The choice of an outside lane restart helped Jimmie Johnson score his 50th NASCAR Sprint Cup victory by beating Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Ironically, it was his first win at Bristol. In Victory Lane, after doing a burnout and climb up the ramp to get there he said: “We’ve worked so hard for this.”

Noting that Busch had the race in hand until a debris caution caused the leaders to pit for tires, Johnson added: “We have worked so hard for this. I thought we were in trouble there but those four tires were everything and I was in the outside lane, which was helpful.”

In the past he almost hated coming to Bristol, but, he said his confidence at the high-banked half-mile oval turned around last year. "Yes, it has been one of the most difficult for us, “ he admitted. “We focused on what we needed to do and got it done today."

Crew chief Chad Knaus had a feeling that the drought would be over when he said: “We were really excited about coming here…it’s been a lot of fun.”

Johnson was sixth on the restart with ten laps to go, but, took the lead three laps later and wasn’t seriously challenged. “I know being on the outside lane was helpful. I was in third or fourth before I exited at turn two. I was able to make aggressive moves. I know he had an amazing car along. For that ten laps I had an amazing car.”

Stewart said: "It was a 10 -lap sprint to the end there. We were too loose the run before that and couldn't get the track position we lost there.

Busch’s disappointment, after leading a race-high 275 laps was obvious: “These are tough to lose. This is a track that I feel competitive on. We definitely had a car to beat today. We just ended up in the wrong lane for that last restart. We would have been better off if we had lost a spot on pit road and started up on the outside.”

“It’s just the luck of the draw. We had it won, but we didn’t drive our car into victory lane. I poured my heart out, trying to beat the 48 (Johnson) and then to lose to them, that’s what is upsetting.”

“I’d rather lose to any of the 41 cars out there than the 48 car. I thought we had them beat. I gave it my heart today, but came up short.”

“On the other hand,” he added: “I feel confident we’ve turned the corner.”

The day started under threatening skies, but, there were only a few laps run under caution for rain.

There was one big accident, involving 13-cars, when Greg Biffle, who finished fourth in a Ford, drove his former teammate, Mark Martin into the wall.

“I was going around the outside of him (Greg Biffle) and he just came up. You know, I was on the brakes but we were hung together when I saw he was going to shut me off.”

With his 50th Cup win Jimmie Johnson is tied for 10th on the all-time NASCAR list with Junior Johnson (not a relative) and Ned Jarrett.

This was the last race for the fan hated wing on the COT. Starting next week, at Martinsville, the 3400-pound stock cars will revert to a vertical spoiler.

Johnson was a master of the winged car winning 22 of the 93 races with this configuration. Kyle Busch was second with 13 wins and Carl Edwards  third with 11.