guys that are going to capitalize on it,” said Stewart.

This weekend, Auto Club Speedway welcomes its inaugural Chase race, and returning race winner Johnson could benefit. Johnson is tied with Gordon and Matt Kenseth (No. 17 R&L Carriers Ford) for a series-high three wins at ACS.

Stewart Working Two Jobs And Climbing The Standings

Of all the top 12 Chase contenders this season one of them has had a little more on his plate than the rest. Tony Stewart co-owns Stewart-Haas Racing and also drives the No. 14, and has been able to do both while competing for this season’s championship.

Stewart heads to California this week coming off a win at Kansas Speedway that moved him up one spot in the Chase standings to fourth and closed the points gap behind Mark Martin to 67-points. Stewart has posted four wins, 14 top fives and 20 top 10s this season with the help of his crew chief Darian Grubb.

“We knew going into the Chase it was a must win situation,” said Grubb. “You're going to have to win races against these competitors (top 12 contenders).”

Stewart heads to Auto Club Speedway this weekend having posted three top fives and eight top 10s. He has yet to win at the 2-mile track, but Stewart and Grubb are much more optimistic this time around at Auto Club Speedway,

“We were still just learning each other going into California in the spring,” said Stewart. “We've had time to make mistakes and make decisions that worked for me, and that's something that will help us definitely. I'm anticipating California a lot more this time than in the spring.”

QUALIFYING NOTES

Denny Hamlin won the Coors Light Pole Award for the Pepsi 500 with a lap of 39.158 seconds, 183.870 mph. This is his seventh pole in 145 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. His most recent pole came at Richmond International Raceway on May 3, 2008.

This is his first pole and 14th top-10 start in 2009. This is his first pole in eight races at Auto Club Speedway.

Greg Biffle (second) posted his 12th top-10 start of 2009 and his seventh in 14 races at Auto Club Speedway. Jimmie Johnson (third) posted his ninth top-10 start at Auto Club Speedway.  It is his 22nd in 30 races this season. Joey Logano (sixth) was the fastest qualifying rookie.

NOW – LET’S RACE IN THE SMOGGY CALIFORNIA AIR!!

The engines come to life on the 2-mile fast track. This is a change for the drivers first with being later in the year and second that this is a day race instead of a night race. The cars should be more in tune as practice in the past two days were around the same time. Last year, the race being at night took several teams about half the race to get dialed in.

Hamlin and Biffle lead the two wide field out of turn four to the…

GREEN FLAG as Hamlin, who starts on the outside gets the drivers up to speed. Side by side through turns one and two. By the back straight, Hamlin is solidly leading by 5 car lengths. Lap 2 Johnson threatens Biffle for 2^nd place. Lap 3 Biffle holds off Johnson to retain second place.

Lap 3 we start to see the predominate line to be the outside at this time of the race. Later today we will see several lines of racing on the track. Lap 5 Biffle is off pace which allows Johnson to take second. Lap 6 the top five are Hamlin, Johnson, Biffle, Juan Palo Montoya and Kevin Harvick.

Lap 8 early movers on the track are Kurt Busch from 24^th up to 15^th, David Ragan 31^st to 18, Brian Vickers 32^nd to 19^th. Lap 11 Dale Earnhardt Jr. started his race 37^th is up to 21^st. Battle for the lead as Johnson takes over the lead.

Lap 12 Johnson pulls away from Hamlin to a 1.1 second lead. Lap 14 Biffle falls back a bit to 5^th place after a Harvick pass. Lap 15 Montoya moves into second place after a pass in the turn around Hamlin.

Lap 18 Johnson leads by 1.2 seconds over Montoya. There has been talk this weekend about Kyle Busch begin sick. He had to have Hamlin sub for him in the Nationwide race. Today, David Gilliland was in this race will sub for Busch. Normally Gilliland is a start and park driver. So Gilliland took his car to the garage to get ready to hop into Busch’s car at the first round of pit stops.

Lap 24 we start to see drivers on the top, middle and bottom of the track. Lap 25 your top ten drivers are Johnson, Montoya, Harvick, Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Biffle, Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr. and Casey Mears.

Lap 26 Montoya has gained momentum to catch Johnson and take over as the leader for the first time today. Lap 28 Mike Bliss. Gilliland, Dave Blaney and Michael McDowell are in the garage. Lap 31 Joe Nemechek and Max Papis are down laps. Nemechek is in the garage.

Lap 33 we hear talk about pit stops by the teams in 5 to 10 laps. Lap 35 Robby Gordon is the first taker on pit road. Lap 36 Bobby Labonte is in for his stop. Lap 37 Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton are in followed by Reed Sorenson and John Andretti. Lap 39 we see the flood gates open as the drivers peel off from the track.

Lap 40 Tony Stewart and Hamlin are in for their stops. Lap 41 Ryan Newman is in. lap 42 almost all the stops are complete. Lap 44 Johnson is back in the lead with Montoya on his bumper. Lap 45 Montoya rockets around Johnson at the start finish line for the lead. By the back stretch Johnson is working on Montoya to regain the lead, but it does not work.

Lap 47 David Reutimann started in the back 42^nd due to a shock inspection issue. Reutimann has moved up to 25^th. Newman started 36^th is up to 27^th.

Lap 50 your top twenty drivers are Montoya, Johnson, Harvick, Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Edwards, Biffle, Mark Martin, Truex Jr., Bowyer, Mears, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Jeff Burton, Earnhardt Jr., Vickers, Stewart, David Ragan and Kasey Kahne. Lap 51 Robby Gordon heads to the pits as his exhaust is sticking out of his car by two feet.

Lap 54 Montoya leads Johnson by 1.1 seconds. 3^rd place Harvick is 4 seconds, 4^th place Hamlin is passed by Jeff Gordon to take 4^th where both are 11 seconds back.

YELLOW FLAG lap 60 as Jamie McMurray wrecks against the wall in turn one. Reed Sorenson is the lucky dog. The leaders head to pit road. Montoya, Harvick, Hamlin, Jeff Gordon and Biffle are the top 5 back to the track. Johnson lost six spots on pit road. Newman took two tires to move up to 7^th, an improvement of 16 positions.

Kyle Busch gets out of the car with a severe flu. Gilliland hops in to be the relief driver. Busch looks really sick.

GREEN FLAG lap 65 as Montoya and Harvick double file restart the race. Jeff Gordon tries to push Montoya into the lead, but does not have enough momentum. Harvick leads out of turn two. Hamlin passes Harvick on the back straight. Lap 67 Harvicks efforts do not pay off, in fact he slips back to 5^th place.

Lap 68 out of turn two, Martin moves to the outside of Hamlin to take the lead. Lap 70 it is a four driver battle for the lead as Martin leads followed by Hamlin, Montoya and Jeff Gordon. Lap 71 Earnhardt Jr. has been moving up in the field to 11^th place. Lap 72 Montoya moves into the lead. Newman is up to 12^th.

Lap 75 your top ten drivers are Montoya, Martin, Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Hamlin, Harvick, Biffle, Edwards, Logano and Kurt Busch. Lap 77 Martin closes back in on Montoya for the lead.

YELLOW FLAG lap 81 as Ryan Newman blows out a right front tire with chunks flying from his car. Everyone heads to pit road. Truex Jr. takes two tires to gain 11 positions, Montoya, Martin, Harvick and Biffle. We also see a four wide exit out of pit road that NASCAR has to look at the tape for the line up. Sorenson is the lucky dog. Sorenson is the lucky dog again.

GREEN FLAG lap 87 as Truex Jr. tries the outside with Montoya on the inside. Lap 89 Truex Jr. falls back in positions to 4^th after Hamlin and Martin pass him. Battle for 10^th between Kurt Busch and Earnhardt Jr. Lap 91 Montoya leads Hamlin by 1.2 seconds.

Lap 92 the Chase run sees Martin as the points leader running 3^rd in the race followed by Johnson running 4^th, Montoya as the leader, Hamlin 2^nd and Stewart 12^th, 5^th in points.

Lap 94 Montoya increases his lead to 2.4 seconds. 5^th place Jeff Gordon is 4.5 seconds back and 10^th place Edwards is 8.3 seconds. Tony Stewart is up to 11^th. Klap 98 Stewart makes an outside pass around Edwards to 10^th.

Lap 100 your top twenty drivers are Montoya, Johnson, Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, martin, Harvick, Biffle, Kurt Busch, Earnhardt Jr., Stewart, Edwards, Burton, Mears, Kahne, Vickers, Truex Jr., Ragan, Bowyer, Kenseth and Hornish Jr.

The race so far has seen 13 lead changes among 6 leaders and 2 cautions.

Lap 108 movers since the start of the race have seen Kurt Busch move up 17 positions from 24^th to 7^th, Earnhardt Jr. 37^th to 8^th, Kahne 25^th to 14^th, Vickers 32^nd to 15^th, Ragan 31^st to 16^th and Reutimann from 42^nd to 25^th.

Leaders who have slipped back are Biffle who started 2^nd is 9^th, Truex Jr. 5^th to 20^th, Logano 6^th to 24^th, David Stremme 14^th to 32^nd, Papis who is down three laps 15^th to 36^th and Nemechek from 13^th to 39^th.

YELLOW FLAG lap 117 for debris. Another round of pit stops for out leaders. Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Johnson, Biffle and Montoya are the first five back to the track.

GREEN FLAG lap 122 as Hamlin tries the outside line for the restart. The inside line is the money line as Jeff Gordon has the lead. Gordon’s lead does not last for long as Hamlin proves to be the dominate car on the track as he powers past Gordon before turn one on the next lap.

Lap 125 (Hallway Home) the top ten drivers are Hamlin, Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Martin, Montoya, Biffle, Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Edwards and Harvick. Lap 127 we see Andretti get banged from behind by A. J. Allmendinger, as Allmendinger was the sandwich between Andretti and Paul Menard.

Lap 128 32 drivers remain on the lead lap. David Stremme, Bobbie Labonte, Menard who are a lap down. Papis is three laps down. McMurray is 36 laps down. In the garage is, Robby Gordon, Nemechek, McDowell, Blaney, Gilliland’s team (even though he is on track in Kyle Busch’s car) and Bliss.

Lap 132 Johnson moves himself back in front of Hamlin. Lap 135 Johnson is up to a 4.2 second lead. Kurt Busch and Earnhardt Jr. battle for 6^th place. Lap 136 Stewart and Burton battle for 13^th. Burton takes the position.

Lap 139 Mears and Biffle fight for 10^th. At the moment Mears has the position. In front of them, Montoya takes over 2^nd from Hamlin as they run 6 seconds behind Johnson.

Lap 142 Earnhardt challenges Kurt Busch for 6^th again. Busch holds him off. Lap 145 a couple of battles in the middle of the track between Newman and Truex Jr. for 18^th and Logano and Kenseth for 24^th. Lap 146 Earnhardt Jr. passes Kurt Busch for 6^th.

Lap 150 (100 to go) as Johnson leads by 7 seconds in front of Montoya, Jeff Gordon, Hamlin, Martin, Kurt Busch, Earnhardt Jr., Edwards, Harvick, Mears, Kahne, Biffle, Stewart, Burton, Marcos Ambrose, Truex Jr., Bowyer, Newman, Ragan and Sorenson.

Lap 154 we hear talk of green flag pit stops. Lap 156 the battle on the track is Earnhardt Jr. with Kurt Busch for 6^th. Lap 159 Logano is in for a stop. Sorenson, Gilliland in Kyle Busch’s car is in, McMurray is in. lap 160 The first Chase driver is in as Biffle heads to his pit stall. Lap 161 Johnson is in with 5 others.

The entrance to pit road is busy as ten to twelve drivers head to the stalls. Lap 163 Jeff Gordon and Earnhardt Jr. are in for new tires and fuel. Lap 163 Kurt Busch is in. Earnhardt continues the battle with Kurt Busch as they leave pit road. Stewart is the last one in for stops of the leaders which places Johnson back in front by 7.7 seconds in front of Montoya.

Lap 164 NASCAR hands out a speeding ticket to Stewart, who will have to perform a drive through penalty. Stewart goes a lap down. Lap 169 Robby Gordon is back in the race, 85 laps down. Lap 170 Johnson leads Montoya by 8 seconds, 3^rd place Martin by 12 seconds, 4^th place Jeff Gordon by 13 seconds, 5^th place Hamlin 16 seconds to all the way back to 10^th place Mears who is 24 seconds. 23 drivers remain on the lead lap.

Lap 175 your top ten drivers are Johnson, Montoya, Martin, Jeff Gordon, Hamlin, Harvick, Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Edwards and Mears.

YELLOW FLAG lap 186 for debris.

Johnson loses a few positions on pit road, which allows Hamlin to hop back into the lead.

GREEN FLAG lap 189 as Hamlin leads Montoya, Martin and Harvick in tow. Trouble hits as…

YELLOW FLAG lap 191 after Hamlin bounces off of the front of Montoya’s car on the front stretch, spins then hits the end of the pit road wall. His day looks to be done.

GREEN FLAG lap 195 as Montoya the leader on the inside and Johnson on his outside get the show going again. Johnson would jump back to the front on the next lap.

Over the next 15 laps Johnson would lead Montoya by several seconds.

40 to go Johnson looks to be repeating his race from last year of being in front. Currently, he is running 3,2 seconds in front of Montoya and 4 seconds in front of 3^rd place Jeff Gordon. 36 to go Hamlin returns to the track without a front nose and fenders, 25 laps down.

30 to go as 26 drivers remain on the lead lap. 5ht place Kurt Busch is 11 seconds back, 10^th place Ambrose is 19.5 seconds back. We start to see pit stops on the track. Johnson, Edwards, Earnhardt Jr. are in with several others.

25 to go pit lane is full. 20 to go Stewart is the last driver to make a stop. When Stewart pits, Johnson will be the leader once again followed by Jeff Gordon, Montoya, Martin, Andretti, Kurt Busch, Mears, Kahne and Earnhardt Jr.

17 to go Stewart leads Johnson by 10 seconds. Johnson in turn leads Jeff Gordon by 2 seconds. 16 to go Stewart heads to pit road.

YELLOW FLAG with 16 to go for debris. Stewart has a big save on pit road to be on the same lap as Johnson. Allmendinger is the lucky dog. It looks like Earnhardt Jr. was one of the first leaders who came down pit road. Earnhardt Jr. comes back out 15^th. This would be a loss of 6 positions. Truex Jr. is on pit road for an extended time.

GREEN FLAG with 12 to go as Johnson and Jeff Gordon lead the field back to speed. Jeff Gordon takes the lead, Behind them four wide racing on the back stretch.

YELLOW FLAG with 11 to go as Kurt Busch bangs off the wall out of turn four. Busch rebounds his car into Kahne, causing Kahne to get into Biffle where both slide down to the infield grass. Biffle is torn up big time, but able to return to the track. Kahne has some big damage on both sides of his car. Logano is the lucky dog.

GREEN FLAG with 7 to go. Jeff Gordon will start on the outside line, Johnson on the inside. We’ll see how this works. By turn one Kurt Busch to the inside of Newman around 8^th place. More four wide racing.

YELLOW FLAG with 6 to go as a big wreck hits our drivers in turn one as Elliott Sadler gets into the back of Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt Jr. shoots down into the right side door of Sorenson then continues down into Ambrose where they both crash into the apron of turn one.

On the high side of the track, Sadler slams into Allmendinger. Kasey Kahne slams into the back of Burton, Vickers is caught up in the mess along with a few others. Michael Waltrip somehow makes it through the crashes up the middle.

The RED FLAG is out to work on this mess. The red lasted for about 20 minutes.

GREEN FLAG with 3 to go Gordon and Johnson are side by side in turns one and two. Johnson takes the lead on the back side of the track.

2 to go as Johnson pulls away from the field. Stewart and Martin battle for 4^th place.

WHITE FLAG as Montoya is on the inside of Gordon for 2^nd place. Martin closes in on Montoya for 3^rd after Gordon takes 2^nd place. Out of turn 4 Johnson is 1.5 seconds in front of the field.

CHECKERED FLAG for Johnson. The rest of the top ten is Jeff Gordon, Montoya, Martin, Stewart, Edwards, Ragan, Kurt Busch, Bowyer and Harvick.

The race lasted for 3 and a half hours. 8 cautions came out for 30 laps, one red flag for 20 some minutes had the drivers waiting in turn 4. We saw 30 lead changes among 9 leaders.

Pos.	St.	No.	Driver	Make	Pts.	Bon.	Laps	Status
1	3	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	195	10	250	Running
2	10	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	175	5	250	Running
3	4	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	170	5	250	Running
4	9	5	Mark Martin	Chevrolet	165	5	250	Running
5	20	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	160	5	250	Running
6	11	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	150	0	250	Running
7	31	6	David Ragan	Ford	146	0	250	Running
8	24	2	Kurt Busch	Dodge	147	5	250	Running
9	8	33	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	138	0	250	Running
10	7	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	134	0	250	Running
11	16	7	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	130	0	250	Running
12	22	77	Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge	127	0	250	Running
13	17	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	124	0	250	Running
14	6	20	Joey Logano *	Toyota	121	0	250	Running
15	36	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	118	0	250	Running
16	14	12	David Stremme	Dodge	115	0	250	Running
17	34	55	Michael Waltrip	Toyota	112	0	250	Running
18	42	0	David Reutimann	Toyota	109	0	250	Running
19	40	34	John Andretti	Chevrolet	111	5	250	Running
20	2	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	103	0	250	Running
21	21	82	Scott Speed *	Toyota	100	0	250	Running
22	5	1	Martin Truex Jr.	Chevrolet	102	5	250	Running
23	27	47	Marcos Ambrose	Toyota	94	0	250	Running
24	19	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	91	0	248	Running
25	37	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	88	0	248	Running
26	35	96	Bobby Labonte	Ford	85	0	247	Running
27	41	98	Paul Menard	Ford	82	0	247	Running
28	26	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	79	0	247	Running
29	32	83	Brian Vickers	Toyota	76	0	246	Running
30	18	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	73	0	245	Running
31	28	43	Reed Sorenson	Dodge	70	0	244	Running
32	39	19	Elliott Sadler	Dodge	67	0	244	In Pit
33	12	44	A.J. Allmendinger	Dodge	64	0	244	Running
34	25	9	Kasey Kahne	Dodge	61	0	244	In Pit
35	15	113	Max Papis *	Toyota	58	0	244	Running
36	29	26	Jamie McMurray	Ford	55	0	209	Running
37	1	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	57	5	195	In Pit
38	38	7	Robby Gordon	Toyota	49	0	121	In Pit
39	13	187	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	46	0	29	Out of Race
40	43	36	Michael McDowell	Toyota	43	0	25	In Pit
41	33	66	Dave Blaney	Toyota	40	0	22	In Pit
42	30	171	David Gilliland	Chevrolet	37	0	13	In Pit
43	23	9	Mike Bliss	Dodge	34	0	11	Out of Race