The Allstate 400

INDIANAPOLIS --

You knew what was up for Sunday by midday Friday, when Jimmie Johnson, in his own polite way, subtly called his Ruthian shot.

Asked if a win in the Allstate 400 would make it clear he's back, he said -- no brag, just fact -- "We're back already. I don't think we need to run this weekend to prove that." He also politely blew off questions about how hot Kyle Busch has been lately, not so much denigrating Busch's streak as implying by his tone that it just might be over … that Johnson was ready to take command of the Sprint Cup tour for a while.

"I hate flying below the radar," he said of his recent history after winning the Cup the past two years running. "I miss being booed. I miss people throwing stuff at me. I want to start winning again and go through all that stuff." Even without results to show for it yet -- he finished second to Busch at Chicagoland the previous race -- Johnson could feel his momentum of the past two seasons returning.

"We've got a lot of speed, we're qualifying up front, we're racing up front -- we're back," he said. All this, before Johnson ran so much as a practice lap at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Then Saturday, he won the pole to demonstrate the "qualifying up front." Hours later, he was fastest in final practice, showing "a lot of speed." Most of Sunday afternoon he raced up front. He dominated! Then he won, for the second time here in three years. He's back!

He breezed early, got into a bit of a fix late with a blistered tire, then staged a spectacular drive back from ninth to first. Though his tire problem looked for a moment like it might cost him the win, it was minor indeed amid the pandemic of tire failures that brought out 11 cautions. The issue was mostly right-rears blowing. And how indicative of Johnson's day was this: When his right-rear finally blew, it was during his victory burnout. The blister occurred two stops from the end, when Johnson was fighting an unexpected challenge from Denny Hamlin. He had seen little competition previously.

"The first three-fourths of the race, it seemed like we could run the pace we needed to, and pass guys and control the race," Johnson said. "But at the end, I don't know if the 11 [Hamlin] and the 99 [Carl Edwards] had been just waiting for the right time to get aggressive, but those guys really matched our pace and were tough to race with.

Just before he fell back to ninth, "I was behind the 11 and thought I could get by him, but I blistered the right-rear tire and that didn't work out." But he was saved by a mandatory competition caution NASCAR threw for tire checks. With a fresh set, "I got up to I guess second or third for that last [mandatory] pit stop [with 10 laps remaining]." Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus had been going with four-tire stops all race -- that's why Johnson found himself behind Hamlin, who took two. But on the final stop, Knaus ordered only two tires, Johnson roared out of the pits first, and from there it was only a matter of zigging and zagging down Indy's long straightaways to break the draft on the pressing Edwards.

Though he had only one win this season coming to Indy, Johnson had seen his team gaining momentum lately without the results to show for it, and "that's where that confidence came from," he said of his Friday talk. "We've known we've been doing the right things; we could see the momentum. We've just had a lot of races where strategy came into play and it didn't work out for us. And we didn't get the finishes we deserved. "You can look at the races," Knaus said. "Not the finishes but the races themselves over the last 10 or 12 weeks, and we've been right there. … Any racetrack we go to now, I can proudly say I think we can run top-5 speeds. If you can do that on a weekly basis, then you're going to be in position to go for a championship. "And I think we're there now."

Ed Hinton covers motorsports for ESPN.com. He can be reached at edward.t.hinton@espn3.com.

10 Toughest Cars

Ten Toughest Cars On The Road
Jacqueline Mitchell 03.24.08

Consumers are finding vehicles able to withstand the daily demands of life in some unlikely places.

The Honda showroom is one. There, buyers looking for reliable, safe vehicles with low repair costs and reports of problems will find the Odyssey. It ranked first on our list of most durable vehicles. The Honda Pilot, CRV, Civic and Accord also made the list.

That's no surprise, say industry experts. The Japanese automaker typically stands above the competition in quality and reliability surveys.

In Depth: 10 Toughest Cars On The Road
"Honda builds an outstanding product," says Dave Wurster, president of Vincentric, an automotive research company. "They are highly reliable, and they last a long time. Their vehicles work well long into the future.”

Behind The Numbers In compiling our list, we looked at several key measures. To gauge safety, we used both the most recent National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration and Insurance Institute of Highway Safety front and side crash-test ratings. Vehicles had to have received at least a four-star rating out five from the NHTSA. Only a top rating of "good" in front, side and rear crash testing was acceptable from the institute.

Related Stories:
Ten Cars That Lose Value Fast
Top 20 Most Dangerous Vehicles

We used Consumer Reports' 2007 Overall Road Test Scores, which is based on 50 different tests and evaluations, to determine overall vehicle performance. Vehicles had to reach a minimum of 70 out of 100 to be considered, which falls in the second-highest range of "very good."

Strategic Vision's 2007 New Vehicle Experience Study was also consulted. In it, the automotive research company measures how many owners complain of "things gone wrong" after the first 90 days of ownership. The "Problem Impact Measure" takes into consideration the level of concern each problem caused the owner, the extent to which it was resolved and the owner's level of satisfaction with the resolution. Only vehicles that exceeded or met the average for their segment were considered.

Problems measured here are not always life-threatening. One example: a knob falling off is of lesser concern to a car owner than, say, failing brakes.

Finally, we looked at Vincentric's estimated five-year repair costs, which takes into account warranties that typically cover most repairs in the first three years of ownership