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Jimmie Johnson took home to trophy for the Southern 500 from Darlington, and the 200th win for the Hendricks stable.

200 wins. Now theres a lifetime achievement to be proud of. But in typical Rick Hendrick fashion, while the mile stone is great, he is already looking towards the next one.

That guys something, Johnson said about the owner. He said, `We won 200. Lets get 250.

Jimmie Johnson could not have been more proud as he beamed his trademark smile around everywhere after the race.  Johnson presented his owner with a helmet signed by the 15 drivers who ran for Hendrick since he began his operation. Thanks, buddy,  Rick Hendrick said with a smile. This will definitely be the centerpiece of the mancave.

The win brings Johnsons personal total up to 56 wins, and he is the 8th different winner out of 11 races so far this season.

Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart each did their best trying to postpone the 200th victory celebration but were simply unable to run down Johnson in the late stages of the race.

Tony Stewart did everything he could to postpone the 200th Hendrick win, but lost fuel pressure and held on for a 3rd place finish.

I was trying to postpone [No. 200] for another week by trying to get to Jimmie, but I just couldnt do it, said Tony Stewart. The closer I got to him, the tighter I got. That was one of the best runs wed had, but still I wasnt strong enough.

He had plenty of car left. He was just riding, trying to save fuel. They won it in dominating fashion. To win a 200th race, you dont want to back into it. They dominated and took it the way they should.

I think its phenomenal, especially with the competition over here getting tougher and tougher, said Stewart, who lost second position to Hamlin when his car temporarily lost fuel pressure coming to the final restart. Its getting harder and harder to win these races.

Especially for it to happen in the Southern 500 its such a historic race. Its a pretty cool milestone.

When asked how he felt about bringing home a third place finish at a track where he still has yet to mark a W in the win column, Stewart said he was happy with the way things worked out for him and his #14 Office Depot team.

You know, considering the hurdles of the day, Im pretty happy with a third-place run, Stewart said.

We kind of struggled there the first half of the race, Stewart said. We fought loose in [Turn] 1 and 2, really tight in 3 and 4. So its really hard to fix the balance of the race car when its doing two different things on two different ends.

Really proud of [crew chief] Steve Addington. He just kept throwing things at it to try to get a direction.

Its why we won a championship last year, he said. We never give up.

Johnson was a bit worried when he saw the grille of the 14 car in his rear view mirror.

I still was really nervous with the 14 behind me, Johnson said. Hes been the guy week after week that can go the distance. I was trying to pace myself off of him. It worked out.

It was fuel pressure however that, in the end, cost Stewart the position on the track and the chance to really give Jimmie a run for his money.

We ran out of fuel coming off of [Turn] 4, Stewart said. It didnt run all the way out of fuel, but it laid down enough that it didnt run a 100 percent going down into Turn 1. Once we got into 1, we got the fuel to the pickup, and we just lost our spot doing it.

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Kasey Kahne takes a celebration drink after winning the Coca~Cola 600 at Charlotte Motorspeedway

600 grueling miles in almost 90 degree heat, saving equipment until the end, making changes to keep up with the track as the sun goes down, and strategy to gain track position at just the right time. Kasey Kahne had all that working for him. Kenny Francis made all the right changes to his car and stayed ahead of the track, while Kasey took care of his car, keeping it off the wall, saving his brakes, and finding the speed he needed right at the best time to find it, in the final 25 laps.

After a rough start to the 2012 season Kahne has had a solid run for the last 6 weeks finishing top 10.  He never gave up despite the string of DNFs early on, he kept any complaints he may have had to himself, and forged on.  The end result of that patience it seems is a win at one of NASCARs marquee races.

I never doubted myself, said Kahne.  I was upset at some of the things that may have happened. I made a huge mistake at Phoenix and hit the wall there, but other than that, we were solid we were fast.

It was just a matter of getting past those [six] weeks and moving on and putting some solid races together.

I think the biggest thing for myself was just to figure out the cars, figure out how they drove, Kahne said. Its been a little bit different for me. Weve had speed. Even the last five, six races, weve been in the top 10, but not near as fast as Jimmie Johnson or a couple of those guys who have been winning races.I just knew for myself, I needed to step up. Our team is solid. Our car is solid. Mr. Hendrick gives us everything we need to win races and run up front. [Sunday] night we were able to put it all together.

Denny Hamlin did everything he could to chase down Kahne, even coming to within a second of him after the final restart, but Kahne could not be caught as he just kept pulling away right up to the checkered flag.

As the track cooled off, it freed up for us the car got better, Hamlin said. Ultimately, it gave us a shot to win. The first 10 laps of the last run, we got to them [Kahne], but we wore our front tires trying to get around them.

Everything was executed great [Sunday], the pit calls, getting on and off pit road, the pit crew themselves. We had a very, very solid day.

Greg Biffle had been the dominant car all day, leading 204 laps, and looking like the car to beat, until Kahne got by and never looked back.

Its so frustrating, Biffle said of his fourth place finish after having the events dominant car. Youre driving your heart out, youre wondering, Am I doing something wrong? Come on, come on. Youre doing all you can do, but the car wont do what you want it to do. You just take what it gives you, otherwise you wreck it. And I just about wrecked it a half a dozen times trying to get forward.

Other notable finishers were Carl Edwards who charged from the back of the field towards the front gaining more than 20 positions to finish in in the top ten in 9th place.  Dale Earnhardt Jr also did well, running in the top 15 for most of the race and climbing to as high as second on a call by his Crew Chief, Steve Latarte, to stay out on 12 lap tires when the leaders came in to the pits.  The gained track position was what he needed to stay inside the top 10 to finish in 6th place.  Good enough to stay within 18 points of the points leader Greg Biffle in 4th place overall.

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