NASCAR made its annual visit to Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday for the 2011 Brickyard 400 and Paul Menard pulled off the stunning upset to earn his first career Sprint Cup Series victory. Vallejo-native Jeff Gordon finished a close second as he further secured his spot in the Chase For The Sprint Cup. Gordon started the race in eighth place and used solid pit stops over the course of the race to put himself in a position to possibly win the Brickyard 400. He came up short but is motivated by his performance at a track where he has struggled recently.
Gordon remains in seventh place with six races remaining before the Chase. Although he's 52 points back of first place Carl Edwards, he is 70 up on 13th place Greg Biffle and has five drivers sitting between him and the bottom of the Chase. At this point he is pretty much a lock for the Chase, but is now simply trying to get into Championship form.
Head after the jump to view video of the final battle for the checkered flag.