Johnson gets Hendrick going

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Turns out Hendrick Motorsports was just being fashionably late.

After dominating NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series last year, the team had been off its game early this season when the series arrived for Saturday’s race at Phoenix International Raceway.

Hendrick won 18, or half, of the series’ races last year, including 10 by reigning champion Jimmie Johnson, but was winless through the first seven races this year.

The drought by Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Casey Mears prompted suggestions that Hendrick was struggling to regain its edge.

But Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus put Hendrick back in Victory Lane by gambling on fuel strategy and winning the Subway Fresh Fit 500 here.

As other leaders dashed into the pits for fuel in the waning laps, Knaus opted to leave Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet on the one-mile PIR oval. Johnson had such a big lead at that point that he was able to slow dramatically in the last three laps to save enough fuel and still win.

But there was more to the Phoenix race that showed Hendrick’s resiliency than just getting lucky on a fuel gamble.

Johnson had a strong car all night and led the most laps, 120, in the 312-lap race. So did Earnhardt, who led 87 and finished seventh.

Gordon never led but managed to finish 13th, a big rebound from his last-place finish a week earlier in Texas. Mears was 11th.

And despite the comments about Hendrick’s slow start, Earnhardt is third in the Cup standings, Johnson fourth, Gordon 13th and Mears 25th.

That means Earnhardt, Johnson and Gordon are positioned well, at least at the moment, to be among the dozen drivers who qualify for the Chase for the Cup title playoff after the first 26 races of the year.

In addition, the series’ next event, on April 27, is at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, where Hendrick drivers, including Earnhardt, who joined the team this year, have won 10 of the last 13 races.

“The sport is so tough,” Johnson said. “Even with the year that we had last year, it’s tough to keep that up over the off-season and year after year after year.”

There’s no question that Hendrick faces much stiffer competition this year.

Jeff Burton of Richard Childress Racing leads the points, and his teammates Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer also are among the top 12.

The drivers for Joe Gibbs Racing -- Kyle Busch, two-time champion Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin -- also are in the top 12. So is Carl Edwards of Roush Fenway Racing, who has won three times this season.

Yet, Johnson and Knaus knew that, even if their fuel gamble here backfired, there was still plenty of time to make the Chase.

“We felt like it was early enough in the season if we wanted to take a chance . . . we would be OK to eat the points right now and still make it into the top 12 with the remaining races before we get to the Chase,” Johnson said.

The fuel call was so risky that Knaus felt compelled to fib to his driver that other cars were much farther behind Johnson than they were, so that Johnson would dramatically slow and save every drop of gas.

Although the others were about 10 seconds behind Johnson, Knaus told him they were 20 seconds behind. Johnson “felt like he was going to need to go faster,” Knaus said. “I was trying to get him to slow down a little bit more.”

It worked. “My instinct was to step on the gas pedal,” Johnson said. “The white lies [Knaus was] telling me were even more helpful.”

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james.peltz@latimes.com