Johnson wins All-Star race

There’s a clear reason why Jimmie Johnson considers Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., his personal playground: He owns the track.

Johnson won the Nextel All-Star Challenge and its $1 million prize Saturday night, his seventh victory at the suburban Charlotte track.

“Good job driver! Good job!” crew chief Chad Knaus radioed. “This is your house!”

Indeed it is.

Johnson, who also won the All-Star race in 2003, has won three straight Coca-Cola 600s and will try to make it four in a row next Sunday night.

Kevin Harvick, who won the second segment of the event, took only two tires on the final pit stops while everyone else took four. It was a risky gamble, and Johnson wasted no time passing him for the lead when the final 20-lap sprint began.

Johnson pulled away and Harvick finished a whopping 1.729 seconds behind.

Jeff Gordon was third, Carl Edwards was fourth and Ryan Newman was fifth. Bobby Labonte, Dale Jarrett, fan-vote winner Kyle Petty and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were the only other drivers to finish on the lead lap.

Scott Riggs, who raced his way into the event by winning the preliminary race hours earlier, finished one lap down in 10th.

He was the last car to finish the race, as the other 10 drivers were knocked out of the race.

Champ Cars

Sebastian Bourdais broke his course record, finishing his best lap in 1 minute, 13.253 seconds at an average speed of 103.401 mph to capture the pole for today’s Monterrey (Mexico) Grand Prix. It will be the fourth straight year Bourdais has started first in the 76-lap event. Graham Rahal, the son of former Indianapolis 500 and Indy Car champion Bobby Rahal, won the pole for today’s Champ Car Atlantic race.