This left Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson to battle for the win. Martin took a shot in the closing laps but Jimmie Johnson closed the deal for his third Brickyard 400 victory.
Qualifying
Mark Martin picked up where he left off last week in Chicago. He dominated there then was fastest in qualifying this week to become the oldest polesitter in Indianapolis Motor Speedway history. Juan Montoya was second quickest.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Bill Elliott made up row number two and David Reutimann rounded out the top five.
Drop Of The Green
Mark Martin jumped out to the early lead as the leaders quickly got into single-file. They didn't complete one lap before Robby Gordon spun in turn four to bring out the first caution of the day.
Martin wiggled on the double-file restart and Montoya took over the lead. Martin fell to third as Junior got past for second. Mark was able to get back to second place as Earnhardt fell back early while the race settled in for a long green flag run.
Storylines
Juan Montoya had lead of more than 4 seconds over Mark Martin when it was time for green flag pit stops came with 35 laps to go. Montoya looked like he had a clean stop but NASCAR caught him speeding on pit road.
Montoya was not happy about the penalty. He doesn't think he was speeding however, NASCAR caught him speeding on two different segments during that pit stop.
Shortly after Montoya took his penalty and handed the lead to Mark Martin Dale Earnhardt Jr. blew the motor and set up the final run to the checkers.
Chasing The Checkers
Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson were side-by-side for the final restart with 24 laps to go. Johnson made the outside lane work a little bit better and got the lead going down the backstretch.
Mark seemed to be a hair quicker but passing on the relatively flat speedway is difficult. Mark turned up the heat with five laps to go. Mark took a couple of looks to the outside of Johnson coming out of turn two but he just couldn't get it done.
Jimmie Johnson held on to claim his third career Brickyard 400. Jimmie Johnson is the first driver to ever win two Brickyard 400s in a row.
Top Ten
- Jimmie Johnson
- Mark Martin
- Tony Stewart
- Greg Biffle
- Brian Vickers
- Kevin Harvick
- Kasey Kahne
- David Reutimann
- Jeff Gordon
- Matt Kenseth
The Points
Tony Stewart continues to lead the points but Jimmie Johnson passed up his teammate Jeff Gordon for second place overall.
At the other end of the top twelve Greg Biffle moved up two spots to eleventh. Biffle replaces Kyle Busch in the Chase spots. Kyle finished 38th today and falls all the way to 14th.
The top twelve are now:
- Tony Stewart
- Jimmie Johnson -192
- Jeff Gordon -207
- Kurt Busch -446
- Carl Edwards - 498
- Denny Hamlin -536
- Ryan Newman -548
- Kasey Kahne -572
- Mark Martin -583
- Juan Montoya -593
- Greg Biffle -609
- Matt Kenseth -625
