BACK TO THE FRONT; Jimmie Johnson scores Hendrick's first win of the year.(Competition)

Byline: AL PEARCE

The team that deserved to win the Subway 500 at Phoenix International Raceway did just that. But Jimmie Johnson might not have taken Hendrick Motorsports to victory lane without unintended help from Mark Martin's team. Martin, running a limited schedule this year for Dale Earnhardt Inc., might have won if his crew had better understood its fuel situation.

Martin was summoned for tires and fuel while leading with 11 laps remaining in the 312-lap race. He passed Dale Earnhardt Jr. on lap 271 and effortlessly pulled away before slowing in hopes of going the distance without stopping again.

"I was just putting around, saving gas, probably more than the crew knew,'' Martin said, gracious but powerfully disappointed. "There was confusion, so they decided I had to stop. We had a great car and almost pulled it off.'' Then he invoked Racing 101: "But you can't stop if somebody else stays out.'' Left hanging was the obvious: Especially if you're not chasing championship points and your driver might never get this close again.

Johnson and Clint Bowyer finished 1-2 by running the final 82 laps without pitting. The last caution came on lap 230, but almost everyone expected additional pace-car periods, so fuel was almost an afterthought. Even so, some crew chiefs (Chad Knaus for Johnson and Gil Martin for Bowyer) started calculating.

"Gil said on the last restart that we were three [laps' worth of gas] short, so I began saving brakes and fuel,'' Bowyer said. "We had a seventh-to-10th-place car all night, but things worked out.''

Only 10 drivers completed all 312 laps: Johnson, Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Martin, series leader Jeff Burton, Earnhardt, Martin Truex Jr., Greg Biffle and Kyle Busch. Eleven others were minus one, losing it when Johnson lapped them during their last stops. Johnson led 120 laps, Earnhardt 87 (he was good out front but struggled in traffic), Martin 68 and pole winner (and last-place finisher) Ryan Newman 37.