Johnson kisses the famous yard of bricks after winning a bizarre race at Indianapolis. Photograph: Robert LeSieur/Reuters

Jimmie Johnson overcame tyre problems that blighted the entire field to take victory in the Allstate 400 Nascar Sprint Cup race held at the Brickyard yesterday.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver started his Chevrolet from pole position at Indianapolis and was forced to master a bizarre format, as racing was broken up with cautions and mandatory pit stops to compensate for excessive tyre wear. The majority of drivers were forced to race conservatively in each brief stint, but after the last stop Johnson raced flat-out to the flag and finished just a car-length ahead of Carl Edwards, with Denny Hamlin in third.

“Carl put a lot of pressure on me at the end there,” said Johnson, who now lies fourth in the overall drivers’ standings. “I have to commend him, how hard he was driving. I think it was a good race there at the end. Those last seven laps were white knuckle, to say the least.”

While some drivers described the event as a debacle, defending Sprint Cup champion Johnson claimed he had been able to run at any pace he wanted and maintained that the race had still featured plenty of overtaking. “I think there was a lot of passing,” he said. “I know I had to pass a lot of cars. I can honestly say nobody wanted to be in this position - Goodyear, Nascar, teams, drivers, owners, nobody. I’m sure it was long and boring today, but Nascar called a great race. They kept us from tearing up race cars for no reason. We’ll take our lumps, I’m sure, and come back next year and put on a better show.”

About this articleCloseThis article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Monday July 28 2008. It was last updated at 12:12 on July 28 2008.

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