Kyle Ocker, FanZone Sports — NASCAR
Jimmie Johnson won the Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 for his 40th Sprint Cup Series victory. This is his 7th victory in 2008, as he extends his points lead of Carl Edwards to 141 points, needing a 36th place finish or better to clinch his third consecutive title, even if Edwards wins and leads the most laps. Additionally, Johnson can clinch by finishing 37th and leading at least one lap or 39th and leading the most laps.
“I’m excited,” Johnson said. “I wish we could have left here and all we have to do is start (at Homestead), but Carl put up a great fight. They’ve been a strong, championship-caliber team all year. But as long as something doesn’t go crazy for us down in Homestead, we’re going to tie Cale — and I can’t wait to start celebrating.”
With Johnson’s win, Chevrolet has officially clinched their 32nd Manufacturer’s Championship.
Kurt Busch finished second for his 10th top ten finish in the 2008 season.
“We felt like we had a great race today,” Busch said. “We had a great race car underneath us. Just had a great effort all around with pit stops, with changes during the race, just nice and steady progress throughout the day. We thought we were on our game. We thought we had most of the group covered, but we just got beat, and we got beat by something special.”
Jamie McMurray finished third for his first top ten finish at Phoenix, and his tenth this year.
“It’s been a fun week,” said McMurray. “You know, when the race started I really thought that we might have the car to beat. I got by Jimmie on the outside and was able to somewhat check out. Then when I got back in traffic, I think we started fourth or fifth. You get so tight when you get behind guys.”
Edwards is the only one who can mathematically catch Johnson at Homestead next weekend, finishing fourth failing to lead a single lap after coming up from a 15th starting position. Denny Hamlin came home fifth with Dale Earnhardt Jr. in sixth with Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton, and David Ragan rounded out the top ten.
The race was stopped twice during its run. The first time was after rain drops began falling in the dessert on lap 43 the stopped the race under the red flag for almost 24 minutes. The race went under red for the second time after a nine car pile up on lap 275 that stopped the race for nearly 18 minutes.
The race lasted 3 hours and 12 minutes and was stopped by a caution 10 times. There was 9 lead changes among 5 drivers.
A southern Iowa native, Kyle Ocker has grown FanZone Sports to become one of the fastest growing sports websites in America. Currently, Ocker covers Auto Racing for FanZone Sports and SpeedwayMedia.com. 
Loading ...