Kyle Busch, the NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader, took advantage of yellow flags and mishaps to other competitors to register his first-ever road racing victory in the series.
Busch posted a 1.716-second win over surprising David Gilliland with five-time Infineon winner Jeff Gordon third.
For the second year in a row, starting spots 30th or worse produced the winner. Busch started 30th while 2007 winner Juan Pablo Montoya started 32nd.
"It was a pretty good race considering where we thought we were going to be," Busch said. "I've got to thank Steve (Addington, the crew chief), I've got to thank Andy Graves from Toyota and all those guys that worked so hard with us and all the guys on the team.
"When we were here Friday, literally I thought it was going to be a dismal weekend and was trying to figure out what tire barrier we were going to put it in because it wasn't fun."
The race came down to a green-white-checker shootout but none of the front runners could make a move.
"You were just tip-toeing around the last two laps, so I couldn't make any moves," Gordon said. "So I just wanted to finish and glad we finished third."
For Gordon, it was his 10th top-three finish at Infineon Raceway, located near his birthplace in Vallejo.
Busch collected $329,925 from a record $5,588,135 purse.
Montoya finished sixth and Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart rounded out the top 10.
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