Motor Racing Digest

 

Posted by: Dave Thompson, follow @phillyfan17

July 29, 2012

Jimmie Johnson passed Greg Biffle with 29 laps remaining and easily held to win the Curtiss Shaver 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

With the win, Johnson becomes a fourth-time winner at the Brickyard and now finds himself in some elite company. Johnson joined teammate Jeff Gordon, Rick Mears (his idol), Al Unser and A.J. Foyt as four-time winners at the Brickyard’s 2.5-mile oval. Of course, Mears, Unser and Foyt’s victories came in the Indianapolis 500.

Kyle Busch finished a distant second behind Johnson, followed by Biffle and new Sprint Cup points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. Gordon fell short of becoming the first five-time winner at the Brickyard on his way to a fifth-place finish.

Johnson was virtually speechless in Victory Lane. “To come here and win is a huge honor,” said Johnson.  “Then to have four…four wins!!…I’m at a loss for words.”

“Chad Knaus gave me one heck of a race car today. And pit road was awesome too. It was a total team effort. We put it on them today. It was nice,” said Johnson, who led 99 of 160 laps today.

Earnhardt was strong all day and quickly made his way from the 20th spot at the start of the race to score his 15th top-10 finish in 20 races, which ties Johnson for a series-high.

Earnhardt now holds a 14-point lead over Matt Kenseth in the point standings after Kenseth was collected in a crash on Lap 133. The crash was triggered by a Joey Logano spin, who started third but finished 33rd. Kenseth recorded his first DNF of the season, finishing a disappointing 35th and relinquished the points lead.

“You run in the top-five and the top-10 enough, you’ll get enough points,” said Earnhardt. “But we’d like to win more races. I know our fans would like us to win some more races, too.”

Carl Edwards seasons continues to slide backwards despite his career-best qualifying run (second) at the Brickyard in his first race with new crew chief Chad Norris.

Edwards was running well in third position when his No. 99 Ford engine began to lose power. The No. 99 crew managed to isolate the problem to a spark plug issue, but too little, too late for Edwards.Multiple pit stops by Edwards to allow his crew to diagnose and repair the problem dropped him four laps behind the leader. He finished 29th, his fourth finish outside the top-25, and has a large uphill climb to make the Chase this season. Edwards finished runner-up behind Tony Stewart last year.

“I don’t think we’re points racing anymore,” said a concerned Edwards. “I think we are officially racing only for wins.”

Denny Hamlin, who started from the pole position, finished sixth.  Hamlin led the first 26 laps before Johnson won the battle off pit road to take the race lead for the first time.

Results of the Brickyard 400:

Fin	Str	Car	Driver	Team	Laps	Pts	Bpts	Status	TLd	LLd
1	6	48	Jimmie Johnson	Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet	160	48	5	RUNNING	5	99
2	7	18	Kyle Busch	M&M’s Toyota	160	43	1	RUNNING	2	3
3	5	16	Greg Biffle	3M Ford	160	42	1	RUNNING	1	4
4	20	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet	160	40		RUNNING
5	9	24	Jeff Gordon	Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet	160	40	1	RUNNING	1	1
6	1	11	Denny Hamlin	FedEx Express Toyota	160	39	1	RUNNING	2	27
7	11	39	Ryan Newman	Quicken Loans Chevrolet	160	37		RUNNING
8	17	56	Martin Truex Jr.	NAPA Auto Parts Toyota	160	36		RUNNING
9	22	2	Brad Keselowski	Miller Lite Dodge	160	36	1	RUNNING	3	22
10	28	14	Tony Stewart	Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet	160	34		RUNNING
11	19	55	Mark Martin	Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota	160	33		RUNNING
12	15	5	Kasey Kahne	Farmers Insurance Chevrolet	160	32		RUNNING
13	27	29	Kevin Harvick	Jimmy John’s Chevrolet	160	31		RUNNING
14	8	27	Paul Menard	Menards/Nibco Chevrolet	160	30		RUNNING
15	33	15	Clint Bowyer	5-hour Energy Toyota	160	29		RUNNING
16	24	22	Sam Hornish Jr.(i)	Shell Pennzoil Dodge	160	0		RUNNING
17	18	21	Trevor Bayne(i)	Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford	160	0		RUNNING
18	14	78	Regan Smith	Furniture Row/Farm American Chevrolet	160	26		RUNNING
19	4	43	Aric Almirola	Eckrich Ford	160	25		RUNNING
20	23	9	Marcos Ambrose	DeWalt Ford	160	24		RUNNING
21	12	42	Juan Pablo Montoya	Target Chevrolet	160	23		RUNNING
22	16	1	Jamie McMurray	Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Chevrolet	160	22		RUNNING
23	32	36	Dave Blaney	SealWrap Chevrolet	160	21		RUNNING
24	26	30	David Stremme	Inception Motorsports Toyota	160	20		RUNNING
25	38	83	Landon Cassill	Burger King Toyota	160	20	1	RUNNING	2	2
26	29	47	Bobby Labonte	Scott Products Toyota	160	19	1	RUNNING	1	1
27	31	38	David Gilliland	Big Machine Records Ford	160	17		RUNNING
28	36	34	David Ragan	Scorpion Coatings/Al’s Liners Ford	160	16		RUNNING
29	2	99	Carl Edwards	Fastenal Ford	156	15		RUNNING
30	42	32	Ken Schrader	Special Operations For America.org Ford	156	14		RUNNING
31	37	33	Stephen Leicht #	LittleJoesAuto.com Chevrolet	154	13		RUNNING
32	21	31	Jeff Burton	Rain-X Chevrolet	151	12		RUNNING
33	3	20	Joey Logano	Dollar General Toyota	144	11		RUNNING
34	25	13	Casey Mears	GEICO Ford	137	10		RUNNING
35	10	17	Matt Kenseth	Fifth Third Bank Ford	132	10	1	Accident	1	1
36	13	51	Kurt Busch	Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet	126	8		Engine
37	30	93	Travis Kvapil	Burger King Toyota	40	7		Accident
38	34	95	Scott Speed	Leavine Family Racing Ford	23	6		Brakes
39	41	10	JJ Yeley	Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet	20	5		Transmission
40	35	26	Josh Wise #	Taco Bell Chevrolet	19	4		Brakes
41	40	23	Scott Riggs	North Texas Pipe Chevrolet	14	3		Rear Gear
42	39	79	Mike Skinner	Koma Unwind Ford	11	2		Rear Gear
43	43	19	Mike Bliss(i)	Humphrey-Smth Racing LLC Toyota	5	0		Engine