Johnson's triple Vegas jackpot.

Jimmie Johnson overcame a poor day on pit road and the tricky track surface of the re-profiled Las Vegas Motor Speedway to take his third consecutive victory in the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400.

Despite enduring a drive through penalty when one of his crew-members allowed a tyre to roll outside his pit box and then a further fluffed stop just as the race was entering its closing stages, Johnson and his #48 Hendrick Motorsports team rebounded to beat teammate Jeff Gordon by two seconds in a final eleven lap sprint to the chequered flag.

The third round of the 2007 championship wasn't one that many of the drivers were particularly looking forward to, with the hard compound Goodyear tyre making the cars decidedly unstable around the new high banked, high speed corners. After Saturday's Busch Series crash-fest, several drivers, notably Tony Stewart and polesitter Kasey Kahne, were outspoken in their criticism of the tyres and predicted another expensive, and potentially dangerous Sunday afternoon.

When the green flag dropped it seemed as if those fears would be compounded as a rash of early spins and crashes saw the yellow flag wave four times in the first 40 laps but while the race would eventually see a total of nine caution periods, it was far from the farce predicted by many.

After the opening flurry of yellows, which included single car crashes for rookie David Ragan and debutant Aric Almirola and multi car incidents involving Casey Mears, Robby Gordon, Ward Burton, Dave Blaney and Joe Nemechek, the race finally settled down to some extended green flag running and enabled Johnson, who had started 23rd but took the lead for the first time thanks to some early pit shuffling on lap 21, to fully stretch his legs.

Although poleman Kahne, his Evernham Motorsports teammate Elliott Sadler and championship leader Mark Martin all spent time in the lead, none had an answer for the #48 Chevrolet when it powered past Martin on lap 61. Over the next 40 laps Johnson pulled a lead of more than seven seconds on the field and was poised to begin lapping the tail end of the top 20 when the fifth caution of the afternoon interrupted proceedings on lap 106.

It was here that Johnson's day on pit road began to head south as an errant tyre meant he had to take the restart at the tail end of the longest line. However Johnson stayed in 24th position for less than a lap and was soon on the move again, breaking back into the top ten before lap 140.

At the head of the field Johnson's previous mantle had been taken up by teammate Gordon who, after a brief battle with Carl Edwards, was able to put more than five seconds over his nearest rival as he led a race-high 111 laps in the #24 Chevrolet. A trio of caution flags in the final 100 laps allowed Johnson to regain even more of his lost track time, although his hard work was nearly undone during the final round of scheduled stops on lap 230 of 267 when his usually rock solid pit crew lost several valuable seconds and dropped him from second to third, behind Gordon and Saturday's Busch race winner Jeff Burton.

Burton seemed intent on repeat the Busch/Cup double already achieved by Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth this year as he swept into a brief lead but after a stirring fight with Johnson, the #31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet began to lose power as the result of a battery problem. That gave Johnson more than enough breathing room and even though the yellow flag waved again on lap 250, this time for polesitter Kahne's turn one crash, Gordon had no answer for his teammate on the final restart.

Johnson duly reeled off the final laps to beat Gordon by more than two seconds for his third straight Vegas victory and his second top three finish since his Daytona disappointment. For Gordon, his third straight top ten finish marks his best start to the season in nearly a decade while last year's rookie sensation Denny Hamlin came from relative obscurity to take third place away from the ever-present Martin just two laps from home.

California winner Kenseth also passed Martin on the penultimate tour to take fourth spot and break the Chevrolet dominance although Martin's fifth place finish sees him retain the overall championship lead by just six points from Gordon with Johnson and Kenseth now up to fourth and fifth places respectively, behind Burton.

Busch Series points leader Edwards took sixth position with Stewart taking seventh following a circumspect drive. Ryan Newman was the leading Dodge home in eighth place while Las Vegas native Kyle Busch took ninth on a day where his car fluctuated from the very fast to the very scary. Jamie McMurray rounded out the top ten in a third Roush-Fenway Ford while Dale Earnhardt Jr was unlucky to take eleventh place after a late mix-up with his crew saw him pit when pit road was closed and incur a penalty that dropped him from fourth to 13th in the running order.

Earnhardt Jr's DEI teammate Martin Truex Jr, Petty Enterprises Bobby Labonte, third place starter Sadler and a disappointed Burton were the only other lead lap finishers with Greg Biffle the first man a lap down in 16th on what has to be considered his bogey track.

Juan Montoya had several near misses with the walls and other drivers but was the only one of the three Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidates not to crash as he took a solid 22nd place finish while Kurt Busch was a top ten contender until a green flag drive through penalty pushed him back to 26th. Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick couldn't get to grips with the set-up on his #29 RCR Chevrolet and finished 29th while Dale Jarrett was the best placed Toyota finisher in 33rd.

Kahne, who led for several laps in the early running before complaining that his car felt very unstable, finally lost control of his #9 Dodge with less than 20 laps to go and was classified 35th.

Although next Sunday's race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway will be even faster than the Vegas race, it's hard to find a driver who's complaining.