Johnson earns another Vegas victory

Johnson led a total of 88 laps and was the man to beat all day, recovering from a penalty halfway through the distance to comfortably beat his Hendrick Motorsports teammate and car-owner Jeff Gordon.

"Man, there was a lot of great competition on the track," said Johnson, who scored his 24th career victory in the Nextel Cup.

"It was obviously a good day for us. We had some issues. We had a tyre roll away on a pit stop that caused us some trouble.

"Over the long haul, I don't think I really had the speed to run with Jeff Gordon or Jeff Burton. But at the end, we put right side tyres on and made a tyre pressure adjustment that really brought the comfort back to the car.

"I had that edge I could lean on and push hard to get by Gordon and Burton, and then hold off Gordon at the end. It was a great day for us."

After the 'Demolition Derby' that was the Busch Series race on Saturday it was expected that the Nextel Cup race would see just as many wrecks, especially as the track reached more than 40 degrees celsius, putting yet more stress on the very hard Goodyear tyres.

But despite many crashes taking place during the 267 laps, the race was a lot less dramatic than had been feared. In the first 20 laps however, it looked like it was going to be a very long afternoon for the Nextel Cup drivers on the resurfaced 1.5-mile oval, as three cautions came out during that period.

Rookie David Ragan brought out the first one after spinning out of Turn 2, while a few laps later it was Casey Mears who took the worst part in an incident caused by Robby Gordon and Ward Burton into Turn 3. Dave Blaney and Joe Nemechek were also in trouble on lap 18 and had to pack up early.

Johnson grabbed the lead of the race for the first time on lap 22 and kept it until he was forced to go to the back of the field due to a pit violation during his stop in the fifth caution of the race on lap 107.

The left rear tyre that was changed on his car rolled out of Johnson's pitbox and his crew only realised when it was too late. Johnson was consequently moved to the tail of the cars on the lead lap.

Gordon took over the lead from lap 109 in his No. 24 Nicorette Chevrolet, leading his first laps at the track since 2003. At the back, Johnson started to quickly recover and by lap 203 he was already up to second and catching Gordon.

After Clint Bowyer crashed on Turn 4 on lap 227 the eighth caution of the day came out, allowing eveybody to pit for fuel and gas under yellow. Gordon emerged from the pit road ahead and led the field with 35 laps to go with Johonson and Burton battling for second behind him.

Burton ran the high line through the banking just as he did during the Busch Series race which he won on Saturday. He took the lead on lap 236, overtaking Gordon on the outside with Johnson following closely behind, running a lower line.

A few laps later Johnson took to the front and Gordon later went by as well. Burton gradually started to lose speed with a misfire as the battle between the two Hendrick drivers started to build ahead of him, only to be freezed for a while as the ninth caution of the race came out when Kasey Kahne crashed in Turn 1 on lap 250.

With 12 laps to go the green waved for the final time in the afternoon and there was nothing Gordon could do to stay in touch with Johnson, who went on to take another victory at Las Vegas.

Mark Martin was unable to hold off a recovering Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth in the final laps but still finished fifth and stayed in the lead of the points standings.

Meanwhile Burton and Dale Earnhard Jr. went into the pits during the last caution when the pit road was closed, picking up late penalties that dropped both of them down the order.

Earnhardt however was able to recover to eleventh and score enough points to put himself in the top 35 in the owner standings after two consecutive DNFs.

Juan Pablo Montoya had another disapointing race despite the speed he showed in qualifying and in the first half of the race.

The Colombian started running strongly in the top five until he pitted for fuel and tyres during the second caution. He got blocked coming out of his pit-box and lost several places.

Later in the race the front grill on his car was broken by debris, which caused his car to lose downforce. He finished 22nd, two laps down on the winner, but was still the best placed Ganassi driver and the top rookie finisher.

UAW Daimler Chrysler 400 results:

Pos  Driver              Make       Laps
 1.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   267
 2.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   267
 3.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet   267
 4.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        267
 5.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet   267
 6.  Carl Edwards        Ford        267
 7.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   267
 8.  Ryan Newman         Dodge       267
 9.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet   267
10.  Jamie McMurray      Ford        267
11.  Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Chevrolet   267
12.  Martin Truex Jr.    Chevrolet   267
13.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge       267
14.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge       267
15.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   267
16.  Greg Biffle         Ford        266
17.  Robby Gordon        Ford        266
18.  J.J. Yeley          Chevrolet   266
19.  David Stremme       Dodge       266
20.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet   266
21.  David Gilliland     Ford        265
22.  Juan Montoya        Dodge       265
23.  Scott Riggs         Dodge       265
24.  Kenny Wallace       Chevrolet   265
25.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet   265
26.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       265
27.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   265
28.  Kyle Petty          Dodge       265
29.  Jon Wood            Ford        264
30.  Ricky Rudd          Ford        264
31.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       263
32.  Paul Menard         Chevrolet   263
33.  Dale Jarrett        Toyota      263
34.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet   251
35.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       251
36.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   239
37.  David Ragan         Ford        236
38.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet   156
39.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet   147
40.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet   141
41.  Aric Almirola       Chevrolet    46
42.  Dave Blaney         Toyota       17
43.  Ward Burton         Chevrolet    15