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Two In A Row For Johnson At Brickyard

Speedway, Ind., July 26-The fans at the 16th Annual Allstate 400 at the Brickyard witnessed a gamut of emotions Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. While Jimmie Johnson basked in the glory and elation of his third victory in the prestigious event, Juan Pablo Montoya left the speedway in frustration, anger, and disappointment after a late race penalty on pit road cost him a chance of winning a race he dominated from the start.

Montoya was the story of the day from the drop of the green flag, leading all but eight laps by the time final pit stops came on lap 125. However, a costly speeding penalty on pit road during those stops erased any chance of victory for the popular driver from Columbia and that combined with a late caution for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s blown engine, set up a duel to the finish between Johnson and pole-sitter Mark Martin. Starting from the outside lane as the green flag appeared, Johnson was able to maintain his position alongside Martin as they entered turn one. With the two side by side through the second turn, Johnson was able to scoot ahead as they raced down the backstretch to take his first lead of the race on lap 138. Martin was able to keep Johnson in his sights in the final laps and closed to Johnson’s rear bumper in a spirited effort to catch him, but at the finish, Johnson proved to be too tough to handle as he scored his second consecutive Allstate 400 at the Brickyard win and third overall.

“I hope the fans enjoyed that race and I can’t say enough about this race team and that battle with my teammate Mark Martin,” an enthusiastic Johnson stated from victory lane, “Damn he was fast for an old guy.” “Those last 15 to 20 laps, man, we had to drive it so hard to stay ahead of Mark (Martin). I was better in turns three and four and he was better in turns one and two, it was kind of a give and take thing going on.”

“He (Johnson) was better off turn four and I was better than he was off turn two and I tried to make it happen off turn two,” a content Martin stated describing his second place finish, “Both of us were driving for what we were worth, and I just couldn’t get him (Johnson).” “I’m actually grateful that I had a chance to race for the win. I would have liked to have won it, but we got beat by ‘Superman’ (Johnson).”

Montoya vehemently protested the call from officials over his team’s radio and strongly pleaded his innocence to no avail as the pass-through penalty he incurred dropped him back to the fourteenth position for the final restart. Driver frustration and the aero disadvantages from racing in traffic combined to deny Montoya a chance to return to the front of the field and the best he could do was charge back to an eleventh place finish.

“It (the penalty) kind of sucks,” an obviously disappointed Montoya said afterwards, “But it is what it is.” “I thought I wasn’t speeding as they have lights and I was on them every time. Once it happens you can’t change it and it’s pretty frustrating.” “It was kind of easy, to be honest,” Montoya continued describing his day up until the penalty, “I was just cruising, the car was stupid fast.”

Tony Stewart led briefly for two laps early on and ran a solid and steady race to maintain his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points lead by finishing a strong third.

“Obviously you want to win here at Indy, but I’m pretty satisfied with it,” Stewart said. “We got to the top three or four there pretty early and that was kind of our spot. We just never really could mount a charge to Mark (Martin) but to finish third, I’m pretty satisfied with that.”

Greg Biffle crossed the finish line in fourth place despite having to save fuel at the end and the strong finish enabled his team to advance two places in the point standings and join the top 12 Chase contenders.

“We had a really good car, “Biffle stated, “It was just too bad we had to let up and save fuel at the end.” “It’s hard for a race car driver with a fast race car to let up, but that’s what we needed to do to finish and we did what we had to do. It was a good points day for us and we need every point we can get right now.”

Brian Vickers and Kevin Harvick turned in much-needed good runs to finish in fifth and sixth place respectively while Kasey Kahne took the checkered flag in seventh.

“It was a good race, but we’re not satisfied by no means,” Vickers stated, “We really wanted to come here and win this race and I think if we would have had the track position when we could have stayed out in front of them.”

“The car was good all day and we have run like that the last few weeks but just haven’t had anything to show for it,” Harvick said, “We have been running better the last four or five weeks and we have just had stupid stuff happen like wrecks and things like that, so it is going in the right direction.”

“I was just too tight to pass cars there at the end, so I just made sure I was saving fuel and not let the car behind me catch me,” Kahne said, “Overall it was a good race, another good finish and a good points day.”

David Reutimann came home with a steady eighth place finish while Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth completed the top ten finishers as a total of 38 cars were running at the finish with 24 of them on the lead lap.

The Allstate 400 at the Brickyard featured nine lead changes among seven drivers and was slowed only three times by the caution flag. The first slow down occurred on lap three when Robby Gordon spun in turn four while the second caution flag appeared on lap 59 when Kyle Busch hit the turn four wall after cutting down a right front tire. The final caution appeared on lap 129 for oil on the track from Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s engine problems.

Unlike the tire issues in the race a year ago, Busch’s tire problem was the only one of the day as the new tires brought this year by Goodyear performed much better and lasted a fuel stop and while Busch’s problems seemed isolated, it cost him four spots in the point standings as the team fell out of the “Chase” to 14th.

“I’m not really sure what happened,” Busch said,” We were biding our time there and I got stuck behind a lapped car and had to push the right front a little bit.” “I had been loose the whole run so I didn’t think I had been abusing it at all, ” Busch continued after soldiering on to a 38th place finish, “But all of a sudden it just started vibrating and then in two laps it just blew out.”

The race was completed in just under two hours and forty five minutes at an average speed of 145.882 mph in front of a respectable crowd estimated at 180,000.

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