Qualifying
Hendrick Motorsports took the pole as Jimmie Johnson was quickest in qualifying on Saturday. He was joined on the front row by fellow Chevy driver and future Hendrick teammate Mark Martin.
The second row saw a pair of Dodges driven by Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne. Hendrick Motorsports' Jeff Gordon rounded out the top five.
Drop Of The Green
Jimmie Johnson lead the field into turn one as the top five quickly got in line. Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a one-groove race track in the corners so the leaders played nice in the early going.
The troubles started early as Michael Waltrip crashed on lap two to bring out the first caution.
Storylines
The 2008 Brickyard 400 will be known for one thing, tire problems. The problem was that Indianapolis Motor Speedway was ground down to smooth out the surface and increase the overall grip levels. As a result of the grinding the newly abrasive surface was chewing up tires.
NASCAR started the race with competition cautions every 15 laps and it still wasn't enough to keep the drivers from having tire problems. By lap 64 NASCAR was throwing the caution every nine laps to try to head off crashes.
This race was painful to watch. The frequent mandatory cautions prevented this race from ever getting into a rhythm.
Goodyear has been building racing tires for a very long time. I can not imagine why they can't build a reliable, consistent tire for race teams.
Chasing The Checkers
The final competition caution came with ten laps to go in the race. This set up one final mad dash on pit road to set up the final run to the checkers.
Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin were the top three as the green flag flew with seven laps to go.
Edwards tried to make a race of it but Jimmie Johnson clearly had the best car and drove his Hendrick Chevy home for the 2008 Brickyard 400 win.
Top Ten
- Jimmie Johnson
- Carl Edwards
- Denny Hamlin
- Elliott Sadler
- Jeff Gordon
- Jamie McMurray
- Kasey Kahne
- Greg Biffle
- Jeff Burton
- A.J. Allmendinger
The Points
Kyle Busch was not a factor in Indianapolis but continues to lead by 253 points over Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Kevin Harvick's early race incident caused him to fall from the top twelve. He is now two points behind Clint Bowyer for that final Chase qualifying spot.
The top twelve are now:
- Kyle Busch
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. -253
- Jeff Burton -271
- Jimmie Johnson -315
- Carl Edwards -320
- Jeff Gordon -460
- Greg Biffle -544
- Denny Hamlin -551
- Kasey Kahne -563
- Tony Stewart -605
- Matt Kenseth -638
- Clint Bowyer -642
Next Week
Next week the Sprint Cup series rolls into Pocono. When we visited Pocono in June Kasey Kahne started on the pole, lead the most laps and claimed the win. Will Kahne complete the Pocono sweep?
