# 2012 GEICO 400

The 2012 GEICO 400 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race held on September 16, 2012, at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois. Contested over 267 laps, it was the twenty-seventh in the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, as well as the first race in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, which ends the season.

## Report
### Background

Chicagoland Speedway is one of ten intermediate tracks to hold NASCAR races; the others are Atlanta Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Homestead Miami Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Texas Motor Speedway. The standard track at Chicagoland Speedway is a four-turn tri-oval track that is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long. The track's turns are each banked at 18 degrees and have a turn width of 55 feet. The racetrack has a grandstand capacity of 75,000.
Before the race, Denny Hamlin led the Drivers' Championship with 2,012 points, with Jimmie Johnson in second place with, 2,009. Tony Stewart and Brad Keselowski were tied with Johnson for the second position, while Greg Biffle had 2,006 points. Clint Bowyer also with 2,006 points was one point ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth, as Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top ten with 2,000 points each. In the parallel Chase for the Sprint Cup, Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon both started with their points total reset to 2,000. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet was leading with 179 points, twenty-four points ahead of Toyota. Ford, with 129 points, was twenty points ahead of Dodge in the battle for third place. Stewart was the race's defending winner.

### Practice and qualifying

Two practice sessions were held in preparation for the race; both on Friday, September 14, 2012. The first session and second session lasted for 90 minutes each. During the first practice session, Truex Jr., for the Michael Waltrip Racing team, was quickest ahead of Earnhardt Jr. in second and Keselowski in third. Trevor Bayne was scored fourth, and Hamlin managed fifth. Jamie McMurray, Mark Martin, Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards and Ryan Newman rounded out the top ten quickest drivers in the session.
Kyle Busch was quickest in the second and final practice session, ahead of Aric Almirola in second, and Martin in third. Edwards was fourth quickest, and Hamlin took fifth. Kahne, Johnson, Bayne, Kenseth, and Gordon followed in the top ten. Of the other drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Stewart was scored fourteenth fastest, while Truex Jr. was scored twenty-fifth.
Forty-seven cars were entered for qualifying, but only forty-three could race because of NASCAR's qualifying procedure. Johnson clinched his second pole position in the season, with a time of 29.530. He was joined on the front row of the grid by Almirola. Kenseth qualified third, Earnhardt Jr. took fourth, and Edwards started fifth. Biffle, one of the drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, qualified twenty-second, while Harvick was scored thirty-fifth. The four drivers that failed to qualify for the race were Scott Riggs, Reed Sorenson, J. J. Yeley, and Jason Leffler.

## Results
### Race results

| Pos | Grid | Car | Driver | Team | Manufacturer | Laps run | Points |
| 1 | 13 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Penske Racing | Dodge | 267 | 47 |
| 2 | 1 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 267 | 44 |
| 3 | 6 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 267 | 41 |
| 4 | 21 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 267 | 40 |
| 5 | 20 | 39 | Ryan Newman | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 267 | 39 |
| 6 | 29 | 14 | Tony Stewart | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 267 | 39 |
| 7 | 10 | 20 | Joey Logano | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 267 | 37 |
| 8 | 4 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 267 | 36 |
| 9 | 18 | 56 | Martin Truex Jr. | Michael Waltrip Racing | Toyota | 267 | 35 |
| 10 | 9 | 15 | Clint Bowyer | Michael Waltrip Racing | Toyota | 267 | 35 |
| 11 | 16 | 22 | Sam Hornish Jr. | Penske Racing | Dodge | 267 | - |
| 12 | 35 | 29 | Kevin Harvick | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 267 | 32 |
| 13 | 22 | 16 | Greg Biffle | Roush Fenway Racing | Ford | 267 | 31 |
| 14 | 15 | 55 | Mark Martin | Michael Waltrip Racing | Toyota | 267 | 30 |
| 15 | 11 | 27 | Paul Menard | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 267 | 29 |
| 16 | 8 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 267 | 29 |
| 17 | 2 | 43 | Aric Almirola | Richard Petty Motorsports | Ford | 266 | 28 |
| 18 | 3 | 17 | Matt Kenseth | Roush Fenway Racing | Ford | 266 | 27 |
| 19 | 5 | 99 | Carl Edwards | Roush Fenway Racing | Ford | 266 | 25 |
| 20 | 14 | 21 | Trevor Bayne | Wood Brothers Racing | Ford | 266 | - |
| 21 | 12 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Earnhardt Ganassi Racing | Chevrolet | 266 | 24 |
| 22 | 37 | 34 | David Ragan | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 266 | 23 |
| 23 | 28 | 42 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Earnhardt Ganassi Racing | Chevrolet | 265 | 21 |
| 24 | 32 | 31 | Jeff Burton | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 265 | 20 |
| 25 | 41 | 10 | Danica Patrick | Tommy Baldwin Racing | Chevrolet | 265 | - |
| 26 | 23 | 47 | Bobby Labonte | JTG Daugherty Racing | Toyota | 264 | 18 |
| 27 | 17 | 9 | Marcos Ambrose | Richard Petty Motorsports | Ford | 263 | 17 |
| 28 | 40 | 38 | David Gilliland | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 263 | 16 |
| 29 | 26 | 83 | Landon Cassill | BK Racing | Toyota | 262 | 15 |
| 30 | 39 | 32 | T. J. Bell | FAS Lane Racing | Ford | 261 | - |
| 31 | 38 | 93 | Travis Kvapil | BK Racing | Toyota | 259 | 13 |
| 32 | 30 | 51 | Kurt Busch | Phoenix Racing | Chevrolet | 245 | 12 |
| 33 | 42 | 36 | Dave Blaney | Tommy Baldwin Racing | Chevrolet | 199 | 11 |
| 34 | 7 | 78 | Regan Smith | Furniture Row Racing | Chevrolet | 197 | 10 |
| 35 | 19 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 190 | 9 |
| 36 | 27 | 13 | Casey Mears | Germain Racing | Ford | 146 | 8 |
| 37 | 36 | 33 | Cole Whitt | Circle Sport | Chevrolet | 70 | - |
| 38 | 43 | 26 | Josh Wise | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 66 | 6 |
| 39 | 31 | 30 | David Stremme | Inception Motorsports | Toyota | 60 | 5 |
| 40 | 33 | 87 | Joe Nemechek | NEMCO Motorsports | Toyota | 52 | - |
| 41 | 25 | 95 | Scott Speed | Leavine Family Racing | Ford | 49 | 3 |
| 42 | 34 | 19 | Mike Bliss | Humphrey-Smith Motorsports | Toyota | 41 | - |
| 43 | 24 | 98 | Michael McDowell | Phil Parsons Racing | Ford | 38 | 1 |

## Standings after the race

| Pos | Driver | Points |
| 1 | Brad Keselowski | 2,056 |
| 2 | Jimmie Johnson | 2,053 |
| 3 | Tony Stewart | 2,048 |
| 4 | Denny Hamlin | 2,041 |
| 5 | Kasey Kahne | 2,041 |
| 6 | Clint Bowyer | 2,041 |
| 7 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 2,039 |
| 8 | Greg Biffle | 2,037 |
| 9 | Martin Truex Jr. | 2,035 |
| 10 | Kevin Harvick | 2,032 |
| 11 | Matt Kenseth | 2,030 |
| 12 | Jeff Gordon | 2,009 |
| Pos | Manufacturer | Points |
| 1 | Chevrolet | 179 |
| 2 | Toyota | 150 |
| 3 | Ford | 128 |
| 4 | Dodge | 115 |