Jimmie Johnson stays out, steals the victory at Kansas

Jimmie Johnson has won for the third time in 2015, collecting his 73rd career NASCAR Sprint Cup win at Kansas Speedway after leading just ten laps ... The final ten.

“I could tell he (Chad Knaus) was having a hard time making the decision," said Johnson of the call to stay out. "I’m kind of running through the events in my mind. We have two wins, we are locked in the Chase, and we are here to win a race, let’s gamble. Let’s go for it. Sure enough it paid off."

He was able to fend off Kevin Harvick, who came from sixth on the final restart with just six to go and challenged for the win. Dale Earnhardt Jr. backed up his Talladega triumph with a third place result this weekend, ahead of teammate Jeff Gordon and Joey Logano (who likely passed more cars than anyone after fighting back through the field due to two separate penalties).

"Just racing hard there at the end," Harvick said. "We had a lot of speed. The guys did a great job of adjusting on the car. Just didn't have enough laps."

36 laps shy of halfway, the skies opened up and caused a two hour and 16 minute rain delay. At the time, Martin Truex Jr. was leading and was one of the dominant cars the rest of the race, falling to ninth on the final restart when he found himself stuck behind a slower car.

"It was a lot of fun all night long to run like that," Truex said. "We had a shot to win it if that last caution didn't come out." He added that he doesn't fault his crew chief for the end result, saying 'it's the first mistake he's made all year.'

The race saw a total of nine cautions and ten different leaders.

POS.	CAR#	DRIVER	STARTING POS.	LC	LL	STATUS	POINTS
1	48	Jimmie Johnson	19	267	10	Running	47
2	4	Kevin Harvick	6	267	53	Running	43
3	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr	17	267	0	Running	41
4	24	Jeff Gordon	11	267	0	Running	40
5	22	Joey Logano	1	267	29	Running	40
6	20	Matt Kenseth	18	267	1	Running	39
7	2	Brad Keselowski	3	267	43	Running	38
8	41	Kurt Busch	8	267	20	Running	37
9	78	Martin Truex Jr	4	267	95	Running	37
10	31	Ryan Newman	15	267	0	Running	34
11	43	Aric Almirola	14	267	0	Running	33
12	16	Greg Biffle	7	267	0	Running	32
13	1	Jamie McMurray	9	267	0	Running	31
14	47	AJ Allmendinger	29	267	0	Running	30
15	42	Kyle Larson	10	267	3	Running	30
16	9	Sam Hornish Jr	26	267	0	Running	28
17	5	Kasey Kahne	2	267	0	Running	27
18	27	Paul Menard	22	267	0	Running	26
19	13	Casey Mears	24	266	0	Running	25
20	19	Carl Edwards	5	266	12	Running	25
21	15	Clint Bowyer	21	266	0	Running	23
22	3	Austin Dillon	28	266	0	Running	22
23	46	Michael Annett	43	266	0	Running	21
24	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	20	266	0	Running	20
25	83	Matt DiBenedetto	35	266	0	Running	19
26	33	Ty Dillon	32	266	0	Running	0
27	10	Danica Patrick	27	265	0	Running	17
28	98	Josh Wise	40	265	0	Running	16
29	40	Landon Cassill	41	265	0	Running	0
30	51	Justin Allgaier	25	265	0	Running	14
31	6	Trevor Bayne	30	265	0	Running	13
32	38	David Gilliland	38	263	0	Running	12
33	55	David Ragan	23	263	0	Running	11
34	34	Brett Moffitt	39	263	0	Running	10
35	35	Cole Whitt	34	263	0	Running	9
36	95	Michael McDowell	31	262	0	Running	8
37	23	J.J. Yeley	37	262	0	Running	0
38	32	Joey Gase	42	262	0	Running	0
39	14	Tony Stewart	16	258	0	Running	5
40	18	Erik Jones	12	242	1	Running	0
41	11	Denny Hamlin	13	205	0	Accident	3
42	26	Jeb Burton	33	153	0	Rear Gear	2
43	7	Alex Bowman	36	125	0	Vibration	1