Johnson Wins Brickyard 400
Posted by Jeff Anderson on Wed, Jul 29, 2009 @ 02:55 PM
Jimmie Johnson took his Hendrick Motorsports Chevy to victory lane in the Brickyard 400 on Sunday afternoon to win for the third time at Indy. But wait - how do you lead 116 of the 160 laps and lose the Brickyard? You get caught for speeding on pit road. That's what happened to Juan Pablo Montoya on Sunday. Montoya started in the top five, then took the lead on lap 5 and was the class of the field all day. But as he came off the race track on to pit road, he was too fast entering the pits. NASCAR levied a pass through penalty. He dropped to 15th and was only able to get back to 11th at the flag. With the fastest car now back in the pack, Johnson was left to battle with pole sitter Mark Martin for the win. Johnson started in 16th place and moved into the top ten as the race progressed. The event saw few cautions. The tire problems of last year seemed to be solved. Kyle Busch hit the wall early on to bring out a caution while Dale Earnhardt, Jr. blew his engine entering pit road to end his day. Points leader Tony Stewart had a great day finishing third, passing Greg Biffle on the final lap as Biffle tried to save gas to make it to the end. Brian Vickers rounded out the top five after running up front all day, while Safety-Kleen's Kevin Harvick finally had a good race and finished sixth followed by Kasey Kahne and Safety-Kleen's David Reutimann. Special thanks to Jim Trisler and Keith Miller for all the work at Indy this past week. Great job with the SK services and the pit tours on Sunday. Now Pocono next week - another flat track. Look for the Hendrick cars to be competitive next weekend.
