As Harvick captures 2nd Brickyard, playoff run ends for Johnson

Kevin Harvick had a nearly flawless run Sunday at the Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis and a crash with 55 laps to go made this official: Jimmie Johnson’s perfect postseason record is over.

On a day Harvick won the pole, led all but 42 laps and raced to his second Brickyard victory, Johnson finished without a playoff spot for the first time since NASCAR introduced the format in 2004.

“I think our car had good pace. Just these restarts are so crazy with this rules package,” the seven-time Cup champion said after being released from the infield medical center. “Everybody’s trying to get everything they can and we came out on the bad side of the deal there in turn two.”

The result: Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman claimed the final two spots in the 16-driver field, and Daniel Suarez fell four points short of becoming the first Mexican driver to make the playoffs that begin next weekend in Las Vegas. Harvick beat Joey Logano by 6.118 seconds.

Johnson wasn’t the only driver having trouble Sunday. Defending race winner Brad Keselowski climbed out of the cockpit on his knees after his car and Erik Jones’ touched, sending Keselowski sideways into a tire barrier. Neither driver was seriously injured. Twotime race winner and regularseason champion Kyle Busch parked his car on pit road after blowing an engine.

There were six crashes in a race that had 48 of 160 laps run under caution. Denny Hamlin finished sixth — the top finisher for Joe Gibbs Racing, which was trying to become the first team to sweep NASCAR’s four biggest races in the same season.