Byline: Associated Press
LAS VEGAS - It took Jimmie Johnson 270 laps to get to the front Sunday, but that was soon enough.
Johnson took advantage of a late-race caution flag, catching and passing Matt Kenseth in a two-lap overtime sprint to the finish Sunday in the NASCAR Nextel Cup UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400.
Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet surged past Kenseth's No. 17 Ford on the outside after the two sped side-by-side through the third and fourth turns on the 1.5-mile oval for the final time. The winner crossed the finish line 0.115 seconds - about half a car-length - ahead as he led a lap for the only time in the race.
Johnson said he sympathized with Kenseth for getting beat that way, noting he lost to Carl Edwards on the same kind of move last spring in Atlanta and then edged Bobby Labonte with an outside pass on the last lap last May at Charlotte.
'I was slowly catching Matt before that last caution,' Johnson said. 'I think we could have got up there to race with him but, if it stayed green, I believe Matt had it in the bag. Then we got that last yellow.
'I thought long and hard about what I would do if I was protecting the lead. I knew I wanted to be on the outside. I faked kind of to the bottom and he kind of bought it.'
Formula One: Defending Formula One champion Fernando Alonso of Renault almost collided with one Ferrari and held off the challenge of the other to win the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix in Sakhir, Bahrain.
A1 Grand Prix: Team France, with 22-year-old Nicolas Lapierre behind the wheel, finished second to Team Mexico in the 30-minute Sprint race in Monterey, Calif., to wrap up the championship in the inaugural season of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations. Mexico's 20-year-old Salvador Duran made it a doubleheader sweep for his team in the Main race.
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