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Jimmie Johnson won his fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of 2009 Sunday afternoon in the Pepsi 500 at the Auto Club Speedway, scoring his fourth win at the two-mile California track and taking the point lead from teammate Mark Martin in the process.
"I try not to the have the mind-set that we come back to a track that we've had success at and we're expected to run well," Johnson said after becoming the all-time winner at Fontana. "You have to go out every week, and it's the same thing for this championship."
The driver of car 48 was virtually unstoppable after the sun appeared on lap 66 of the 250 lap race with Johnson surviving a number of late race restarts to cross the finish line 1.603 seconds ahead of Jeff Gordon. Johnson credited the sun for changing the track conditions to his benefit. "We did work on the car some, but I think it came to us," Johnson said. "I think it made the track slick, and the lines I was running and the balance we had with the car really helped us. So it really came in our direction." Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon said the 48 team was just unbeatable. "They're in another category," Gordon said. "We've got to find out what we're missing. The only thing I felt bad about was that we finished second, and we're in a second-class category. We're good, but we're not good enough. We're doing everything we can to be good enough, but it's just not there. We've got to search and find something. We've got to be better than that." Polesitter Denny Hamlin crashed after leading the field to the green flag on the lap 190 restart, his second accident of the weekend while running out front. Hamlin, while relief driving for an under the weather Kyle Busch, crashed while leading Saturday's Nationwide race. "I thought I was clear and misjudged it," Hamlin said. "I got to apologize to the team. They deserve better than that. They got me out front. It was a bad mistake." Kyle Busch, battling the flu, bronchitis and a sinus infection since arriving in California, woke up Sunday morning feeling worse than he had all weekend and gave up the seat in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to relief driver David Gilliland on the first caution. Gilliland drove the #18 to a 24th place finish. "I'm going to go lay down for a little bit and see if I can get some fluids or something in me at the infield care center," Busch said after climbing from his car. "I'm sorry I had to get out. I'm not feeling well. I was coughing real bad out there." MORE NASCAR NEWS
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