There were two things that stayed consistent the entire weekend at Indianapolis: tire wear was an issue, and Jimmie Johnson had the dominant car. Johnson led three out of four practice sessions and earned the pole on Saturday, and was the favorite heading into the Allstate 400 on Sunday.
Throughout the race tire wear continued to be an issue, as competition yellows were thrown about every ten laps so teams could put fresh rubber on their cars. Nearly every restart Johnson ran away from the field, as he lead 71 of 160 laps, and this was no exception on the final restart when he left Carl Edwards behind before earning the win.
On the final restart Johnson, along with almost everyone else, took two tires, the first time he had all race. That final stop saw Johnson get in front of Denny Hamlin and Edwards, giving him vital track position for the final restart.
"I knew what we were setting up for,"
Johnson said of the final stop. "I just can't say enough about this race car all weekend long."
It was Johnson's second win in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard in three years, and he became just the second Nascar driver to win the race from the pole, a feat first accomplished by Kevin Harvick in 2003.
Several drivers trying to make the Chase had poor finishes at Indianapolis. Kevin Harvick was the first of that group to take a hit, as his car slammed into the wall after contact with Kurt Busch on lap 14, as he finished 37th.
Then Matt Kenseth had tire issues on the backstretch on lap 47, as his right-rear tire blew, ripping his quarter-panel to shreds. Kenseth would limp around the track and finish 38th. Brian Vickers suffered a blown engine just past the halfway point, leaving him with a 42nd place finish, while Tony Stewart fell from 4th to 23rd late.
This left Kevin Harvick outside the top-12 in points to 13th., two points behind twelth, and Matt Kenseth falling to 11th in points, in the Chase field by just six points. Tony Stewart still has a slight cusion with 39 points between him and Harvick, while Brian Vickers' hopes of being this years Cinderella may have blown up with his motor, as he's now 15th in points, 132 behind 12th place with just six races remaining.
At the end of the day Goodyear's quickly wearing tires were as much of a story as Johnson's big win. This isn't the first time this season Goodyear's tires haven't been optimal for racing, at Atlanta earlier this year when the tire compound was so hard there was almost no grip.
"We came with the best tire we had for the
conditions and we fell short. We'll try to get it right," said Greg
Stucker, director of race tire sales for Goodyear. "I don't think anybody likes to race like this, us included. We'll do what we can to make it better."
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the most hallowed ground in auto-racing. The Brickyard is a place where a win means your own place in history, and anything else is just a failed try. This Sunday the elite drivers of Nascar storm through Indy's corners for a 15th time, with 160 laps before claiming a win at the Brickyard.
1. Kyle Busch He led the most laps and passed Jimmie Johnson on the final restart to earn his seventh win of the season at Chicagoland, and he's earned a top-10 in every start at Indianapolis, including a 4th last year. It's nearly impossible to find a reason Kyle Busch WON'T win on Sunday.
2. Matt Kenseth Kenseth recovered from a flat tire that put him a lap down to finish 7th at Chicagoland, his ninth top-10 in the last ten races. A win is just around the corner for Matt, maybe at Indy where he's earned four top-5's.
3. Tony Stewart Stewart ran a good race all night long and finished a much needed 5th, going from 12th to 10th in points. Stewart has won two of the last three races at Indianapolis, and would love to be the first driver to earn back-to-back wins there.
4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt had a terrible car at Chicagoland, but managed to stay on the lead lap and finish 16th. In eight career starts at Indianapolis, Earnhardt has earned two top-10's paired with two DNF's.
5. Carl Edwards Edwards had one of the cars to beat at Chicagoland, but when one of the brackets supporting his splitter snapped he fell from contention, finishing a disappointing 32nd. Edwards has an average finish of 13th at the Brickyard in three starts.
6. Jeff Gordon Gordon had an average car at Chicagoland, and mustered an 11th place finish. Gordon is still searching for his first win of 2008, and if he could earn it at the Brickyard it would be his 5th win there.
7. Jeff Burton After finishing in the top-15 in all of the first 17 races, Burton has now finished 37th and 19th in the most recent two. Indianapolis isn't the best place for him to turn things around, with just three top-10's in 14 career starts.
8. Greg Biffle With his fourth place finish Biffle climbed four spots to 7th in the points standings. The 4th place finish was his first top-5 in five races. In five career starts at Indy Biffle has only earned one top-10.
9. Jimmie Johnson Johnson came so close to earning his second win of the season, as he was running away from Kyle Busch before the final caution. This shows, however, that Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus have greatly improved their COT program, which may lead to a 2nd win in the Brickyard 400.
10. Brian Vickers Vickers had yet another strong run at Chicagoland, finishing 6th, his seventh straight finish of 16th or better. Vickers is now within 95 points of 12th, and as he continues to run strong he may just contend at Indy.
Other Notables:
11. Kevin Harvick- Harvick finished 3rd at Chicagoland, and would like to continue that success at the Brickyard, where he won in 2003.
12. Denny Hamlin- Hamlin has fallen to 12th in points, and desperately needs to perform at Indy, where he has a top-10 in two starts.
13. Juan Pablo Montoya- Montoya finished 2nd in his first start in a stock car at Indy last year.
14. Kasey Kahne- Finished a solid 15th at Chicagoland, and would like to get a strong finish at Indy, where he has two top-5's.
15. Sam Hornish Jr.- He'll make his first start at Indy in a stock car. He won the Indianapolis 500 in 2006.
On Wednesday Nascar made an attempt to even the competition of the Nationwide Series by ordering all teams using Toyota engines to use a small restrictor, which will knock off about 15 horsepower.
If you ask me, this is wrong and unfair to the teams using Toyota motors. The only reason this has come to be is because of the success of Joe Gibbs Racing cars in the Nationwide Series, in particular the #20 car which has found victory lane 9 times. This frequent success has led to the assumption that Toyota has some sort of advantage, though Joe Gibbs Racing has provided all but one of Toyota's victories, the other coming from Braun Racing with Kyle Busch behind the wheel.
It would be understandable to think there was an overwhelming advantage if Morgan Shepherd switched to Toyota and suddenly started leading 50 laps a race and running lap times two-tenths quicker than anyone else in the field, but that's not the case. Talented drivers such as Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and the young Joey Logano are getting behind well-setup cars and using them to their full potential.
Of course, even if there is a horsepower advantage for Joe Gibbs Racing over the entire field, critics will claim the success only comes because of that. Well according to the engine tests Nascar performed on the Nationwide engines a couple of weeks ago, Toyota had a 21 horsepower advantage over Ford, 20 over Chevrolet and only 5 over Dodge. However, the individual motor results showed Roush/Fenway Racing's #16 and #17 car's Ford motors both in front of the #20's, which has had the overwhelming success.
If those two Ford motors generated more horsepower than the #20, obviously horsepower isn't the reason it's won all of those races this year. And even if it was, this is Nascar, and in Nascar you are supposed to prepare your equipment to perform at the best level possible, and if you're in front of the competition it's up to your competitors to step-up their performance, rather than Nascar's responsibility to lower your performance.
Regardless Joe Gibbs Racing will still be a threat to win the remaining races this season despite the lost horsepower. Something similar to this happened back in 1997 when Jeff Gordon and Hendrick Motorsports were winning all of those races in the Cup Series. They decreased how big the rear spoiler could be for all Chevrolets, but in the end Gordon still went on to win ten races, even after the adjustment had been made.
Success in this sport doesn't come just because of an advantage in one area like horsepower or downforce, it comes from high performance in all areas, and until the other teams improve on all areas of their team, Joe Gibbs Racing will continue to win, despite the lost horsepower.
There are some bloggers on here who's favorite driver(s) we know without a doubt, and others who we are completely clueless, and the same goes with a person's least favorite driver(s).
Which is why I posted this blog, I'd like everyone who sees this to reply with their favorite driver(s) and least favorite driver(s), maybe we'll find out something we didn't know about our fellow bloggers.
I'll start with my favorites...
1. Jeff Gordon 2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 3. Casey Mears
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the most hallowed grounds in auto racing. On July 27th, Nascar's elite will visit the speedway for the 15th time, as one driver will etch his name into history books, and get the chance to kiss the bricks. Here are the likely contenders:
Toyota:
Tony Stewart- A native of Indiana, Tony Stewart has
contended for the win at Indianapolis almost every time he's raced
there, especially since he finally claimed his first victory there in
2005. Last year he made a late pass on Kevin Harvick to claim his third
win in three races there. He also has four straight finishes of 8th or
better at the Brickyard, and it wouldn't be a surprise if he earned his
first victory of 2008 here.
Kyle Busch-
With
the simply amazing season he's had so far this season, it's hard to
doubt that Kyle Busch will be one of the drivers to beat, but his
statistics make just as strong of an arguement. In three races at
Indianapolis, Busch has finished 10th, 7th and 4th. If that trend
continues, he'll be first when the cars come across the bricks for the
final time.
Brian Vickers-
Vickers is a
darkhorse pick out of the Toyota camp, but a likely contender
nonetheless. In four career starts Vickers has managed a third place
finish, but that's not why he's one of my picks, this team has improved
so much over last year and the past couple of months have been one of
the most consistent teams on the circuit, with a worst finish of 16th
in the past seven races.
Honorable Mention- Denny Hamlin
Chevrolet:
Jeff Gordon- When you think of drivers who have success at Indianapolis in any
form of racing, Gordon is one of the drivers that comes to mind. Gordon
won the inaugural event here in 1994 and has gone on to win three more
times, most recently in 2004. Gordon is still searching for his first
win of 2008, and it could come here for the fifth time in his career.
Kevin Harvick-
Harvick has been consistent at Indianapolis, with only one finish worse than 11th in seven career starts. Harvick has kissed the bricks here before as well, winning at the Brickyard in 2003. He was a few laps from winning last year before being passed late in the race. Harvick will be one of the drivers to watch when the cars take the green on Sunday.
Jimmie Johnson-
Johnson is either really good at Indianapolis, or way off. In six career starts he has two top-10's, but also three finishes of 36th or worse. Johnson has been able to find victory lane at Indianapolis in 2006. The fact that Johnson's team has greatly improved their COT program since the beginning of this year makes them a threat to contend for the win.
Honorable Mention- Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer
Ford:
Matt Kenseth- After struggling in his first two starts, Kenseth has been a front runner the past six races, with five top-10's. Kenseth has finished second twice, and would like to finally win this year. If he could accomplish that, he would be the first Ford driver to win at Indianapolis since Dale Jarrett did in 1999.
Carl Edwards-
In three starts at Indianapolis, Edwards has finished in the top-10 once, with a worst finish of 18th. However Edwards' team has been strong all year long with a COT program that has improved greatly over last year. If Edwards is given another strong car at Indy, he'll likely be doing backflips after the race.
Honorable Mention- Greg Biffle, David Ragan, Travis Kvapil
Dodge:
Kasey Kahne- Kahne was stellar in his first two starts at Indianapolis, with a 4th and 2nd place finish. In his last two starts he's been caught up in wrecks, but he's had good cars. This year he's been strong since his win in the All-Star Race, with cars that can contend almost every week, and that may be the case once again at the Brickyard.
Kurt Busch-
Busch has struggled most of the season, but has earned top-5's in two of the past three races. He's also been consistent at Indianapolis, with five finishes of 12th or better in seven career starts. If Busch can avoid the bad luck that has plagued him for most of the season he may have a good run at the Brickyard.
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