Jimmie Johnson was victorious in the most caution-filled race in Cup history. Credit: Autostock

Johnson three-peats in crash-filled Coke 600

CONCORD, N.C. -- Jimmie Johnson slid past Bobby Labonte in the final turn to win the Coca-Cola 600 for the third consecutive year Sunday night. This one was nowhere near as easy as his previous wins.

Unlike his past two dominating victories, Johnson had to come from fourth place to chase down Labonte after a restart with five laps to go. Labonte did his best to hold off Johnson, who needed just three laps around Lowe's Motor Speedway to pull onto the leader's bumper.

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Johnson got there on the final lap and edged past coming out of the final turn to grab his second victory of the season.

Labonte, off to a horrid start this season, kicked his car in disgust as he climbed out of it.

Johnson, meanwhile, had a bottle thrown at his car during his victory lap and was slightly booed when he got out of it. He didn't seem to notice as he celebrated with his Hendrick Motorsports crew.

"Three 600s, that's just amazing," said Johnson, the Nextel Cup points leader.

Carl Edwards was third, followed by Jeremy Mayfield and pole-sitter Ryan Newman. Greg Biffle was sixth, Martin Truex Jr. was seventh and Dale Jarrett, Ken Schrader and Rusty Wallace rounded out the top 10.

A year ago, Johnson led 500 of the 600 miles.

This year, he didn't even have the best car of his teammates. But anything was possible in this race, NASCAR's longest of the year. It turned into a demolition derby with a series-record 22 cautions. The numerous wrecks ranged from isolated spins to the downright bizarre.