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Jimmie Johnson joined a very special club with his fourth Brickyard 400 win on Sunday.
Michael Schumacher, AJ Foyt, Al Unser Sr., Rick Mears (Johnson's hero) and Jeff Gordon are all at least four-time winners at the venerable Indianapolis Motor Speedway in their various series. Schumacher won five times on the Formula One road circuit.
Now Johnson, who led 99 laps of the 160-lap race, is a member of that exclusive club.
Despite his five straight NASCAR Sprint Cup championships he was emotional after the race at the 2.5 mile race track.
"That victory lap was something special," Johnson said. "Man, you just hope to race here. And to win four, four wins! I'm at a loss for words."
He also thanked teammate, Gordon (who finished fifth) “it's really wild for me to get my start in a Cup car for him.” Gordon is also listed as owner of the car that is entered by Hendrick Motorsports.
Kyle Busch, who finished 4.758 seconds behind in a Toyota, said, “you talk about a different zip (postal) code Jimmie was in his own country today.” We were in our own zip code, and if it weren't for the #48 we would have won it.” It was Busch's best finish at the Speedway.
Greg Biffle finished third, his best finish here said “we were pretty loose, but the car was pretty free, we need the car to turn but our car was loose all day.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. NASCAR's most popular driver and Johnson's teammate finished fourth taking the series points lead for the first time since 2004.
"You run in the top five and the top 10 enough, you'll get enough points," Earnhardt said "But we'd like to win more races. I know our fans would like us to win some more races, too."
Johnson passed Biffle with 39 laps to go and was never challenged in the final laps. Chad Knaus (his crew chief) gave me one heck of a race car today. And pit road was awesome, too. It was a total team effort. We put it on them today. It was nice." It was his 58th career win and third of the season.
It was a relatively calm day with only five cautions for 25 laps and none of the controversy of the restart of Saturday's Nationwide Series race.
Last year's series' runner-up, Carl Edwards, had an optimistic second-place start which was followed by an engine problem and a 29th place finish. He's dropped to 12th place in the standings 61 points behind Clint Bowyer in 10th. Carl says his strategy for the next six races is “simple,” he said. . I don't think we can think about points anymore. I don't know what the spread is but it can't be good. That is what I am saying when I say it is simpler. We just have to go race for wins now.”
Michael Schumacher, AJ Foyt, Al Unser Sr., Rick Mears (Johnson's hero) and Jeff Gordon are all at least four-time winners at the venerable Indianapolis Motor Speedway in their various series. Schumacher won five times on the Formula One road circuit.
Now Johnson, who led 99 laps of the 160-lap race, is a member of that exclusive club.
Despite his five straight NASCAR Sprint Cup championships he was emotional after the race at the 2.5 mile race track.
"That victory lap was something special," Johnson said. "Man, you just hope to race here. And to win four, four wins! I'm at a loss for words."
 |
| Fourth Brickyard 400 win for Jimmie Johnson. (Photo: NASCAR) |
He also thanked teammate, Gordon (who finished fifth) “it's really wild for me to get my start in a Cup car for him.” Gordon is also listed as owner of the car that is entered by Hendrick Motorsports.
Kyle Busch, who finished 4.758 seconds behind in a Toyota, said, “you talk about a different zip (postal) code Jimmie was in his own country today.” We were in our own zip code, and if it weren't for the #48 we would have won it.” It was Busch's best finish at the Speedway.
Greg Biffle finished third, his best finish here said “we were pretty loose, but the car was pretty free, we need the car to turn but our car was loose all day.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. NASCAR's most popular driver and Johnson's teammate finished fourth taking the series points lead for the first time since 2004.
"You run in the top five and the top 10 enough, you'll get enough points," Earnhardt said "But we'd like to win more races. I know our fans would like us to win some more races, too."
Johnson passed Biffle with 39 laps to go and was never challenged in the final laps. Chad Knaus (his crew chief) gave me one heck of a race car today. And pit road was awesome, too. It was a total team effort. We put it on them today. It was nice." It was his 58th career win and third of the season.
 |
| Jimmie Johnson leading the race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (Photo: NASCAR) |
It was a relatively calm day with only five cautions for 25 laps and none of the controversy of the restart of Saturday's Nationwide Series race.
Last year's series' runner-up, Carl Edwards, had an optimistic second-place start which was followed by an engine problem and a 29th place finish. He's dropped to 12th place in the standings 61 points behind Clint Bowyer in 10th. Carl says his strategy for the next six races is “simple,” he said. . I don't think we can think about points anymore. I don't know what the spread is but it can't be good. That is what I am saying when I say it is simpler. We just have to go race for wins now.”