Qualifying
Teammates started on the front row as Toyota drivers Brian Vickers and Scott Speed topped qualifying. Jimmie Johnson's Chevrolet was third quick and Denny Hamlin's Toyota was fourth. Clint Bowyer rounded out the top five for Chevrolet.
Drop Of The Green
The inside lane moved forward on the start and Brian Vickers had a huge lead over Jimmie Johnson and Scott Speed at the completion of lap one. It took a few laps but Johnson reeled in the leader and passed Vickers for the top spot on lap ten.
Johnson continued to lead the early going as the race started with a long green flag run.
Storylines
This weekend Chicagoland Speedway gave NASCAR fans the kind of race that we have come to expect here. Long green flag runs and complete domination by one or two cars. Clean air is so important that the leader has a huge advantage. The only excitement to be found here is if there is a late race restart.
This is another race track that needs to be bulldozed and reconfigured for racing.
Chasing The Checkers
After dominating much of the race Mark Martin bobbled slightly on a restart and suddenly found himself chasing Jimmie Johnson and Brian Vickers with thirty five laps to go.
With seventeen laps remaining Jimmie Johnson chose to restart in the outside lane giving Brian Vickers the pole. Mark Martin was tight on Vickers' bumper pushing him from third while Denny Hamlin was doing the same to Johnson.
Hamlin got Johnson sideways and dove under him for the lead. Vickers and Hamlin battled side by side for the lead until Vickers got crossed up and took them both up the track.
Mark Martin was patiently hanging back and was able to duck under both of them and retake the lead. Martin was untouchable in clean air and had a big lead when Kyle Busch blew the motor, crashed, and brought out the yellow with seven laps to go.
Mark had been restarting from the inside all night but picked the outside lane for this final restart with his teammate Jeff Gordon on the bottom. Mark got a great jump and was all by himself in turn one with two laps to go.
Martin closed out his dominating performance with the win.
Top Ten
- Mark Martin
- Jeff Gordon
- Kasey Kahne
- Tony Stewart
- Denny Hamlin
- Ryan Newman
- Brian Vickers
- Jimmie Johnson
- Clint Bowyer
- Juan Montoya
The Points
With the win today Mark Martin was able to climb back into the top twelve. Martin replaces Greg Biffle who fell four positions to thirteenth. Biffle is currently ten points out of the Chase.
The top twelve are now:
- Tony Stewart
- Jeff Gordon -175
- Jimmie Johnson -212
- Kurt Busch -358
- Denny Hamlin -427
- Carl Edwards - 446
- Ryan Newman -499
- Kasey Kahne -548
- Juan Montoya -563
- Kyle Busch -586
- Mark Martin -588
- Matt Kenseth -589
