Johnson gambles and wins

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- As the final 10 laps wound down, Jimmie Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus sounded like a broken record on his driver’s radio.

“Slow down, slow it way down, slow it down!” Knaus barked at the reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Saturday night as Johnson circled the one-mile Phoenix International Raceway.

Knaus had gambled that Johnson’s Chevrolet could reach the checkered flag without a late pit stop for fuel, even though the race’s other leaders were choosing to top off their tanks.

The gamble worked and Johnson won the Subway Fresh Fit 500, giving his Hendrick Motorsports team -- which dominated the Cup series last year with 18 wins, 10 by Johnson -- its first victory of 2008 after eight races.

“We’re back,” said Johnson, whose win gave him consecutive victories at PIR. The El Cajon native won the fall race last November on his way to his second consecutive title.

Clint Bowyer, who also gambled he could make it without a late stop, was second in another Chevy, followed by Denny Hamlin in a Toyota and Carl Edwards in a Ford.

Even before the last-minute fuel gamble, “we had a very, very competitive car,” said Johnson, who led 120 of the race’s 312 laps.

As most of the field began pitting in the final laps, Johnson was building a lead of 10 seconds by staying on the raceway. He radioed Knaus and asked, “Can we make it?”

“When he said that, I took notice of where everybody was at on the track, and so I said, ‘Let’s go for it.’ ” Knaus said. But the move very nearly backfired: After Johnson did his victory burnout, his car ran out of gas.

It was an uncharacteristic move for Johnson’s team. Normally, he said, “we don’t play the fuel-mileage game.” This time, “we stayed out and rolled the dice.”

For several other drivers who had strong cars and then were forced to pit so late, the final result was disheartening.

They included veteran Mark Martin, 49, who passed Johnson’s teammate, Dale Earnhardt Jr., with 40 laps left and seemed poised to earn his first win since October 2005. He finished fifth.

“We about pulled this one off tonight,” said Martin, who won here in 1993 and is driving a partial schedule this season for Dale Earnhardt Inc. “We had such a spectacular car.”

His cheering section included rival Hamlin. “I would have loved to see Mark Martin get a win,” Hamlin said. “I was there rooting for him even though I was trying to chase him down there at the end.”

Earnhardt’s No. 88 Chevy also was strong all night -- he led 87 laps in search of his first win in nearly two years -- but the two-time Phoenix winner had to settle for a seventh-place finish

Still, Earnhardt climbed to third in the Cup points standings, behind leader Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch. Burton and Busch finished sixth and 10th Saturday night, respectively.

Johnson moved up to fourth in points even though “we haven’t been where we wanted to be” at times so far this season. But his victory, and another strong showing by Earnhardt, diluted speculation that Hendrick might be in for a tough year.

The race, which started in the late afternoon on a clear, hot day in the desert and ended under the lights, was nearly accident-free until lap 133.

That’s when the Dodge of pole-sitter Ryan Newman suffered a blown engine that spilled oil on the track and caused several cars to spin, including Burton, J.J. Yeley and Reed Sorenson.

NASCAR threw the red flag and stopped the field while it cleaned up the oil and debris, a delay that took nearly 10 minutes.

Edwards -- who won three of the season’s first seven races, including last week at Texas -- had one of the strongest cars again in the early going.

But Edwards’ No. 99 Ford fell a lap down because he pitted moments before a caution period, and because he was penalized when his pit crew jumped over the wall too soon. He later got back on the lead lap but couldn’t reach the lead.

Defending race winner Jeff Gordon, another Hendrick driver and four-time Cup champion, finished 13th to rebound from his last-place finish a week earlier in Texas.

David Gilliland of Riverside was 15th in a Yates Racing Ford. Kevin Harvick of Bakersfield, who swept both races here in 2006, was 19th.

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james.peltz@latimes.com