One of only two road tracks on the circuit, Infineon Raceway has posed significant challenges for NASCAR’s elite and all who steer the course. Although initially drivers were hesitant to embrace road courses and merely tolerated their presence, more and more are starting to enjoy the task. The days of road track mavens like Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart easily dominating these courses are a mere memory and though they still linger as formidable foes, other drivers are turning in winning performances as well.
Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 was the most recent example of the trend as Jimmy Johnson picked up his first career road course win. The 51st career victory for Johnson and the 4th of this season, Johnson capitalized on a late gaffe to catapult to second place in the overall Cup standings.
Johnson jumped out to an early lead at the start of the race and held it through the first thirty-five laps, only succumbing to Tony Stewart because of a pit stop. Johnson would reclaim the lead eight laps later, passing Mattias Ekstrom but was closely followed by Marcos Ambrose. Ambrose would eventually grab his first lead of the day at lap 62 and would battle with Johnson the rest of the way.
Late in the race, with Ambrose’s first Sprint Cup Series win only nine laps away; a caution flag flew after fluid began to spill form the car of Brad Keselowski. What should have been nothing more than a delay of an inevitable win for Ambrose, turned into an unfortunate error that cost him the win. Ambrose, trying to conserve fuel during the caution, turned his motor on and off and eventually his car stalled, allowing six cars to pass him by. NASCAR ruled that Ambrose failed to keep pace and ordered him to seventh place when the race restarted with five laps remaining.
Ambrose’s misfortunate was all Johnson needed. Johnson led the field as the green flag flew for lap 106 and with just five laps to go, Johnson cruised to the victory. Robbie Gordon finished second and series point leader Kevin Harvick was third. Kasey Kahne, who won last years race at Infineon came in fourth and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top five.
