After a domianting performance that saw Hendrick driver Jimmie Johnson lead 99 laps of the 160 that made up the race, Johnson won for the fourth-time at Indianapolis to tie teammate Jeff Gordon for most all-time wins at the track and give car owner Rick Hendrick his eighth Brickyard win.

“That victory lap, going around the track, is really special,” Johnson said in victory lane.

Three Hendrick Motorsports drivers finished in the top-five, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. finishing fourth and Gordon fifth. With his fourth-place finish, Earnhardt took the points lead from Matt Kenseth.

“We’d like to win more races, though,” Earnhardt said.

Kenseth’s No. 17 was collected by the spinning No. 20 car of Joey Logano with 28 laps to go, taking Kenseth out of the race.

“The farther we got back (in the field), the dumber people drove,” Kenseth said after the incident.

Denny Hamlin started the race from the pole and led several laps early, until Johnson beat him off pit road during a cycle of green-flag pit stops around lap 25. For much of the remainder of the race, Johnson was in command.

Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 team got off sequence somewhat with their pit stops, hoping a slightly different strategy would set them apart from everyone else. As a result, Keselowski led for several laps multiple times, but the advantage of his strategy flew out the window when he lost several positions on a restart following a caution that came out with 67 laps to go. By the end of the race, he had dropped back to ninth.

Kyle Busch finished second, and Greg Biffle was third.

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“I think our car was good,” Hamlin said. “The only disadvantage we had was that the sun was out, at least on the frontstretch, from what I could see. When you do that, it’s more about just hitting your marks.”

His time was more than 0.2 seconds faster than the 49.455-second lap turned in by Carl Edwards, the second-fastest qualifier who’ll start alongside Hamlin on the front row.

“That was a really good lap for us,” Edwards said. “I am just proud of everyone for coming together and working together.”

Qualifying third and fourth on Saturday to claim the two second row starting spots on Sunday’s grid were Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Joey Logano, and Aric Almirola.

Greg Biffle rounded out the top-five in qualifying to start on the inside in the third row, and he’ll be joined in that row by sixth-place qualifier Jimmie Johnson. Qualifying seventh through 10th were Kyle Busch, Paul Menard, Jeff Gordon and series points leader Matt Kenseth.

Three drivers — Reed Sorenson, Michael McDowell and Joe Nemechek — failed to make the race.

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