Denny Hamlin ran into trouble early and often to see his Championship dreams derailed as Jimmie Johnson claimed his unprecedented fifth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.
Qualifying
Kasey Kahne and Carl Edwards qualified on the front row but, of course, the big story of qualifying was the three Chase contenders.
The qualifying results made this race interesting right from the start since point leader Denny Hamlin started way back in 37th. When the green flag flew Jimmie Johnson's sixth place start gave him the provisional point lead. Kevin Harvick rolled off way back in 28th.
Hamlin and Harvick had to be careful in the early going since getting caught up in someone else's early crash would have been catastrophic to their title hopes.
Drop Of The Green
Kasey Kahne jumped out to the early lead as Carl Edwards bobbled slightly on the start.
At the completion of lap one Jimmie Johnson had the point lead by 76 points ahead of Denny Hamlin.
Carl Edwards quickly recovered and took over the lead on lap four and continued to lead while Denny Hamlin was steadily moving forward, chipping into Johnson's lead.
Storylines
On lap 24 Denny Hamlin saw his Championship dreams flash before his eyes. Hamlin pushed up off of turn two and got into the back of Greg Biffle. The contact bent up the right front corner of Hamlin's car and sent him spinning through the infield grass.
Hamlin was working his way through the pack and seemed to be ok. Then on lap 66 Hamlin made an unscheduled pit stop under green because he thought he had a tire going down and something didn't feel right.
Hamlin dodged another bullet here when pit stops cycled all the way through under green so the impact here was minimal.
All this time Jimmie Johnson was riding comfortably in the top ten.
With 100 laps to go Denny Hamlin was back in the point lead after getting his car fixed once and for all while Jimmie Johnson had another slow pit stop. Kevin Harvick was just five points behind in second and Jimmie Johnson was in third in points but only seven points behind Hamlin.
This points battle was as close as it could be once again.
Roughly 20 laps later Kevin Harvick's team got him out of the pits in the lead but NASCAR penalized him for speeding in the pits so he fell back into the pack.
Johnson and Hamlin traded the point lead back and forth with Jimmie Johnson maintaining the lead as the race ticked along.
Chasing The Checkers
Carl Edwards had dominated most of the race and as the laps were winding down he was out front with no one in sight to threaten his lead. Edwards cruised to the convincing win.
The final round of pit stops came under green with about 29 laps to go. Hamlin and Harvick pitted together with uneventful results. Jimmie Johnson pitted one lap later and his crew also got the job done just fine.
The yellow flag flew after the three point leaders had pitted but before the full field had pitted. The way the standings worked out Denny Hamlin ended up one lap down and not in the "Lucky Dog" spot.
Jimmie Johnson had a 41 point lead over Kevin Harvick when the final green flag flew with 17 laps to go. Denny Hamlin charged through the field as best he could and was able to retake second in the points but was never really a threat to Jimmie Johnson's crown over the closing laps.
Top Ten
- Carl Edwards
- Jimmie Johnson
- Kevin Harvick
- Aric Almirola
- A.J. Allmendinger
- Kasey Kahne
- Ryan Newman
- Tony Stewart
- Matt Kenseth
- Greg Biffle
The Points
For the first time ever the driver leading the points coming into the final race did not win the Championship.
Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports team on extending his legacy to include an incredible fifth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup crown.
The final 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Standings:
- Jimmie Johnson
- Kevin Harvick -36
- Denny Hamlin -39
- Carl Edwards -229
- Matt Kenseth -328
- Greg Biffle -375
- Tony Stewart -401
- Kyle Busch -440
- Jeff Gordon -446
- Clint Bowyer -467
- Kurt Busch -480
- Jeff Burton -589
