INDIANAPOLIS — Jimmie Johnson kept two other drivers from making history in the Allstate 400 at The Brickyard and accomplished a first himself in winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup event for the third time Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Starting 16th in the No. 48 Lowe’s/KOBALT Chevrolet, he took the lead from Hendricks Motorsports teammate Mark Martin on a restart on the 137th lap and led the rest of the way to win the race for the second straight year.
Tony Stewart charged late to finish third with Greg Biffle fourth and Brian Vickers fifth.
Johnson is the first driver to win back-to-back stock-car races at Indianapolis and moved to second in the Sprint Cup point totals, passing another teammate, Jeff Gordon, to take second behind Tony Stewart.
In doing so, he kept Martin from being the oldest driver to win any race at the track at 50 years of age while Juan Montoya was on cruise control more than half of the race in his bid to be the first driver to win the Indianapolis 500 and the NASCAR race at the track.
Montoya led 116 laps before being penalized for speeding off of pit row. He finished 11th.
“This is unbelievable. I had to drive so hard to stay ahead of Mark at the finish. I hope the fans enjoyed the race,” Johnson said after beating Martin by 0.400 seconds.
“We made some great changes . . . we’ve been close the last four or five races and just came a little short. We’re doing everything we need to do,” said Johnson, who has won three straight Sprint Cup titles.
He has won three races this year and been in the top 10 14 times.
“I was better off turn two. He was better off three and four. We both were driving for all we were worth. I couldn’t get him,” Martin said.
Commenting on the double-file restarts, he said, “The restarts did their job. They changed the outcome. I never got quite clear of him on the straightaway on the restart … I just didn’t get a good enough jump,” Martin said of the finish.
“I wanted to be in the fray and I am grateful we were. You can’t win if you wreck. I was driving as fast as I could without wrecking,” said the veteran who moved to ninth in the points race and recorded his 10th top-10 finish in the 16 races at Indianapolis.
He started the race on the pole and led four laps while running second much of the afternoon to Montoya.
Chad Knaus is the crew chief for the Johnson car. He says the race went about the way he expected it to with lots of green-flag runs.
“The crew did a great job of [making changes]. We were not where we needed to be when we unloaded on Friday. It was the first race for this car. It was a great way to break it in,” he said.
Rick Hendricks is becoming to the NASCAR race at Indianapolis what Roger Penske is to the Indianapolis 500.
Hendrick Motorsports has won seven of the 16 stock-car races at IMS.
“When you come to Indianapolis, it is almost like being on sacred ground. To win here is phenomenal,” said the team owner.
His drivers have finished one-two in the last two races with Gordon finishing second to Martin earlier in the month at Chicagoland.
Gordon finished ninth in falling to third in the point totals behind Johnson. Johnson trails Stewart by 192 points and Gordon trails the leader by 207.
Montoya said his early run and dominance reminded him of 2000 when he won the 500 and led 167 of 200 laps.
“I was cruising. The car was stupid fast,” said the Colombian.
He thought conditions were “green” when he was penalized but officials ruled otherwise.
Three cautions were recorded during the race which was free of any major accident.
Auto Racing
Jimmie Johnson holds off Mark Martin for his second straight Brickyard, third in his career
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