PREFERS TEMPLE'S OFFENSE TO PRINCETON'S
The three-time defending Sprint Cup champion pulled away from Jeff Gordon following a restart with 3 laps left to win the Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway yesterday for his fifth victory of the year and 45th overall.
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 spot atop the series easily.
"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."
Johnson, who led 126 laps, dominated the second half of the race but had to sweat out a series of double-file restarts following a number of late-race collisions, including an eight-car pileup that forced a 22-minute red flag with 6 laps remaining.
Waiting out the delay, Johnson was worried that he didn't have enough car to hold off Gordon. He shouldn't have. His No. 48 Chevrolet roared away from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate on the restart as he quickly put the rest of the field in his rearview mirror to vault him into the points lead for the first time all season.
"That's it, that's what we want," Johnson said. "We've just got to keep chipping away."
Juan Pablo Montoya was third, his fourth straight top-five finish. 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.
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