Johnson started from the pole at Pocono but found trouble on lap 76 when he cut a tire and hit the wall. Despite the damage, he finished 13th and actually increased his lead in the points standings to 77 over Clint Bowyer.
Johnson controlled the Brickyard 400 until a slow pit stop late in the race likely cost him any chance at the win. He finished second behind Ryan Newman and still maintained a healthy led in the Sprint Cup point standings.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series visits the famed 2.5-mile rectangle in the Midwest at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 20th time on Sunday for a 400-mile race which will certainly have some foreshadowing into the future this week and here is why.
In addition to a dose of roof flap drama, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 55th annual Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
After celebrating the Fourth of July weekend on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway, the three national NASCAR series head to short, flat tracks in separate parts of the country this weekend. New Hampshire Motor Speedway will host the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series, while the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heads to Iowa for a standalone weekend of their own.
Daytona needs no introduction this week. Since it's the Crown Jewel of NASCAR, everyone knows the history of the track and the races its produced over the years, so I'll keep it short and talk a little bit about what I was able to gather from the February races - including that "HISTORIC" Daytona 500.
Jeff Burton not only has a new sponsor this year in Kwikset, a major manufacturer and supplier of residential locks, but he is also all atwitter over their sweepstakes “I Heart the Mayor.”
After a weekend of turning left and right at the road courses at Sonoma and Road America, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series, joined by their NASCAR Camping World Truck Series counterparts, head back east to the 1.5 mile Kentucky Speedway for the second tripleheader of the season. This time around all three races will be under the lights of this oval that is a relative newcomer to the schedule, having only hosted all three series for the past two years.
Sprint Cup Series - Quaker State 400
