LONG POND, Pa. - Another NASCAR blunder and a rash of late-race cautions couldn't keep Jimmie Johnson from winning Sunday's Pocono 500.
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Johnson managed to rally from 26th after the sanctioning body allowed all but three of the lead-lap cars to pit early during a caution period despite prerace instructions that said it wasn't allowed at that time.
It left Johnson, Terry Labonte, Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray to argue with officials that pit road should have been closed. Johnson and the other three lead-lap drivers said they were following NASCAR's instructions. The other drivers said they saw a green flag at pit road.
"There were two rights and it made one wrong," said NASCAR president Mike Helton. "We made a mistake on that. I can't explain why days like today happen. But we realized there was no fix for the problem."
The victory at Pocono International Raceway helped soothe Johnson's anger.
But he admitted he's still confused how such a problem happened.
"We sat through the drivers' meeting where they told us pit road was closed until the second time we came by," Johnson said after leading 126 of the final 200 laps, including the final 28.
"I went by pit road and all of a sudden, I looked in the mirror and nobody was behind me. You do the right thing and you do what you're told and you get burned."
A week after NASCAR needed 24 laps to sort through a scoring issue at Dover - a delay NASCAR president Mike Helton later called "unacceptable" - the sanctioning body needed seven laps to figure this one out.
That allowed some drivers to make extra stops for gas so they could avoid a final pit stop. By the time the race re-started, Johnson moved up to sixth.
"I wasn't as mad, but I was still angry," Johnson said. "At least I was in position for a top-10 finish and maybe even a win."
The majority of the lead-lap cars stopped during the lengthy cautions, putting Johnson in jeopardy at the end of the race as he was forced to stretch his final tank of gas to the finish line. But five cautions consumed 21 of the final 29 laps, allowing Johnson to collect his third victory.
"The car was a handful to drive," he said. "I didn't think I could have this much fun here. The race car was fast; the pit crew was fast; the driver was fast. There were some unlucky events that almost bit us."
The final caution for blown engines by Dale Jarrett and Jeff Burton with five laps to go allowed the race to finish under caution. By then, the discontent in the grandstands had grown, and one fan struck flag man Jimmy Howell with a cooler.
