NASCAR At Indianapolis Results 2012: Jimmie Johnson Wins Fourth Brickyard Race

A top-five finish in the second-biggest NASCAR race of the year is usually a cause for celebration. But not so much if you’re Jeff Gordon, who is in desperate need of a win and saw another potential victory slip through his fingertips on Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“I’m pretty disappointed, really,” Gordon said. “It’s always nice to finish in the top five, but at this point in the season, the way our season has gone with so many missed opportunities that we’ve had, I feel like it was a little bit of a missed opportunity today.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is your NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader.

For the first time since Sept. 19, 2004 – a span of 280 races – Earnhardt Jr. is leading the NASCAR standings after a fourth-place result at Sunday’s Indianapolis Motor Speedway moved him past former leader Matt Kenseth (who wrecked and finished 35th).

Carl Edwards said Saturday he needed “seven perfect races” to make the Chase. But Sunday’s race result at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was anything but perfect, and now the strategy has changed.

Edwards, in his first race with new crew chief Chad Norris, had a problem with the electronic fuel injection unit early tin the Brickyard race and required two lengthy pit stops to get his motor running again.

Tony Stewart was quite the in-race reporter for ESPN on Sunday.

During a late caution period, when Dale Jarrett innocently checked in to see how ol’ Smoke’s day was going, Stewart told the national audience he was tired of drivers blocking him on the track.

Denny Hamlin was watching Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 car during qualifying when something caught his eye: The rear of Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports car looked different than the others.

“The Hendrick cars had something going on with the back of their cars that was...unique,” Hamlin said. “They were the dominant cars. No one was going to run with them – especially the 48.”

Team owner Rick Hendrick may have had better days -- but not many.

Hendrick watched as Jimmie Johnson won Sunday’s Crown Royal 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, taking the checkered flag 4.758 seconds ahead of runner-up Kyle Busch and tying teammate Jeff Gordon for most NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins at the Brickyard -- four.

Roger Penske will meet with suspended driver AJ Allmendinger this week to discuss their future together -- or perhaps apart.

Penske, speaking to reporters after Sunday’s drivers meeting at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, said he’s got a “very open mind” to who could drive his No. 22 car next season.

Here are some storylines, notes and drivers to watch for in today’s NASCAR race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway:

Winning Indy Is No Easy Thing

In light of Saturday’s controversy over restarts at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NASCAR race director David Hoots stepped to the microphone during Sunday’s pre-race Sprint Cup Series drivers meeting and delivered a lecture.

It was the equivalent of a schoolteacher scolding a class of rowdy students. The message? Start being more responsible on restarts or we’ll step in -- and you don’t want that.

Even Dale Earnhardt Jr. will admit he isn’t at his best whenever the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series travels to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But in preparation for today’s race and in spite of his lack of success here, Earnhardt Jr. does have fond memories of racing on one of the more historic speedways in America.

Chief among them, he fondly recalls the 1995 race. It was on that day that seven-time Sprint Cup champion Dale Earnhardt fended off Rusty Wallace to win what was the second running of the Brickyard 400.

It’s NASCAR race day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and we’ve got the actual race start time, the starting lineup and some other facts about today’s race for you below.

What time does the race start today? Mari Hulman George will give the famous “Gentlemen, start your engines” command at 1:10 p.m. Eastern time today, followed by the green flag of NASCAR’s second-biggest race of the season at 1:19 p.m. So if you want to skip the pre-race show and just tune in for the race, turn on your TV set at 1:19 p.m.

More of the same. That’s the weather forecast for the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

We will once again see a mixture of clouds and sunshine. Temperatures will be warmer than they were on Saturday as highs reach the upper 80s to near 90 degrees.

Elliott Sadler was black-flagged for beating race leader Brad Keselowski to the start line with precious few laps remaining in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Indianapolis, causing controversy and prompting questions from even the drivers who race under the rules every week.

In order to sort out the situation and gain some understanding, let’s first take a look at what NASCAR says are the rules for restarts and starts (these are paraphrased explanations from NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton):

Danica Patrick had high hopes of a solid finish at the track which made her famous. Instead, she crashed out of Saturday’s inaugural NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and finished 35th.

While Patrick was going for 15th place and racing with Reed Sorenson on lap 39, the latter driver backed up his corner entry to help the car turn.

Toyota has never won a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but Denny Hamlin took a first step toward a breakthrough victory for the manufacturer with a decisive pole run on Saturday afternoon.

The 27th driver to make a qualifying run, Hamlin put down a lap no one could touch, touring the vaunted Brickyard in 49.244 seconds (182.763 mph) to collect his first Coors Light pole award at Indy, his second of the season and the 11th of his career.

Hamlin will lead the field to the green flag in Sunday’s Crown Royal 400 in his No. 11 Toyota.

The official title of this weekend’s NASCAR race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the “Crown Royal presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at The Brickyard Powered by Big Machine Records.”

Curtiss Shaver? Who is that and why is the race named after him?

Former Roush Fenway Racing crew chief Bob Osborne had legitimate health issues that helped caused his departure, driver Carl Edwards insisted on Saturday.

Edwards, speaking to reporters at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, also said he could reunite with Osborne as soon as next season if the crew chief felt better and new crew chief Chad Norris didn’t work out.

Later today, a Nationwide Series driver will get to kiss the bricks at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway and add his (or her) name to the list of Brickyard winners.

Is that right? Does the lower-tier NASCAR series running at Indy weaken the track’s prestige?

Weather is expected to be nice this weekend for the NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. After rain, heat and humidity the last two days in Indianapolis, a cold front that moved through Friday afternoon will keep temperatures in the mid- to upper-80s with a mix of sunshine and clouds.

Forecast for Saturday is cooler with less humidity. Highs will be in the mid 80s, with a mix of sunshine and clouds and a north-northwesterly wind between five to 10 miles per hour.

A cold front will bring cooler temperatures this weekend to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In fact, the temperatures for this weekend will be nearly 10 degrees cooler than they were for the Indianapolis 500 back in May.

There are no Sprint Cup Series or Nationwide cars out on the track today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The day is dedicated to the Grand-Am cars. It will be hot, as afternoon temperatures reach the low 90s, muggy and there is a chance of a scattered to isolated thunderstorm later today.

Danica Patrick will mark her eighth straight year of racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this Saturday. It’s a solid streak, but this season’s trip will be a different beast altogether.

Patrick hopes to build upon her wealth of Indy experience in the NASCAR Nationwide Series’ first-ever visit to the 2.5-mile speedway for Saturday’s Indiana 250 (4:30 p.m. ET, ESPN). While Patrick certainly knows her way around the Brickyard, this will be her first Indy experience in a stock car, which weighs more than twice as much as the IndyCars she used to pilot.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway will play host to the second-biggest NASCAR race of the year on Sunday – at least in terms of prestige.

But in terms of actual racing, NASCAR at the Brickyard has often seemed like nothing more than a parade with 43 floats designed as race cars.