AVONDALE, Ariz. (April 12, 2008) — Sometimes the slowest car wins the race.

With crew chief Chad Knaus beseeching driver Jimmie Johnson to save fuel over the final seven laps of Saturday night’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, the two-time defending Cup champion nursed the No. 48 Chevrolet across the finish line 7.002 seconds ahead of Clint Bowyer, who also had gambled on fuel.

Johnson completed the final lap at a relative snail’s pace — 31.19 seconds — in full conservation mode.

The victory returned Hendrick Motorsports to victory lane after an eight-race hiatus and gave the two-time defending Cup champion the 34th win of his career — and second straight at Phoenix. Denny Hamlin ran
third, followed by Carl Edwards, who rallied from a pit road penalty to claim the fourth spot.

Mark Martin, who surrendered the lead to Johnson when he came to the pits for two tires and fuel on Lap 302, ran fifth, followed by points leader Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Martin Truex Jr., Greg Biffle and Kyle Busch.

Johnson’s margin of victory was the largest since Martin Truex Jr. won the Autism Speaks 400 at Dover by 7.355 seconds over Ryan Newman on June 4, 2007.

After all the other contenders save Bowyer had pitted for fuel in the closing laps, Knaus instructed Johnson on Lap 304 to “Pit this time.”

After a brief discussion, they changed their strategy. “Back up your pace half a second a lap,” Knaus radioed to his driver. “Screw it. We’ll go for it.”

Knaus spent the remainder of the race slowing Johnson down, ultimately telling him to back his pace down three seconds a lap, because none of the drivers behind had time to catch up.

“Put it in neutral!” Knaus ordered as Johnson rolled through the final two corners.

“I’m good,” Johnson answered. “I’ve got good fuel pressure.”

As he approached the finish line, Johnson screamed, “We’re going to win this.”

Johnson led 120 of the 312 laps. Only three other drivers — Earnhardt (87), Martin (68) and polesitter Ryan Newman (37) — led the race, the fewest since the Siemens 300 at New Hampshire (July 25, 2004) produced three different leaders.

Johnson conserved his fuel so effectively that he had enough left for a celebratory burnout, but he ran out of gas on the backstretch during his victory lap.

The victory moved Johnson from sixth to fourth in the championship standings, 99 points behind Burton.

Notes: The start of the race was delayed for more than 16 minutes to accommodate the rain-delayed Major League Baseball game between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, which FOX also televised. . . Engine failures wiped out both front row starters. Newman fell out after 134 laps, and second-place starter Elliott Sadler followed with a blown motor on Lap 161. Newman finished 43rd, Sadler 41st. . . Comment of the race from 23rd-place finisher Kurt Busch: “My car’s so tight it wouldn’t turn at Talladega.”

Kyle Busch celebrates winning the Basha’s Supermarkets 200, his second consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series victory. (Photo credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)
By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

AVONDALE, Ariz. (April 11, 2008) — Kyle Busch liked the taste of victory so much that he came back for a second helping.

After picking up his first win of the season in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series last Saturday at Texas, Busch staved off a determined challenge from Carl Edwards to win Friday night’s Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 at
Phoenix International Raceway.

In a green-white-checkered-flag finish that took the race two laps beyond its scheduled 200 laps, Busch crossed the finish line .241 seconds ahead of Edwards. The victory was Busch’s 13th in the series and the fourth for Toyota this season. The 22-year-old led 133 laps on the evening.

Denny Hamlin ran third, followed by Kevin Harvick and David Ragan. Mike Bliss, Stephen Leicht, points leader Clint Bowyer, David Reutimann and David Stremme completed the top 10.

Edwards passed Busch for the lead on Lap 159 and gradually pulled away to a lead of more than three seconds before a caution for debris slowed the field on Lap 178. That brought the lead-lap cars to the pits for their final stops.

Busch and Edwards each took four tires, with Busch beating the defending series champion out of the pits for a restart on Lap 184. The green-flag run ended before one lap was complete, when Marcos Ambrose spun Landon Cassill in traffic to bring out the seventh caution of the race.

“Those boys won the race for us on pit road,” said Busch, who was able to hold off Edwards on restarts after three subsequent cautions.

“He (Edwards) had a great, great racecar that might have been better than this Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry here. He had a great racecar, but it’s a good thing we had all those cautions that gave us a chance to get a two-lap bump on him.”

Busch held the lead for a restart on Lap 189, and as Edwards was beginning to close in on the No. 18 Toyota, Jason Leffler’s spin brought out the eighth yellow flag of the night. The final caution occurred on
Lap 198 when Jeff Burton’s No. 29 Chevrolet banged the wall.

Though Edwards closed in on the final lap, he couldn’t overtake Busch before time ran out.

“It’s too bad somebody’s got to lose a race like that,” Edwards said. “It was fun, but it’s too bad we had to run second. That last caution hurt us a little, and he got us off pit road (on Lap 180). We came in first and went out second.”