Rolling the dice isn't anything new to Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus.
They did it again Saturday night and won.
Johnson and crew chief Knaus played a fuel strategy game that paid off with a win in Saturday night's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.
While the rest of the leaders were pitting for fuel during the closing laps of th erace, Johnson was able to stretch his fuel load and coast across the finish line for his second straight win at PIR.
Johnson took his first checkered flag of the season 8.07-seconds ahead of Clint Bowyer.
"I ran out of gas on the backstretch,” Johnson said. “We’re back. We’ve been working very hard to get back. I couldn’t be more proud of the folks back at Hendrick Motorsports.”
"We got out off cycle and got a little behind there and had to drive to front, and still wound up saving gas at the end."
"We were getting really good mileage all day, especially on the long run," said Knaus. "We didn't have the capacity we wanted, but we had the mileage we wanted."
Mark Martin was ahead of the field before the final frenzy of pit stops for fuel erupted, which saw nearly everyone in the top ten aside from Johnson hit pit road.
That left Johnson in the lead with eight laps to go and the two-time champion was able to coax his Lowe's Chevrolet to the win, the first of the season for Hendrick Motorsports.
As the stops cycled around, it was Denny Hamlin following Johnson and Bowyer across the line for third with Carl Edwards and Martin rounding out the top five.
Edwards was shooting for his fourth win of the year and had a strong car but got caught on pit road when a caution came out and was also pegged with a penalty.
"The car was really good," Edwards said. "That’s a great Ford Fusion there, but we just got some setbacks there, one penalty and one tire got loose. My hat’s off to Jimmie and those guys. They’ve been running really hard and getting better and better, and he earned it.”
Jeff Burton, who was involved in an earlier race spin, finished sixth with Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who led a large part of the race, seventh.
Earnhardt Jr. led 87 laps and looked like he was on the verge of ending his nearly two year winless drought and score his first win for Hendrick.
But he was passed by Martin on lap 272 of the 312 circuit race and then had to rally back after his late race stop for fuel.
"Me and (crew chief) Tony (Eury) Jr. came up with some ideas and borrowed some ideas from Chad, which helped my car amazingly," Earnhardt Jr. said.
"We were running good at night. Right there at the end I think I just drove the tires off of it, I guess. I was losing ground."
Martin Truex, Jr., Greg Biffle and Kyle Busch completed the top ten finishers.
Burton maintained the series point lead now by 80 over Kyle Busch with Earnhardt, Jr., Johnson and Kevin Harvick rounding out the top five.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series now takes a week off before returning to action at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, April 27.
