#3WideBlog Race Review: 5-Time Becomes 4-Time at Indy

Race Review

     The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series raced at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday for the Crown Royal Presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at "The Brickyard". This race marked the 6th time that Crown Royal awarded the naming rights to an adult race fan. Curtiss Shaver is a firefighter from Alabama's Troy fire department, and became a firefighter after he lost part of his left leg in an accident When he was 18. He was driven to help save others and become a firefighter because firefighters had helped him. Nominated by a fellow firefighter, Shaver beat out four others in a Facebook contest to determine the winner.

Lined up (Getty)

     Denny Hamlin started on the pole with a lap of 49.244 seconds at 182.763 mph. This was his first Coors Light pole award at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, his second of 2012, and the 11th of his career. Carl Edwards started on the outside pole with a time over 2/10ths of a second and almost a full mile an hour slower. Joey Logano, Aric Almirola, Greg Biffle, three time Brickyard 400 winner Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, last years Brickyard 400 winner Paul Menard, four time Brickyard 400 winner Jeff Gordon and current Sprint Cup points leader Matt Kenseth filled out the top 10 starting positions.

Mari Hulman George, chairwoman of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, gave the command to fire engines, and Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards led the field to the green flag. After five laps Hamlin had a 1 second lead over Johnson and Edwards settled into third. Edwards wouldn't be settled for long, at lap 13 he dropped of the pace and had to make an unscheduled pit stop, he would return to the track in 39th place two laps down and fall off the radar finishing 29th four laps down.

Kvapil after hitting the wall

Hamlin led until the first round of green flag pitstops, where Johnson, who had been reeling him in, passed him on the flat pit exit road to take the lead. After those stops the top 5 were Johnson, Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Gordon and Biffle, and they would remain that way until the races first caution at lap 41 when Travis Kvapil blew a right front tire in turn 2 and slammed the wall. This caution also marked the longest green flag run at Indianapolis in NASCAR history at 41 laps. Leaving pit road Kyle Busch's car slowed as it puked black smoke from the pipes and he lost several positions.

     The race restarted on lap 46 and Dennny Hamlin got out of the groove and lost several positions as a result. There was another caution one lap later when Clint Bowyer made contact with Juan Pablo Montoya and spun. Restart lap 52 saw Jimmie Johnson still leading with Brad Keselowski, Biffle, Gordon and Logano were the top 5. At halfway the race is again taking a green flag feel with not much changing up front, Keselowski is leading followed by Johnson, Gordon, Biffle, and Kyle Busch who had fought back from earlier problems on pit road. Hamlin is mired back in 12th place 21.3 seconds behind after his earlier miscue

     The next caution came at lap 93, tying the newly set green flag run record of 41 laps, when Casey Mears smacks the wall and puts debris on the racing surface. On the restart at lap 101, the top five are Keselowski, Regan Smith, Johnson, Biffle and Gordon. Smith initially takes the lead on the outside, but Johnson then goes to the front in a scramble as Keselowski gets loose under Smith and drops back to 7th as a result. The caution flag waved again at lap 124 for debris left behind from Jeff Burton's flat tire, but up until that point Johnson had built up an almost 4 second lead over teammate Jeff Gordon, Johnson was dominant.

Logano into Kenseth

Whats left of Kenseths car

     Restart lap 129 and a trip down pit road has changed the running order. Greg Biffle won the race off pit road followed by, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin recovering after dropping back and Dale Earnhardt Jr. who had fought his way into the top 5 after starting 20th. They wouldn't be green very long though, at lap 132 while racing  Trevor Bayne, Joey Logano got loose and slid down to the bottom groove making contact with Bobby Labonte. Logano then slid back up the track towards the high lane where Matt Kenseth was attempting to drive around the incident, but was pancaked by Logano into the wall, ending his day and time atop the points standings. Kenseth would wind up 35th, 26 laps down and drop to 2nd in the point standings 14 points back of the new leader.

Victory lane (Getty)

     The restart at lap 140 would prove to be the last, and set up a 20 lap dash to decide the winner. Jimmie Johnson had already decided though. He drove off to a remarkable 4.758 second victory to earn his record tying 4th Brickyard 400 victory (ties Jeff Gordon for most). It is Johnson's 3rd victory of the year (tying Keselowski and Tony Stewart for most) and the 58th victory of his career (8th all-time). Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, Dale Earnhardt Jr and Jeff Gordon were 2nd - 5th.
   
   

"kissing the bricks" (Getty)

     Dale Earnhardt Jr. also made some headlines with his 4th place finish, he assumed the points lead with a 14 point margin over 2nd place Matt Kenseth. Having a career season he has 1 win, 9 top-5's and 15 top-10's, he leads the points for the first time since October in Talladega 2004. In 2004 however he only held the top spot for two days due to a 25-point penalty levied by NASCAR for cursing during a post-race television interview.Note: Earnhardt Jr.'s Brickyard post race interview was free of colourful language.
 

New points leader Dale Jr. (Getty)

     Pocono is the next stop for the Sprint Cup Series, and the wildcard battle is heating up. Kasey Kahne holds the #1 Wildcard spot with 2 wins and 579 points followed by Kyle Busch with one win and 588 points. With two other drivers in the top 20 that have one win (Newman & Logano), and names like Edwards, Gordon and Burton in the mix the 6 races leading up to the chase should be exciting

                Race Facts

• The race remained within its 160 lap distance, with a time of 2:56:35.
• There were 5 cautions for 25 laps
• Average speed was 137.676 Mph

• Jimmies performance is his 10th top-five (most in CUP) and 15th top-10 of 2012 (tied for most).
• Jimmie Johnson led five times for 99 laps, including the final 29.
• It's the 205th all-time win for Hendrick Motorsports, and their Cup-high sixth of the season.
• Hendrick Motorsports notched their eighth win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- no other team has more than three.
• Kyle Busch (second) had his best Brickyard finish in his eighth start
• Greg Biffle (third) matched his best Brickyard finish with his fifth-straight IMS top-10, the longest current streak.
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. (fourth) is the new points leader, as he had his ninth top-five finish of 2012 -- he had nine combined from 2009-2011.
• It was the 21st consecutive time that Dale Jr. finished on the lead lap, tying Jeff Gordon's Cup record.
• Jeff Gordon (fifth) grabbed his eighth top-10 finish of 2012, including five in the last six races.

Crown Royal Presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at "The Brickyard" Race Results

FIN	ST	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	PTS/BNS	LAPS	STATUS	WINNINGS
1	6	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe's / Kobalt Tools	48/5	160	Running	430,461
2	7	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	M&M's	43/1	160	Running	362,108
3	5	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	3M	42/1	160	Running	298,525
4	20	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	AMP Energy / National Guard	40/0	160	Running	263,750
5	9	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	Drive to End Hunger	40/1	160	Running	266,961
6	1	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Express	39/1	160	Running	250,091
7	11	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	Quicken Loans	37/0	160	Running	230,058
8	17	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	NAPA Auto Parts	36/0	160	Running	212,539
9	22	2	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	Miller Lite	36/1	160	Running	214,470
10	28	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Mobil 1 / Office Depot	34/0	160	Running	230,175
11	19	55	Mark Martin	Toyota	Aaron's Dream Machine	33/0	160	Running	170,175
12	15	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	Farmers Insurance	32/0	160	Running	172,850
13	27	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Jimmy Johns	31/0	160	Running	205,236
14	8	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	Menards / Nibco	30/0	160	Running	167,300
15	33	15	Clint Bowyer	Toyota	5-hour Energy	29/0	160	Running	186,139
16	24	22	Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge	Shell / Pennzoil	0	160	Running	197,475
17	18	21	Trevor Bayne	Ford	Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center	0	160	Running	155,525
18	14	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	Furniture Row / Farm American	26/0	160	Running	180,483
19	4	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	Eckrich	25/0	160	Running	191,411
20	23	9	Marcos Ambrose	Ford	DEWALT	24/0	160	Running	181,208
21	12	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	Target	23/0	160	Running	180,966
22	16	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Tracker	22/0	160	Running	180,908
23	32	36	Dave Blaney	Chevrolet	SealWrap	21/0	160	Running	148,725
24	26	30	David Stremme	Toyota	Inception Motorsports	20/0	160	Running	163,783
25	38	83	Landon Cassill	Toyota	Burger King	20/1	160	Running	173,395
26	29	47	Bobby Labonte	Toyota	Scott Products	19/1	160	Running	167,858
27	31	38	David Gilliland	Ford	Big Machine Records	17/0	160	Running	156,008
28	36	34	David Ragan	Ford	Scorpion Coatings / Al's Liners	16/0	160	Running	152,397
29	2	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Fastenal	15/0	156	Running	189,591
30	42	32	Ken Schrader	Ford	Special Operations For America.org	14/0	156	Running	148,825
31	37	33	Stephen Leicht *	Chevrolet	Little Joes Autos.com	13/0	154	Running	148,275
32	21	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	Rain-X	12/0	151	Running	180,350
33	3	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	Dollar General	11/0	144	Running	148,525
34	25	13	Casey Mears	Ford	GEICO	10/0	137	Running	137,725
35	10	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Fifth Third Bank	10/1	132	Accident	186,011
36	13	51	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	HendrickCars.com	8/0	126	Engine	145,375
37	30	93	Travis Kvapil	Toyota	Burger King	7/0	40	Accident	145,300
38	34	195	Scott Speed	Ford	Leavine Family Racing	6/0	23	Brakes	137,170
39	41	10	J.J. Yeley	Chevrolet	Tommy Baldwin Racing	5/0	20	Transmission	133,325
40	35	26	Josh Wise *	Chevrolet	Taco Bell	4/0	19	Brakes	133,245
41	40	23	Scott Riggs	Chevrolet	North Texas Pipe	3/0	14	Rear Gear	133,070
42	39	179	Mike Skinner	Ford	Koma Unwind	2/0	11	Rear Gear	132,975
43	43	119	Mike Bliss	Toyota	Humphrey Smith Racing	0	5	Engine	133,356

                         Race facts and Race results via NASCAR.com