Johnson takes Superman to victory

A late race caution set-up an overtime finish at Fontana, with Jimmie Johnson scoring his 77th career win.

Johnson got the chance to take the race when Kyle Busch blew a tyre and hit just two laps from the end.

With all cars on old rubber, pit stops for four tyres was the call and Johnson, who re-started third, made his move with Kevin Harvick.

Sporting the colours of Superman, he got the jump on Denny Hamlin and then pulled alongside Harvick and pulled away for the win.

“I got a great run off of Turn 2, and I thought ‘Man I’ve got a shot at this thing,'” said Johnson.

“Which I didn’t expect to have. Harvick has been so fast. I cleared him and kind of got away.

“We saved our best for last, for sure. I told everybody Superman kicked Batman’s butt and it happened (teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. was driving the Batman car and finished 11th).”

For Harvick, it was late race heartbreak after being the dominant car on the long green flag runs. He now has 20 second place finishes in his career with Stewart-Haas Racing.

“That sucks,” said Harvick.

“Just way too tight right there. Couldn’t put the throttle down. Wouldn’t turn.

“We weren’t very good on restarts for four or five laps, unless we were all by ourselves.

“The No. 48 was able to hang with us, and we just weren’t able to drive it in like I needed to, just didn’t have the front tires turning and the back wouldn’t grip. Still, a good day for us. … We’ll keep at it.”

Two big wrecks on the day went the way of Kyle Larson and Danica Patrick. Larson had a single car incident when he had a tyre let go on the backstretch, which sent him hard into the inside wall.

While Patrick was turned by Kasey Kahne on the front stretch. Both drivers were OK.

NASCAR takes the Easter break off, before returning on the first weekend of April at Martinsville.

VIDEO: Race recap

RESULTS: Auto Club 400 – Fontana

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