After hours of what seemed to be nothing but caution periods at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Jimmie Johnson finally crossed the finish line taking the checkered flag. There was little racing on the track, but it did leave room for lots of strategy in the pits. Despite what people may have thought about the race, Jimmie Johnson did agree with the NASCAR officials’ decision to call the six competition cautions during the 200 lap race.

“As much as I didn’t like it,” Johnson said of the yellow flags, “I’ve got to commend NASCAR for calling a safe race.”

And that’s what it comes down to, safety. Even without NASCAR calling all the competition yellows, the race probably wouldn’t have run much different. There still would have been caution after caution, but they would have come from blown tires – resulting in what could have been disastrous racing. Even with calling the scheduled competition yellows, there was still an additional five caution periods during the race – several due to tire wear.

The Top-5 finishers in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard were:

1. Jimmie Johnson
2. Carl Edwards
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Elliott Sadler
5. Jeff Gordon

For full results, please see the following link:

2008 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard Results

A late race call to stay on slick tires must have been the right decision for Bernd Schneider, because after the race was finished at a rather soaked Nurburgring, he was the one standing at the top of the podium. Schneider wasn’t the only driver to gamble with the dry tires however, as the third and fourth placed drivers, Jamie Green and Gary Paffett, also stayed out on their slicks.

“I thank my team for their great efforts and for the right tire choice,” Schneider said following the race. “This was the key to success.”

The second place finisher, Schneider’s teammate Paul di Resta, opted for a set of wet weather tires. These were the obvious faster choice, as di Resta was gaining around five seconds a lap on his teammate – not enough however to fully make up for the extra pit stop. Had the race been a couple laps longer, things probably would have ended differently for the two Mercedes drivers.

Di Resta had this to say about the decision, “It was tricky to keep the car on the track in the rain. In the end we decided to change to wet tires because we didn’t want to take chances with respect to the championship.”

The Top-5 finishers were:

1 Bernd Schneider
2 Paul di Resta
3 Jamie Green
4 Gary Paffett
5 Timo Scheider

For the full results of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters race at Nurburgring, please see the following link:

2008 DTM at Nurburgring Results