Take one more item off of Jimmie Johnson’s “to do list” as the four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion won at Infineon Raceway. Although it was his 51rst win it was his first on a road course. He led a total of 55 laps.
Jimmie Johnson couldn’t believe his good luck when he saw Marcus Ambrose stop on the track, under caution with less than six laps to go. “I thought he broke or something. I didn’t know what was going on. Unfortunate for him, he had the fastest car at the end and I know he’s kicking himself for whatever went wrong there.” Australia’s Ambrose, who led twice for 35 laps was headed for victory lane when Brad Keselowski spun in turn seven bringing out the seventh caution on lap 104 of the 110-lap race. Ambrose ended up sixth. Robby Gordon finished second and points leader, Kevin Harvick finished third. Marcus Ambrose, trying to save fuel, switched off his engine to save fuel. His Toyota stalled, he came to a stop, and NASCAR officials slotted him seventh before the final restart. He explained I had turned the motor off trying to save a bit of fuel and just trouble getting it refired again. That’s it.” NASCAR Rule Book Section 10-4 relating to cautions “all cars must reduce their speed to a cautious pace, maintain their respective track position.”
Jimmie Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus, said" I hate it for those guys. They clearly had the best car on the short run.'' Explaining what he saw Johnson said of his virtual gift, “but with Marcos, you know, came around through turn one. Normally guys shut the car off downhill coasting to save fuel. I didn't think at first that he had shut the car off going up the hill. That's just the last place you would probably do it. So I thought maybe he ran out of fuel or had an electrical problem, you know, something major, because the car just came to a stop. I'm like, Wow. “ The race resembled the previous day’s Nationwide race with a quiet first half, then a 21 minute red flag for a six car crash followed by a record seven cautions for 14laps. Many of the cautions came about shortly after restarts. One particular one involved Jeff Gordon who finished fifth. Gordon spun Martin Truex Jr. Truex said “the last one was just the victim of circumstance. I guess Jeff figured he couldn’t catch us on the race track he was going to spin us out on the restart.” Gordon was apologetic after the race and admitted fault. "I feel terrible about it & I'll do what I can to patch it up,” he said. Denmark’s Jan Magnussen finished 12th after starting 32nd in a Chevrolet. DTM driver, Mattias Ekstrom, who qualified 38th finished 21rst, but he the Swedish-born driver lead seven laps during pit stop sequences. Robby Gordon’s and he small team need the good result. “My team needs a little bit of morale here and there. This will boost morale back at the workshop. I will say that we will come to Watkins Glen guns blazing. We'll get a lot of confidence going into the Glen and spend a bunch of time getting more rear grip. At the end of the day, that's what we struggled on with Jimmie,” Gordon said. Kevin Harvick, commented “it was a good day for us. I felt like we had a car that was good on speed there at the end. You always have a little something left.”
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