Jimmie Johnson's late pass beats Brad Keselowski in Texas

FORT WORTH, TEXAS ? Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski weren?t calculating points or worrying about a championship in the final 10 laps of Sunday?s AAA Texas 500 at the Texas
Motor Speedway.

They were a couple of tenacious drivers trying to win the race.

Even with so much to lose, the two traded bumps, in a desperate, if not defiant, battle for the lead, neither willing to back down. Johnson got in the last punch, finally passing Keselowski with two laps to go and running away to a spirited victory.

?The gloves are off and it?s bare-knuckle time,? Johnson said after winning for the second consecutive week. ?I expect it to be like this the rest of the way.?

Keselowski was in position to win the race ? and take the lead in the Chase for the Championship ? with 20 laps remaining in regulation. There were three cautions in the final 23 laps and that gave Johnson three chances on the restarts to make the winning pass.

The third time was the charm.

?I made sure I got everything right on that last restart,? Johnson said.

Keselowski easily stayed out front on the first restart by taking off a little early. He and Johnson ran side-by-side for a lap after the second restart, once with Keselowski drifting to the right and knocking both of them sideways.

?You?re going to have that to a certain degree,? Johnson said.

?I was a little shocked by his commitment in Turn 1. I talk about driving up so high that I see Elvis. I saw Elvis.

?If he was going to take me out, count on me staying on the gas to take him out, too. The cool thing is we walked right up to the edge of the line and we stopped.?

But the third restart that followed Mark Martin?s crash with five laps to go gave Johnson one final chance.

Although he restarted second, Johnson made it work by beating him to the starting line and running the high groove, which kept Keselowski pinned on the bottom and unable to generate any momentum.

Keselowski wound up second, while Kyle Busch was third.

Source: http://feeds.jacksonville.com/~r/JacksonvillecomSports/~3/w5VOQgNUjyA/jimmie-johnsons-late-pass-beats-brad-keselowski-texas

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