FORT WORTH, Texas — Jimmie Johnson claimed his fifth win in 2015 and played spoiler in taking the checkered flag at the AAA Texas 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday.
Johnson took the lead from Brad Keselowski with four laps to go and led a total of six laps of the 334-lap race with just two Sprint Cup events left in the season.
Keselowski finished second with Kevin Harvick third. Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards rounded out the top-five.
Keselowski dominated after starting the race on the pole, leading a total of 312 laps.
Harvick started next to him on the front row and took the lead on lap 19. Harvick led nine laps before Keselowski got off pit road first during a caution to retake the lead. He was the only driver other than Keselowski to lead multiple laps before a cycle of green-flag pit stops that began on lap 251.
Tire issues plagued several drivers, including Harvick. A left-rear flat tire for Harvick while he was running second brought out the third caution of the race on lap 36. But he recovered to get back up to second by lap 143.
After losing position on pit road, Harvick moved up to second again, despite having to drive one-handed, holding the gear shift with the other hand to keep his car in gear.
A flat right-rear tire on lap 281 dropped Harvick from second to the back again. He led laps when Keselowski pitted under green a second time on lap 298, but on lap 300, Keselowski retook the top spot.
Other drivers having tire problems included Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Larson and Ryan Newman.
Like Harvick, Larson’s tire problem struck while running second. At least four of the first six cautions were the result of tire issues.
Logano’s issue with his left-rear tire on lap 10 was the most damaging, sending the driver to the garage for a significant amount of time for repairs. Logano eventually returned to the track more than 60 laps down and finished 40th. As a result, he’ll head into Nov. 15 race Phoenix International Raceway needing a win to advance to the championship four at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 22.