Five-time becomes Four-time at the Brickyard

[media-credit name=”Dan Sanger” align=”alignright” width=”229″][/media-credit]Jimmie Johnson won Sunday’s Crown Royal presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in dominating fashion.

Johnson led five times for 99 laps, including the final 29 and held off Kyle Busch by 4.758 seconds. Johnson joins Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon as the only NASCAR drivers to win the Brickyard 400 four times.

“Wow, man that victory lap to go around the track is something special. A big thank you to all the fans out there cheering it lets it really soak in. To come here and win is a huge honor, then to have four wins I’m at a loss for words.” Johnson said in victory lane.

This was Johnson’s third win of the season and the 58th career, leaving him eighth on the all-time list and second to Gordon among active drivers.

Greg Biffle finished third, Dale Earnhardt Jr. fourth and Jeff Gordon finished fifth.

Joey Logano spun on lap 132 and collected Matt Kenseth, who came into Sunday’s race with the Sprint Cup Series points lead. Kenseth finished 35th and losses the series points lead to Dale Earnhardt Jr. by 14 points.

“We got back there and some guys were driving pretty crazy. I guess at the very end of it the 21 and 78 were mad at each other and running into each other and then the 20 was trying to pass the 21 and just lost control of his car.” Kenseth said.

Carl Edwards had trouble early. On lap 12 his car was losing power and went to pit road. Edwards finished 29th, four laps down and needs wins to get into the Chase.

“They haven’t told me anything yet. We think it is some issue with the ECU. We changed that along with the spark plugs and the engine started running better.” Edwards said. “We have to plan to win these races. 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.”