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By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(June 20, 2010)

SONOMA, Calif.—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 win the first road-course race 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.

Ambrose’s engine finally started, but by then, the first six cars in the running order had passed him. Consequently, Ambrose restarted seventh with five laps left and was able to recover one position before the finish.

“Boys … finally,” Johnson radioed to his crew after crossing the finish line. “Better be ready to drink some beer here in a little bit. Woohoo! About time! Boooyah!”

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.

Ambrose could only reflect on what might have been. Only three other foreign drivers—and no Australian—had ever won a Cup race. Nor had team owners Tad Geschickter, Jodi Geschickter and Brad Daugherty.

“I was leading the race and had trouble getting the motor cranked back up a little bit there, and NASCAR made the call,” Ambrose said as he walked back to his transporter after the race. “I was trying to save fuel, and the motor shut off. It didn’t recrank the way it should. I didn’t stop rolling, but it is what it is.

“I don’t think (NASCAR should have made that call). But that’s in my opinion, because I lost the race. There’s not a lot of words to say. I’m just sorry for my guys.”

Johnson crossed the finish line 3.105 seconds ahead of Gordon and moved up four spots in the standings to second, 140 points behind leader Kevin Harvick, who ran third. Harvick began the day 22 points ahead of Kyle Busch, 47 ahead of Hamlin and 118 ahead of Kurt Busch. But all three struggled. Kyle Busch finished 39th, Hamlin 34th and Kurt Busch 32nd.

Polesitter Kasey Kahne was fourth, and Jeff Gordon fifth, but the major topic of discussion after the race was Ambrose’s gaffe.

“With Marcos, we came around through Turn 1, and normally guys shut the car off downhill, coasting to save fuel,” Johnson said. “I didn’t think at first that he had shut the car off, going up the hill—that’s just the last place that he would probably do it.

“I thought maybe he ran out of fuel or had an electrical problem or something major, because the car just came to a stop. At that point, I’m thinking, ‘How does the procedure work?’ I know when you come to a stop, you’re clearly not maintaining a reasonable speed, and it would be interesting to see where they put him.

“In one respect, I felt like, if they put him back up in front of me, I’d kind of see that as OK, although I’d be raising hell on the radio and cussing like crazy and trying to fight it, because it looked like his car broke, and it shut off. The way the rule reads, you have to maintain a reasonable speed, and coming to a stop on the racetrack is no speed.

“All that being said, I feel bad for him. His team owners gave my chance in (the) Nationwide (Series) in ’98. … It was definitely a gift kind of handed to us.”

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1 2 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe’s Chevrolet
2 16 7 Robby Gordon Monster Energy Toyota
3 4 29 Kevin Harvick Shell / Pennzoil Chevrolet
4 1 9 Kasey Kahne Budweiser Ford
5 5 24 Jeff Gordon DuPont Chevrolet
6 6 47 Marcos Ambrose Clorox / Kleenex Toyota
7 9 16 Greg Biffle 3M Ford
8 17 26 Boris Said Air Guard / gtwgps.com Ford
9 7 14 Tony Stewart Office Depot / Old Spice Chevrolet
10 14 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Target Chevrolet
11 24 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. AMP Energy / National Guard Chevrolet
12 32 09 Jan Magnussen hendrickcars.com Chevrolet
13 15 43 A J Allmendinger Insignia HDTV / Best Buy Ford
14 11 5 Mark Martin GoDaddy.com Chevrolet
15 25 1 Jamie McMurray McDonald’s Chevrolet
16 13 39 Ryan Newman Haas Automation Chevrolet
17 21 19 Elliott Sadler Stanley Ford
18 23 82 Scott Speed Red Bull Toyota
19 26 38 David Gilliland Taco Bell Ford
20 33 00 David Reutimann Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota
21 38 83 Mattias Ekstrom Red Bull Toyota
22 18 98 Paul Menard CertainTeed / Menards Ford
23 8 71 Bobby Labonte Adobe Road Winery Chevrolet
24 40 37 Travis Kvapil Long John Silver’s Ice Flow Lemonade Ford
25 42 6 David Ragan UPS Ford
26 37 46 J J Yeley International Trucks Dodge
27 30 31 Jeff Burton Caterpillar Chevrolet
28 41 34 Kevin Conway # Extenze Ford
29 19 99 Carl Edwards Aflac Ford
30 34 17 Matt Kenseth Crown Royal Black Ford
31 22 33 Clint Bowyer Cheerios / Hamburger Helper Chevrolet
32 3 2 Kurt Busch Miller Lite Dodge
33 20 20 Joey Logano Home Depot Toyota
34 12 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Express Toyota
35 36 12 Brad Keselowski Penske Dodge
36 39 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Mobil 1 Dodge
37 43 66 Dave Blaney PRISM Motorsports Toyota
38 31 78 Regan Smith Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet
39 27 18 Kyle Busch Pedigree Toyota
40 28 87 Joe Nemechek NEMCO Motorsports Toyota
41 35 07 P J Jones SpeedFactory.TV Toyota
42 10 56 Martin Truex Jr. NAPA Auto Parts Toyota
43 29 13 Max Papis GEICO Toyota

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Race Recap / Infineon

10 Juan Montoya
9 Tony Stewart
8 Boris Said
7 Greg Biffle
6 Marcos Ambrose
5 Jeff Gordon
4 Kasey Kahne the pole sitter gets his 2nd straight top 5
3 Kevin Harvick keeps the points lead
2 Robby Gordon with his best finish since 2005

Victory Lane

1 Jimmie Johnson is now a road course winner with his first career, it’s his 4th win of the season, and 51st career win. He rockets back to 2nd in the point standings. Jimmie also led the most laps.

Other stories on the day

-Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer got spun. Kyle Busch went to the garage with heavy front end damage

-Denny Hamlin’s hood flew up over his windshield from earlier damage. He finished 34th

-Jeff Gordon spun David Ragan and Martin Truex Jr. inside a half a lap, he didn’t make many friends out there.

-A big wreck on a restart involving Sam Hornish Jr., Denny Hamlin, Regan Smith, Max Papis, and Martin Truex Jr. with many others getting damage as well.

-Marcos Ambrose while leading with under 10 laps to go, cut his engine to save fuel under caution, it stalled and he restarted with 5 to go in 7th. This was one of the biggest racing mistakes in quite a while.