* Jimmie Johnson won the Allstate 400 at The Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Johnson won the race from the Coor’s Light pole starting position. He is only the second driver to win at Indy from the pole. Kevin Harvick won at Indy in 2003 from the pole. * Johnson scored his 35th-career NSCS victory in 239 career races. He climbed from fifth to fourth in the points standings. This is his second series victory in 2008. He also won at Phoenix in April, 12 races ago. Johnson scored his second victory in seven races at Indy. He scored his third top-10 finish in seven races at Indy. Johnson led 71 of the 160 laps raced including the final 10 laps. * Chevrolet scored its fifth victory in 2008. Toyota has eight wins, Dodge has four while Ford has three. * The winner at Indy has gone on to win the Championship six times. * This marked the first time since 1998 that the reigning Champion won the Brickyard 400. * A Chevrolet has won the last six races at Indy, a streak that began in 2003. * Hendrick Motorsports has won six of the 15 races at Indy, the most of all teams. * 17 of the 20 races in 2008 have been won from a top-10 starting position. The only three races in 2008 that were not won from a top-10 starting position were at Richmond when Clint Bowyer won from the 31st starting position, at Infineon with Kyle Busch winning from 30th and New Hampshire where Kurt Busch started 26th. * Carl Edwards finished second, scoring his 14th top-10 finish in 20 races this season, the most by any driver. He dropped from fourth to fifth in the standings, five points behind fourth-place Johnson. * Denny Hamlin finished third, posting his best finish in three races at Indy. Hamlin climbed from 12th to 8th in the standings. * Elliott Sadler finished fourth, posting his best finish in 2008. It was his best finish since he finished fourth in the 2006 Daytona 500. It was his second top-five finish in 10 races at Indy. * Jeff Gordon finished fifth, posting his 12th top-10 finish in 15 races at Indy. * In all 15 series races at Indy, the pole winner has led the first lap. * A mere six points separate 11th-place Matt Kenseth, 12th-place Clint Bowyer and 13th-place Kevin Harvick with six races remaining in the Race to the Chase. * Tire issues were anticipated and became the issue of the race with competition cautions occurring as determined by NASCAR. The anticipation was noted on Saturday and Goodyear responded bringing in their Pocono tires as backups to be used in emergency. NASCAR scheduled the first three competition cautions at Laps 14, 30 and 48 and NASCAR adjusted with the on-track problems. It became clear that the tires were lasting only nine-12 laps. The first competition caution was displayed on lap 15 during the second caution of the day. The second came with the third caution for debris from the No. 42 of Juan Pablo Montoya when he blew a tire on the backstretch on Lap 28. The third was scheduled for Lap 48. However, Matt Kenseth blew a tire doing severe damage to the right-rear of his car on Lap 46. Kenseth ended a streak of eight top-10 finishes in the last nine races, finishing 38th. The fourth competition caution was scheduled for Lap 64 and everyone made it without incident. The fifth competition caution was scheduled for Lap 83 and all cars completed the 12 laps of green-flag racing without incident as tire supplies were dwindling. The sixth competition caution was displayed on Lap 83 and the seventh on Lap 99. On Lap 107, Brian Vickers blew an engine. The ninth competition caution was displayed on Lap 123 followed by the tenth on Lap 139. The 11th and final competition caution was displayed on Lap 151. * The longest green-flag run of just 12 laps came from lap 35 to lap 47. While actually 13, the final lap was not run at “speed.” * Kenseth (38th) dropped from eighth to 11th, Kevin Harvick (37th) dropped from ninth to 13th, Brian Vickers (42nd) dropped from 14th to 15th and Kurt Busch (40th) remained 18th. * Jeff Burton hit a bird on the restart of Lap 106. * The race featured 26 lead changes among 16 drivers. Both are records for Indy. * The race had 11 cautions for 52 laps, also a record [laps] at Indy * The top 10 consisted of two Toyotas, three Chevrolets, three Fords and two Dodges. * The highest finishing rookie of the year contender was Patrick Carpentier, who finished 18th.(ESPN.com)(7-28-2008)
