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Jimmie Johnson has won the NASCAR Auto Club 500 at Auto Club Speedway.

Kevin Harvick, whose hard, late charge ended when he brushed the wall in turn 4, had this to say about the winner: "they're really good but they're really, really lucky too. Jimmie's a good friend of mine, but there's no getting around how lucky they are. They did a good job today, but ... they have a golden horseshoe stuck up their ass."

Why?

Johnson took the lead when crew chief Chad Knaus called for a pit stop under a green flag on lap 225. Almost simultaneously, Brad Keselowski spun down the track to prompt a caution. The field slowed down including leader Jeff Burton, and Johnson was a nose ahead of Burton when he exited the pits. So when the field restarted, Johnson was moved up from fourth to first and never let go of the lead.

The driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet won the 48th race of his career.

"It's all in the numbers," Johnson said.

More details in tomorrow's editions of the Sun and Daily Bulletin.

From the Associated Press:

Danica Patrick will ease her way into NASCAR by skipping the Nationwide Series opener at Daytona International Speedway in favor of a less-stressful debut one week later at California.

The IndyCar star is still working on piecing together a 13-race schedule for JR Motorsports in NASCAR's second-tier series, but announced Thursday she's marked the Feb. 20 race at Auto Club Speedway for her debut.

Spotted a great NASCAR poll question as the series heads to Talladega: Why don't you like Jimmie Johnson?

The choices:

He wins too much
He's from California, and not your typical NASCAR driver
He's Jeff Gordon's protégé
He drives for Hendrick Motorsports
He's too nice and doesn't show enough emotion, or stir up controversy
He's too vanilla and doesn't have much personality
His team has been caught with too many rules violations
All of the above
I like him, and don't understand why he is not more popular

Joey Logano won the Copart 300 Nationwide Series race at Auto Club Speedway, beating second-place Brian Vickers in a green-white-checkered finish.

Joey Logano will be on the pole after a qualifying lap of 181.164 mph, well ahead of second-place Kyle Busch (180.827) on Saturday morning at Auto Club Speedway. The Nationwide Series Copart 300 begins at 1 p.m.

The rest of the top 10 in qualifying: Justin Allgaier, Scott Speed, Brian Vickers, David Gilliland, Brad Keselowski, Mike Bliss, David Ragan, Kevin Harvick.

Probably the best equipment the local guy (Chino Hills, Riverside) has enjoyed ... From NASCAR.com:

Joe Gibbs Racing on Tuesday announced that David Gilliland will drive the No. 02 Farm Bureau Insurance Toyota in three Sprint Cup Series races, starting Oct. 17 in Charlotte, and continuing with the Nov. 8 race at Texas and the Nov. 22 season finale at Homestead.

Wally Brown, JGR's R&D/test team crew chief, will serve as crew chief for each of the three races.

No financial terms have been reported.

There was little doubt that Jason Bowles would win his first stock car championship Saturday when his biggest rival wrecked out. An early accident cost second-place Eric Holmes a chance to upstage the Ontario driver Bowles, who won the Toyota/Copart 150 in Roseville to clinch the NASCAR Camping World West Series championship.

Online fan polls rarely count for much, but the folks at Auto Club Speedway are saying that this one will. The question: What time should the February 21, 2010 Sprint Cup race start, noon or 4:30 p.m.?

In addition to filling out the short form here, you can also submit your opinion via e-mail at fans@autoclubspeedway.com, or via Twitter, MySpace or Facebook.

Auto Club Speedway and The NASCAR Foundation will hold its 4th Annual Blood Drive on Friday, Sept. 11. Look for the Life Stream bloodmobile, from 1 to 6 p.m., at the track.

Those donating to the effort, which will take place at the Opportunity, California FanZone, will receive a free track tour, gift bag, and the chance to win The NASCAR Foundation 2009 "VIP Track Experience," which includes two tickets to a NASCAR-sanctioned race.

For the full press release from ACS click here.

The NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Auto Club Speedway on Oct. 10 will be named the Copart 300, the result of an agreement between the track, Camping World, and Copart.

The race was previously the Camping World RV Service 300 presented by Coleman.

Copart sells damaged cars for the insurance industry and non-damaged cars from banks and finance companies, fleet operators, dealers, and the public.