Johnson Earns a Blowout Victory

Only 39 laps into Sunday’s race, Jimmie Johnson’s hopes for winning at the Brickyard looked as flat as the shredded left front tire that had suddenly hobbled his Chevrolet.

The problem sent the Californian back to 38th in the 43-car field. But with 120 laps still left, Johnson proved why he has been NASCAR’s most consistent driver and has led the Nextel Cup standings nearly all year.

Johnson patiently and methodically moved to the front and then -- after a late caution flag again set him back several spots -- rallied one more time to win his first Allstate 400 at the Brickyard in front of more than 200,000 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Many consider this race the second-most important event on NASCAR’s 36-race schedule behind the season-opening Daytona 500, which the 30-year-old Johnson also won this year.

It was the first time that a driver captured the two races in the same season since Dale Jarrett won both in 1996.

“Unreal, I can’t believe we accomplished what we did today,” said an emotional Johnson, who finished poorly in his four previous Brickyard races and was hoping merely to leave with a top-10 finish after qualifying fifth.

“We really feared coming here, so we overcame a lot today,” the El Cajon native said. “We’ve been kicking ourselves for years coming to this racetrack.”

The victory was the fourth of the year for Johnson’s No. 48 -- he also won at Las Vegas and Talladega -- and the 22nd win of his career.

“I wanted to pucker up and kiss those bricks,” he said in Victory Lane, referring to the winner’s tradition of kneeling to kiss the strip of bricks at the start-finish line that are left from the historic speedway’s old surface.

Johnson’s closest rival in the points, Matt Kenseth, kept up the pressure by finishing second on Indy’s 2.5-mile oval in his Roush Racing Ford.

Bakersfield native Kevin Harvick, who won the race in 2003, was third for Richard Childress Racing. Harvick also had won his fifth Busch Series race of the year Saturday night at nearby O’Reilly Raceway Park.

“We didn’t have anything for the 48,” Harvick said. “He had the field covered. I thought the race was going to come down to Matt and myself. The 48 kind of came out of nowhere. He was just flying.”

Tony Stewart, winner of last year’s race here and the reigning Cup champion, never seriously challenged for the lead and finished eighth for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Harvick’s Childress teammate, Jeff Burton, started from the pole and led the most laps, 87, but faded to a 15th-place finish. Still, he remained third in the points.

Under NASCAR’s playoff system, the top 10 drivers in points after 26 races compete in the Chase for the Championship over the final 10 races.

With only five races left to determine who’s in the chase, some of NASCAR’s most popular drivers are still in the top 10, including Jeff Gordon (eighth), Stewart (ninth) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (10th).

Earnhardt climbed back into the chase with a bold move during the final caution period. His crew put only two fresh tires on his Chevrolet to lift him to second place on the restart from 28th. Others also took only two, or no, tires to gain positions.

But Johnson crew chief Chad Knaus chose to put four tires on his man’s car, confident that Johnson -- who left the pits in eighth -- still had time to run down Kyle Busch, Earnhardt, Kenseth and the other late leaders with 14 laps left.

“I just got really aggressive and drove the heck out of the car,” Johnson said. “I knew if I could get position on the No. 17 [Kenseth] right away, then the guys up there in front of me with no tires, it would just take a little bit of time to get by them.”

Johnson has been a championship contender since he joined the Cup series in 2002, but he has yet to win the title, a shortcoming he and Knaus acknowledge was partly the result of their inability to handle the stress.

They’re trying to better manage the pressure this year, and Knaus said Johnson’s win Sunday underlined the change.

When Johnson’s tire blew, both were fearful that his day was all but over. But Knaus said he radioed to his driver to be patient and not try to move back through the field too quickly. “I told him, ‘Everything’s going to be OK, buddy,’ ” Knaus said.

Said Johnson: “His reaction to what took place kept my head in the game.”

That wasn’t the only obstacle his crew overcame. They also had to quickly fix a broken radio in Johnson’s car just before the start, and extinguish a flash fire that erupted after one of Johnson’s pit stops.

“I had my guard up waiting for the next blow,” said Knaus, who turned 35 on Saturday.

But once Johnson had victory in hand, “as I crossed the finish line, I said ‘Happy birthday, Knaus,’ ” Johnson said.

It was the fifth Brickyard win for Hendrick, who also owns the team of four-time winner Gordon. Gordon finished 16th after suffering mechanical problems early in the race.

The Roush Racing team, which has never won here, and some of the series’ rookies also had a good day.

Besides Kenseth, Roush drivers Mark Martin and Carl Edwards finished fifth and ninth, respectively. Rookies Clint Bowyer, another Childress driver, was fourth and rookie Gibbs driver Denny Hamlin was 10th.

There were 18 lead changes among nine drivers, and eight caution periods covering 24 laps.