In one of the most dominant performances the Brickyard 400 has seen, Jimmie Johnson led 99 of the 160 laps en route to his fourth victory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It is Johnson's 58th-career win and his third of the 2012 Sprint Cup season. With the triumph, Johnson joins the elite class of quadruple Indianapolis winners. No man has ever claimed five victories on the track's legendary oval configuration. Jeff Gordon is the only other four-time Brickyard 400 winner.
Kyle Busch finished second, nearly five seconds behind Johnson. Greg Biffle finished third ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr, who's fourth-place result vaulted him atop the point standings for the first time since 2004. Gordon finished fifth, yet another close-but-no-cigar result. He now has just six races to gain the necessary victories to make the Chase via a wild card.
Polesitter Denny Hamlin finished sixth after leading 27 laps early. South Bend, IN's Ryan Newman took seventh, followed by Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski. Tony Stewart, still the only native Indianan to win the Brickyard 400, rounded out the top-10.
Matt Kenseth, who led the points entering the race crashed late and wound up 35th. He falls 14 points behind Earnhardt in the standings but is all but assured of making the Chase for the Championship despite the crash.
Busch and Kasey Kahne remain the two drivers who would make the Chase via a wild card spot. Busch sits 11th in the standings, 55 points behind 10th-place Clint Bowyer. Carl Edwards, who started second, had engine problems early and finished a miserable 29th. He falls to 12th and, like Gordon, is running out of races to get to victory lane and have a chance to make a run at the championship he lost last year.