By Ryan - Posted on February 24, 2010

Jimmie Johnson used fortunate timing on pit road to pull out the victory Sunday at Fontana – the 48th career win for the driver of car number 48. Fontana was the scene of his first Cup Series victory in 2002, and the place Johnson considers his home track.

Nearing the end of the race, on lap 223, Brad Keselowski and David Reutimann made contact off Turn 4, which sent Keselowski spinning. This brought out the final caution flag of the race. At the time of Keselowski’s spin, Johnson was on pit road. When NASCAR called the caution, Johnson sped away from his pit box, and beat the pace car to the scoring line. The remainder of the lead-lap cars then pitted under caution, and Johnson inherited the lead.

Johnson knows that this was a fortunate turn of events for him. "Fortune came our way," Johnson said. "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 was coming, but then he hit the wall and let us get it.

However, Johnson does not attribute all of his race success to luck. "Yes, we were lucky, but you don't get lucky and win four championships and 48 races,” he said.
Kevin Harvick, who Johnson battled for the win, also acknowledged the lucky break that Johnson received. "They're really good, but they're also really, really lucky," Harvick said. "They have a golden horseshoe stuck up their a** -- there's no getting around that."

Harvick had narrowed Johnson’s lead to 3/10 of a second, but brushed the wall. This knocked the fenders in enough to slow him down, and assure the win for Johnson.

The top 10 at Fontana included a good-size collection of veterans.  Jeff Burton posted his first top-ten finish at Fontana, placing third. He was followed by Mark Martin and Joey Logano. Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Clint Boyer, Tony Stewart, and Greg Biffle rounded out the top 10.

Johnson’s performance in this race showed any doubters (after his 35th place finish last week at Daytona) that he is always a force to be reckoned with.  The only question for the next Fontana race is: Can anybody beat Jimmie Johnson? He has won four of the last six races there.