Jimmie Johnson

Defending champion Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus have done it again.  After his Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon dominated the race with Johnson running 2nd for most of it, after the final pitstop and caution flag, Johnson hunted down Gordon, passed him with ease and pulled away to an easy win, his 2nd in a row as he goes for his 5th straight title.

Gordon led more than 210 laps of the 267-lap event before losing the lead to Johnson, who seems hell-bent to win his fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship before Gordon does.

Johnson won last week at Auto Club Speedway and told members of the media leading up to Sunday's race he could care less about the people who think he's tainting NASCAR racing with his dominance.

"You compete to win. I'm not gonna apologize for winning," he said. "I want to win every race."

While Johnson drove away for Sunday's victory, Kevin Harvick also passed Gordon for the runner-up spot. Gordon finished third ahead of fourth-place Mark Martin. And Matt Kenseth edged Joey Logano for fifth. Logano was sixth, a very impressive finish for the young driver. Tony Stewart was seventh, Clint Bowyer eighth, Kasey Kahne ninth and Greg Biffle 10th.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr., continued his struggle to compete with the frontrunners by finishing 16th.

Jeff Gordon dominated Sunday's Shelby American race in Las Vegas -- leading 219 laps of the 267-lap race. He finished third.

On a sunny, gorgeous afternoon, hometown favorite and pole winner Kurt Busch led the field into turn one but Gordon went to the front shortly thereafter. Two laps weren't completed before the first caution flag waved. Rookie Kevin Conway lost control of his Ford and tapped the wall out of turn four.

Gordon led on the restart at lap five. When the field settled in at 20 laps, Gordon was leading with the Busch Boys in tow. Newman was fourth with Earnhardt Jr. fifth. Rounding out the top 10 were Biffle, Stewart, Edwards, Montoya and Logano.

Mike Bliss brought out the second caution flag on lap 46 when he got into the wall in turn four. Gordon beat everyone out of the pits to maintain his lead. The buzz all week had centered on speed with the track record being broken by Kurt Busch and numerous other drivers but Sunday's pace was slower than anticipated due to the sunshine.

A caution light malfunction brought out another yellow flag right after the restart. The caution lights failed to shut off so NASCAR had to slow the field and fix the problem.

In the process, Biffle took the lead with Gordon second. On the ensuing restart at lap 57, it was Biffle, Gordon, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Kenseth, Edwards, Johnson, Earnhardt Jr., Stewart, Newman and Burton.

Gordon quickly went to the front again. Kyle Busch took the top spot on lap 65, and Kenseth moved into second but Gordon was having none of that and went back out front on lap 67.

By lap 70, last week's winner in California, Johnson, had moved from 20th starting position to third place behind teammate Gordon and Kenseth. 

At 80 laps, Gordon still led with Kenseth and Johnson right behind. Biffle was fourth, Edwards fifth, Kyle Busch sixth, Stewart seventh, Burton eighth, Kurt Busch ninth and Earnhardt Jr. 10th.

At lap 88, Hornish Jr. spun off turn four and complained to his crew his car was so loose he couldn't hang on to it. Johnson had a bad pit stop this round when his tire changer had a lug nut problem. He came in third and went back out sixth. Kenseth took the lead out of the pits with Edwards ahead of Gordon.

At lap 93, after the restart, teammates Juan Pablo Montoya and Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray tangled, and Kurt Busch got caught up in it to bring out the fifth caution.

On the restart at lap 97, Gordon recaptured the lead from Kenseth. Edwards was third. Gordon, at this point in the race, seemed to clearly have the fastest car. Another caution light malfunction prompted the sixth caution period of the day at 108 laps.

The restart on lap 114 had Scott Speed in front briefly but Gordon sped past before they made a lap. Kenseth was next with Johnson third and Kyle Busch fourth. Burton was fifth.

At the halfway point (133 laps), it was an all Hendrick Chevrolet race with Gordon leading and Johnson second, a battle of four-time champions. Kenseth was third in a Roush Ford.  Two Childress Chevrolets were running fourth and fifth, Burton and Harvick. Kyle Busch, the defending race champion, was sixth. Rounding out the top 10 were Stewart, Martin, Kahne and Logano. Earnhardt Jr. was 11th.

Results

FIN	ST	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	PTS/BNS	LAPS	STATUS
1	20	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe's / Kobalt Tools	190/5	267	Running
2	34	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Pennzoil Ultra	175/5	267	Running
3	2	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	Pepsi Max / DuPont	175/10	267	Running
4	8	5	Mark Martin	Chevrolet	GoDaddy.com	160/0	267	Running
5	11	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Crown Royal	160/5	267	Running
6	6	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	The Home Depot	150/0	267	Running
7	9	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Old Spice / Office Depot	151/5	267	Running
8	13	33	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	Cheerios / Hamburger Helper	147/5	267	Running
9	19	9	Kasey Kahne	Ford	Budweiser	138/0	267	Running
10	7	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	3M	139/5	267	Running
11	22	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	Caterpillar	130/0	267	Running
12	12	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Aflac / Kellogg's	127/0	267	Running
13	17	00	David Reutimann	Toyota	Tums	124/0	267	Running
14	32	47	Marcos Ambrose	Toyota	Kingsford / Scott Products	121/0	267	Running
15	5	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	M&M's	123/5	267	Running
16	4	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	National Guard / Amp Energy	115/0	267	Running
17	26	98	Paul Menard	Ford	Moen / Menards	112/0	267	Running
18	3	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	Tornados	109/0	267	Running
19	27	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Ground	106/0	267	Running
20	35	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	NAPA Gold Filters	103/0	267	Running
21	28	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	Furniture Row Companies	100/0	267	Running
22	23	82	Scott Speed	Toyota	Red Bull	102/5	267	Running
23	18	6	David Ragan	Ford	UPS	94/0	267	Running
24	25	34	Travis Kvapil	Ford	Long John Silver's	91/0	265	Running
25	40	43	A.J. Allmendinger	Ford	Valvoline	88/0	265	Running
26	16	12	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	Penske Racing	85/0	265	Running
27	37	19	Elliott Sadler	Ford	Stanley	82/0	265	Running
28	14	77	Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge	Mobil 1	79/0	264	Running
29	36	66	Dave Blaney	Toyota	Prism Motorsports	76/0	264	Running
30	38	38	David Gilliland	Ford	Taco Bell	73/0	263	Running
31	31	83	Brian Vickers	Toyota	Red Bull	70/0	262	Running
32	42	7	Robby Gordon	Toyota	Monster Energy	67/0	262	Running
33	21	13	Max Papis	Toyota	GEICO	64/0	262	Running
34	24	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	McDonald's	61/0	260	Running
35	1	2	Kurt Busch	Dodge	Miller Lite	58/0	259	Running
36	39	37	Kevin Conway *	Ford	Extenze	55/0	256	Running
37	10	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	Target	52/0	247	Running
38	29	71	Bobby Labonte	Chevrolet	TaxSlayer.com	49/0	216	Running
39	30	36	Mike Bliss	Chevrolet	KimKardashianFragrance / Sephora.com	46/0	135	In Pit
40	41	26	Boris Said	Ford	Sacred Power / Southern Pride Trucking	43/0	134	In Pit
41	15	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	FrontRowJoe.com	40/0	65	In Pit
42	33	55	Michael McDowell	Toyota	Prism Motorsports	37/0	40	In Pit
43	43	09	Aric Almirola	Chevrolet	Phoenix Racing	34/0	23	In Pit

* Denotes Rookie