BRISTOL, Tenn. -- A block of cheese lay in one corner of Victory Lane, a croissant in another. A bunch of grapes sat on a coiled bundle of wire, a banana behind a television camera tripod. And everywhere there were peas, little gray nuggets scattered across the black and white checkerboard-painted ground, crunching under each footstep.

Bluto Blutarsky has nothing on Jimmie Johnson.

Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson enjoy the win at Bristol.

“

... when a track kicks your butt for so long and you finally can win at that track, there's just something really unique about that.

”

-- JIMMIE JOHNSON

The four-time defending Sprint Cup champion waged his own personal food fight after winning the Food City 500, just one little indication of how much a long-sought-after first victory at Bristol Motor Speedway meant to a driver who had already won almost everywhere else.

With confetti falling and fireworks shooting off behind him, Johnson didn't immediately go for the trophy, but the sponsor-provided brown bag of groceries next to it. Suddenly he was slinging food items faster than the Iron Chef, tossing fruits and vegetables in every direction before heaving the bag itself and sending peas everywhere.

Think Johnson has achieved everything? Think there's nothing left that could possibly gratify a driver who's won an unprecedented four straight championships and Sunday reached 50 career victories faster than anyone but Jeff Gordon, Darrell Waltrip and David Pearson? Think again. There are the big triumphs, the kind that lead to million-dollar checks at the postseason banquet and his name forever etched in history. And then there are the smaller, more personal ones, like a race victory at a track that had bedeviled him, which prompted a celebration as robust as anything we've seen in South Florida at the end of the year.

"Every win is extremely special," said Johnson, who snapped an 0-for-16 skid at Bristol by charging from sixth to first over Sunday's final 10-lap run. "But when a track kicks your butt for so long and you finally can win at that track, there's just something really unique about that. That's what I experienced today."

How much does winning at Bristol mean to Jimmie Johnson? He remembers back to his days in what was then called the Busch Series, attending Bristol night race parties that Randy Lajoie would throw in his shop. Each time there was a caution, everybody would do a Jell-O shot. He's always wanted to run well in a physically imposing, 160,000-seat facility that until Sunday had sold out 55 consecutive Cup-level races. Although he didn't mention it, surely he'd like to erase memories of his previous most famous -- or infamous -- moment in the Bristol spotlight, when television cameras caught him sending a single-digit message to Robby Gordon after the two tangled in his rookie season of 2002. (Continued)