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LAS VEGAS, NV. — Jimmie Johnson has done it again. He played possum most of the day and then turned on the afterburner to pass teammate Jeff Gordon with just 16 laps to go and win the Shelby American NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

FULL RACE RESULTS

Gordon led more than 210 laps of the 267-lap event before losing the lead to Johnson, who seems hellbent to win his fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship before Gordon does.

Johnson won last week at Auto Club Speedway and told members of the media leading up to Sunday’s race he could care less about the people who think he’s tainting NASCAR racing with his dominance.
“You compete to win. I’m not gonna apologize for winnning,” he said. “I want to win every race.”
While Johnson drove away for Sunday’s victory, Kevin Harvick also passed Gordon for the runnerup spot. Gordon finished third ahead of fourth-place Mark Martin. And Matt Kenseth edged Joey Logano for fifth. Logano was sixth, a very impressive finish for the young driver. Tony Stewart was seventh, Clint Bowyer eighth, Kasey Kahne ninth and Greg Biffle 10th.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., continued his struggle to compete with the frontrunners by finishing 16th.
On a sunny, gorgeous afternoon, hometown favorite and pole winner Kurt Busch led the field into turn one but Gordon went to the front shortly thereafter. Two laps weren’t completed before the first caution flag waved. Rookie Kevin Conway lost control of his Ford and tapped the wall out of turn four.

Gordon led on the restart at lap five. When the field settled in at 20 laps, Gordon was leading with the Busch Boys in tow. Newman was fourth with Earnhardt Jr. fifth. Rounding out the top 10 were Biffle, Stewart, Edwards, Montoya and Logano.

Mike Bliss brought out the second caution flag on lap 46 when he got into the wall in turn four. Gordon beat everyone out of the pits to maintain his lead. The buzz all week had centered on speed with the track record being broken by Kurt Busch and numerous other drivers but Sunday’s pace was slower than anticipated due to the sunshine.

A caution light malfunction brought out another yellow flag right after the restart. The caution lights failed to shut off so NASCAR had to slow the field and fix the problem.

In the process, Biffle took the lead with Gordon second. On the ensuing restart at lap 57, it was Biffle, Gordon, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Kenseth, Edwards, Johnson, Earnhardt Jr., Stewart, Newman and Burton.

Gordon quickly went to the front again. Kyle Busch took the top spot on lap 65, and Kenseth moved into second but Gordon was having none of that and went back out front on lap 67.

By lap 70, last week’s winner in California, Johnson, had moved from 20th starting position to third place behind teammate Gordon and Kenseth.

At 80 laps, Gordon still led with Kenseth and Johnson right behind. Biffle was fourth, Edwards fifth, Kyle Busch sixth, Stewart seventh, Burton eighth, Kurt Busch ninth and Earnhardt Jr. 10th.

At lap 88, Hornish Jr. spun off turn four and complained to his crew his car was so loose he couldn’t hang on to it. Johnson had a bad pit stop this round when his tire changer had a lug nut problem. He came in third and went back out sixth. Kenseth took the lead out of the pits with Edwards ahead of Gordon.

At lap 93, after the restart, teammates Juan Pablo Montoya and Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray tangled, and Kurt Busch got caught up in it to bring out the fifth caution.

On the restart at lap 97, Gordon recaptured the lead from Kenseth. Edwards was third. Gordon, at this point in the race, seemed to clearly have the fastest car. Another caution light malfunction prompted the sixth caution period of the day at 108 laps.

The restart on lap 114 had Scott Speed in front briefly but Gordon sped past before they made a lap. Kenseth was next with Johnson third and Kyle Busch fourth. Burton was fifth.

At the halfway point (133 laps), it was an all Hendrick Chevrolet race with Gordon leading and Johnson second, a battle of four-time champions. Kenseth was third in a Roush Ford. Two Childress Chevrolets were running fourth and fifth, Burton and Harvick. Kyle Busch, the defending race champion, was sixth. Rounding out the top 10 were Stewart, Martin, Kahne and Logano. Earnhardt Jr. was 11th.

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Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon battle in the closing laps at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Jimmie Johnson picks up his second win in a row and 49th career.  It’s the 7th time he wins back to back races.  He is now the all time leader on 1.5 mile tracks with 15.  The 5th win for Hendrick Motorsports at Las Vegas.

http://i.cdn.turner.com/nascar/.element/swf/2.2/sect/video/nascar_embed.swf?context=nascar_viral&videoId=cup/2010/02/28/cup_las_high_final.nascar

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RACE RECAP | LAS VEGAS
10 Greg Biffle
9 Kasey Kahne
8 Clint Bowyer
7 Tony Stewart
6 Joey Logano
5 Matt Kenseth
4 Mark Martin
3 Jeff Gordon
2 Kevin Harvick

VICTORY LANE

1 Jimmie Johnson picks up his second win in a row and 49th career. It’s the 7th time he wins back to back races. He is now the all time leader on 1.5 mile tracks with 15. The 5th win for Hendrick Motorsports at Las Vegas

OTHER STORIES ON THE DAY

-On lap 93 teammates Jamie McMurray (34th) and Juan Pablo Montoya (37th) got into a wreck along with the 2 car of pole sitter Kurt Busch

-Multiple malfunctions of the caution lights for some reason

-Jeff Gordon led the most laps at 218

-Dale Earnhardt Jr. got lapped by Jimmie Johnson late in the race and finished 16th

-Tons of pit road speeding violations

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Guest Column by Cathy Elliott

It seems ironic that as NASCAR is preparing to race at perhaps its most modern, contemporary track of all — Las Vegas Motor Speedway — one of the most significant events that occurred in the sport during the week leading up to the race focused not on the NASCAR’s present, but on its past.

On Wednesday, February 24, 73-year-old J.C. Elder — “Suitcase Jake” — passed away.

Newer NASCAR fans may not know much, if anything, about Suitcase Jake Elder. In the days before celebrity crew chiefs like Chad Knaus and Greg Zipadelli were representing their team sponsors in national television commercials, Elder was hunkered down in America’s garages, interacting with a chassis rather than a camera lens.

His third-grade education might not have allowed for much of a detailed explanation about NASCAR telemetry; Rusty Wallace once described his tool box as being filled with “so much prehistoric stuff that it was unreal.” Elder ground out speed the old-fashioned way, by getting his hands dirty.

And he was very, very good at it. The long list of drivers he helped get to Victory Lane includes Darrell Waltrip, Fred Lorenzen, Benny Parsons.

He was Mario Andretti’s crew chief when Andretti won the 1967 Daytona 500, and David Pearson’s crew chief when the “Silver Fox” — NASCAR does love its nicknames — won back to back Sprint Cup Series championships in 1968 and ‘69.

The man who acquired his nickname thanks to a reputation for being somewhat of a NASCAR job hopper also worked with Dale Earnhardt for a while, helping “The Intimidator” win NASCAR Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year honors in 1979. In fact, his character was even featured briefly in the 2004 ESPN original movie “3: The Dale Earnhardt Story.”

The famous names the sport is built on were propped up, gassed up and sped up by Suitcase Jake Elder. He has left an indelible impression, and will not be forgotten.

NASCAR honors its history.

It also celebrates its future. Even as tears fell for one of the most successful and respected crew chiefs in stock car racing history, eyes lit up in another part of the country, on the very same day, as Carl Edwards and his wife Kate welcomed 8 lb., 4 oz. Anne Katherine Edwards into the world.

In a single day, NASCAR lost a piece of its past, and gained a part of its future. What a poignant, albeit bittersweet, example of the way the world renews itself.

The Edwards’ baby’s story is yet to be written. I’m sure we’ll be seeing her at pre-race ceremonies, and maybe even in Victory Lane, before the end of the season.

Maybe she’ll be the CEO of “Backflip Motorsports” someday, in the tradition of Kelley Earnhardt.

She could become a doctor like her mom, or – I say this with my fingers crossed — a race car driver like her dad. We just don’t know.

But we do know this. She is part of the NASCAR community now, and fittingly, she has gotten off to a great start, with a nickname of her own — “Annie.”

A flight of fancy it may be, but still it is nice to imagine that the spirits of Annie Edwards and Suitcase Jake Elder may have nodded to one another as they passed on February 24.

As one bade its final farewell to the NASCAR family and the other said hello for the very first time, perhaps they both smiled to think that on this momentous day, the circle of life was an oval.

The opinions expressed in this articles are solely those of the author and not this website.