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Johnson Pits to Win Auto Club 500

The first Sprint win this season for the 2009 champion Jimmie Johnson came this weekend at the Auto Club Speedway, but not before a fair enough amount of good luck, or inspiration, helped the Hendrick Motorsports driver.

On lap 223, Johnson pulled onto pit road only seconds before the sixth and final caution flag came out, following a contact between Brad Keselowski and David Reutimann. Johnson managed to beat the pace car to the scoring line at the exit. As the lead cars pitted, Johnson inherited the lead and held it for a restart on Lap 231.

"They're really good, but they're also really, really lucky,
" runner up Kevin Harvick said about the incident which brought Johnson the win. "They have a golden horseshoe stuck up their a** -- there's no getting around that."

"Fortune came our way," Johnson said according to NASCAR. "We hit pit road, and the caution came out and gave us track position. We lost the handle in the second half of the race. We were making gains coming back, but a lot of other guys were ahead of us, and I knew it would be tough to pass them."

"I'm not going to lie -- the fact that we were on pit road gave us track position, and I drove my butt off. We finally got the car turning -- it was just a little too loose. The 29 Harvick was coming, but then he hit the wall and let us get it."
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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