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Ambrose hands Johnson Sears win

Reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson claimed his first ever road course victory at Infineon Raceway after Australian Marcos Ambrose handed him the lead in bizarre circumstances

The Hendrick Motorsports driver had stated before the weekend started that he was "irritated" by not having won a non-oval event yet, claiming he had worked hard to get better at his road course technique.

All his effort came to fruition on Sunday afternoon at Sears Point but not without some help from former Australian V8 Supercar champion Ambrose, who looked set to claim his maiden Sprint Cup win until his car came to a stop while running behind the pace car under caution.

Johnson had been dominant in the first part of the race, leading from lap one to 33 until he pitted for the first time under green. He would get back in front once the stops cycled through and after passing Red Bull's Mattias Ekstrom, who was running a different pitstop sequence in the early going.

However following his last stop for fuel on lap 79 Johnson lost the lead to Ambrose, who pitted a lap after him. From then on the JTG Daugherty racer looked in control, keeping the current champion at bay before the unexpected happened.

When the seventh caution of the day came out for an incident involving Penske's Brad Keselowski, Ambrose coasted behind the pace car, turning off his engine at times to save fuel. While going up the hill after Turn 1, his car did not fire back up and he rolled to a halt before Turn 2.

He was eventually able to get his engine restarted, but by then he had been passed by at least six cars, and NASCAR officials deemed he had failed to maintain "reasonable speed" behind the pace car, placing him back in seventh place for what turned out to be the final restart of the race.

"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," said Johnson, who was untouchable in the final sprint. "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!

"I just didn't really think that he would be the one to make a mistake. I was going to push and do what I could. To see the mistake happen as it did was totally off the wall. I don't know if I've ever seen that eliminate a guy from winning a race."

Robby Gordon managed to get the best out his strategy to finish second, pitting a number of times under the fourth caution to eventually go the distance without an additional stop, which most of the leaders completed later under green.

He had to fend off Richard Childress Racing's Kevin Harvick in the closing laps, to claim his best result of the season and get a much-needed boost in the owner standings.

Behind Harvick, who ran a clean race to retain the points' lead, Richard Petty's Kasey Kahne charged back following a poor first stint from pole to finish in fourth place.

Jeff Gordon rounded out the top five after an eventful race, which saw him take part in a number of incidents while trying to make progress through the field. Ambrose eventually finished behind him in seventh, followed by Greg Biffle.

Sears Point regular Boris Said led the race for a few laps but was hit by Penske's Brad Keselowski on the fourth restart. Said salvaged an eighth place ahead of Tony Stewart, who led the race at one stage, making it to the chequered flag on two stops only, while most of the top runners stopped at least three times for fuel and tyres.

Earnhardt Ganassi's Juan Pablo Montoya was down in 33rd with less than 25 laps to go after additional stops for fuel and tyres, but made the most of his grip advantage to finish 10th in the end.

After winning the previous two races, Denny Hamlin had a day to forget, getting caught in a number of incidents, including a multi-car crash on a restart on lap 68, which forced the race to be red flagged for more than 20 minutes to clean the wreckage on the start-finish stretch.

Jan Magnussen wrapped up a good Sprint Cup debut by finishing the race in 12th place for Phoenix Racing, while Red Bull's Mattias Ekstrom was 21st in the end, following a late incident with Keselowski while fighting for a top 10 finish.

Pos  Driver              Car        Laps
 1.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet  110
 2.  Robby Gordon        Toyota     110
 3.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  110
 4.  Kasey Kahne         Ford       110
 5.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet  110
 6.  Marcos Ambrose      Toyota     110
 7.  Greg Biffle         Ford       110
 8.  Boris Said          Ford       110
 9.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet  110
10.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Chevrolet  110
11.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet  110
12.  Jan Magnussen       Chevrolet  110
13.  AJ Allmendinger     Ford       110
14.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet  110
15.  Jamie McMurray      Chevrolet  110
16.  Ryan Newman         Chevrolet  110
17.  Elliott Sadler      Ford       110
18.  Scott Speed         Toyota     110
19.  David Gilliland     Ford       110
20.  David Reutimann     Toyota     110
21.  Mattias Ekstrom     Toyota     110
22.  Paul Menard         Ford       110
23.  Bobby Labonte       Chevrolet  110
24.  Travis Kvapil       Ford       110
25.  David Ragan         Ford       110
26.  JJ Yeley            Dodge      110
27.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  110
28.  Kevin Conway        Ford       110
29.  Carl Edwards        Ford       110
30.  Matt Kenseth        Ford       110
31.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet  110
32.  Kurt Busch          Dodge      110
33.  Joey Logano         Toyota     108
34.  Denny Hamlin        Toyota     103
35.  Brad Keselowski     Dodge      102
36.  Sam Hornish Jr      Dodge      93
37.  Dave Blaney         Toyota     86
38.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet  86
39.  Kyle Busch          Toyota     76
40.  Joe Nemechek        Toyota     71
41.  PJ Jones            Toyota     68
42.  Martin Truex Jr     Toyota     66
43.  Max Papis           Toyota     65

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