Caraviello: Brickyard turns on a spin at the wheel (NASCAR.com)
July 31, 2011
Paul Menard leads Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon. (Getty Images)
Throughout its relatively brief history as a NASCAR venue, the calling card of Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been its ability to identify greatness. Winning the Brickyard 400 is often a step toward winning the Sprint Cup championship—hoisting that golden brick in late summer a precursor to possibly lifting a sterling silver trophy in late fall. There are no flukes, no gifts, no excuses at a race track that always been so demanding, so unforgiving, that only the best prevail.
Sunday, that entire concept was turned on its head in a strange Brickyard 400 that was not only won by Paul Menard, but had its endgame set in motion by a crash sparked by Landon Cassill. This kind of thing just isn’t supposed to happen in Indianapolis—the place is too hard, requires a too-perfect combination of engine and handling, has been too dominated too often by teams that will go on to slug it out for the big prize at the end of the season. Regardless of whatever chaos or surprises have erupted elsewhere on the schedule, Indianapolis is the place where order is restored.
Not any more. This Brickyard 400 felt different from the very beginning, with all the focus on the “super weekend” debuting next season, with all the questions about attendance, with the announcement of a forthcoming title sponsor. And it certainly ended unlike any other NASCAR event here, with the unsung and previously winless Menard using an epic fuel run to hold off a charging Jeff Gordon and strike a blow for everyman drivers at the most famous race track in the world.
“It’s pretty crazy,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr., concisely summing up the afternoon.
And it was, like a movie you had watched for 90 minutes that for the final half-hour suddenly featured a completely different cast. The first two-thirds of the race were the Brickyard as we’ve always known it, with the obvious power brokers up front taking turns trying to run away from one another. Then on Lap 120, everything changed. Cassill and David Ragan found themselves side-by-side entering Turn 3, and on older tires Cassill’s No. 51 car couldn’t hold the position. He turned sideways, and vehicles went skidding to the apron or through the grass in his wake. The accident required a lengthy cleanup, and afterward a few drivers ducked on to pit road to fill up, willing to sacrifice their track position for a shot at glory in the end.
“Those guys who made it topped off at the very end of that, and gave up all their track position. But they didn’t have any to start, so it didn’t matter,” said Alan Gustafson, Gordon’s crew chief. “I think Paul had to come in and clean the grass off the grille. That just gave him the opportunity to save fuel and make it, because he was able to stop and go. We were running obviously a lot better than that, so we couldn’t take that risk to get the fuel and give up the track position.”
Neither could the other top contenders at the time, who waited another 10 laps or more to come in for their final pit stops. One by one, they found themselves dumped out into deep traffic—the worst possible place at Indianapolis, where it’s notoriously difficult to pass—and pinned behind rivals who had decided to either stretch fuel as long as they could, or try and make it to the end. “How did we get all the way back here behind all these people?” Juan Montoya asked on the radio after he gave up a top-five position to pit, and emerged in 32nd. Earnhardt, Jeff Burton, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, David Ragan and others who had comprised the class of the field to that point could relate.
“We cycled around and didn’t have the track position at the end, and that is all it was,” said Earnhardt, who finished 16th. “Everybody was on a lot of different strategies, too.”
Suddenly it was a different race, with completely new contenders, and an outcome about as uncertain as debt-ceiling talks. Richard “Slugger” Labbe, Menard’s crew chief, knew his car had successfully made a 22-lap fuel run in practice on Saturday, and wondered about gambling to try and make the final 35 in the race. Last Monday at the team’s meeting, they had talked about potentially taking some risks on pit road to try and qualify for the Chase. Here was a gamble right in front of them, ready to be taken. As soon as the jack dropped, Labbe set the plan in motion, telling his driver to save fuel and use long gears.
“Seems to be a trend in the Cup Series, that people take gambles on pit road,” Labbe said. “It was our turn to get aggressive. I told Paul he had to support me. He supported me a hundred percent [Sunday]. Three times he had an occasion where he could have said ‘No, I don’t want to do that,’ but he did. Fortunately it worked out.”
Others followed suit. After the Cassill accident, Regan Smith said he had to come in and get grass cleaned off the front grille of his No. 78 car. Crew chief Pete Rondeau looked at the fuel strategy taking shape, and decided to top off. Smith estimated that he saved about two laps’ worth of fuel from that point on, and wound up third. He wanted to push it and try to go for the victory, but Rondeau—mindful of a dry tank that had ruined a potential top-10 effort two weeks earlier at New Hampshire—overrode his driver.
“We knew we had a lot of fuel saved. We saved a lot,” Smith said. “A Hail Mary would have been to go for the win. That’s what I wanted to do. Sometimes you’ve got to go for the points. That’s tough here, though.”
Parked right behind Smith on pit road was the car of defending Brickyard 400 champion Jamie McMurray, who used the same tactic to salvage his first top-five finish of a miserable season. “They told me when the caution came out that we were going to be two laps short,” said McMurray, who placed fourth, “and I told them in our team meeting [Sunday] that this was a track where I thought we could save two laps of gas. So it was very ironic that those were the two numbers.”
And it was stunning to some that the gambles paid off. “What surprised me really was those guys that were running up front and running hard and making it,” said Kyle Busch. “The No. 27 [car of Menard] made it; the No. 78 [car of Smith] made it. Those guys, I expected them to run out. But they must have had just enough.”
They did. For Menard, though, there were no guarantees, certainly not with Gordon steadily chewing up the distance between them. Like many of the early-race leaders, Gordon had been buried in traffic by the pit cycle, but his car was good enough that it was able to steadily make up ground between him and others who were going easy on the throttle, trying to make their fuel last. Gustafson estimated that the fuel-saving drivers were about a second a lap slower, allowing Gordon—and Matt Kenseth, who also charged back through the field—to get themselves back in the mix at the end.
They simply ran out of laps. It was an electric conclusion, with the No. 24 car flying past one vehicle after another, and closing to within .686 seconds of Menard at the while flag. It seemed to have all the makings of a heartbreaking finish of the kind Indianapolis specializes in, but by that time Labbe had already turned his driver loose. They had saved enough to get to the finish. They knew it, and the No. 27 car was a blur beneath the checkers, even if Menard was so fixated on his fuel pressure gauge he didn’t even notice.
“Paul did a great job saving fuel, because when I got there, even Regan and other guys, they were still pretty much checking up when I got there,” said Gordon, who came up .725 seconds short of a record-tying fifth Indianapolis victory. “It was easy to get by them. But Paul had saved enough to where he could go back to a full pace. By that time, my car was just too tight behind him.”
It was a popular and emotional victory, particularly given how active Menard’s family has been in the Indianapolis 500 over the years, but in some corners of the NASCAR garage competitors shook their heads and offered wry smiles that seemed to ask—what else do we have to do? It was an understandable sentiment, given what it typically takes to win at Indianapolis, and what transpired in Indianapolis on Sunday afternoon. No one questioned Menard’s worthiness as champion; in fact, other drivers went out of their way to complement someone who’s often received too much attention for his last name and sponsorship, and not enough for his prowess behind the wheel.
But for Indianapolis, of all events, to feature such a surprise winner and be decided in such a topsy-turvy fashion, seemed alien. What’s next—Nationwide cars at the Brickyard? Then again, this has been a topsy-turvy season, one from which evidently the most celebrated venue in motorsports is not immune.
“Us and [Gordon] probably had the two best cars overall for the day. It’s a shame one of us couldn’t get a win,” lamented Kenseth, who rallied to finish fifth. “But we ran pretty good, and hopefully we’re keeping ourselves in position like this, and hopefully there will be more races that come down to performance at the end of the race and we can be in the mix of things and have a shot at some wins.”
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer
Sprint Cup Series Standings 1. — Carl Edwards 682 — 2. — Jimmie Johnson 671 -11 3. +1 Kevin Harvick 670 -124. +1 Kyle Busch 666 -16 5. +1 Matt Kenseth 666 -16
Caraviello: Brickyard turns on one spin at the wheel (NASCAR.com)
July 31, 2011
Paul Menard leads Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon. (Getty Images)
Throughout its relatively brief history as a NASCAR venue, the calling card of Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been its ability to identify greatness. Winning the Brickyard 400 is often a step toward winning the Sprint Cup championship—hoisting that golden brick in late summer a precursor to possibly lifting a sterling silver trophy in late fall. There are no flukes, no gifts, no excuses at a race track that always been so demanding, so unforgiving, that only the best prevail.
Sunday, that entire concept was turned on its head in a strange Brickyard 400 that was not only won by Paul Menard, but had its endgame set in motion by a crash sparked by Landon Cassill. This kind of thing just isn’t supposed to happen in Indianapolis—the place is too hard, requires a too-perfect combination of engine and handling, has been too dominated too often by teams that will go on to slug it out for the big prize at the end of the season. Regardless of whatever chaos or surprises have erupted elsewhere on the schedule, Indianapolis is the place where order is restored.
Not any more. This Brickyard 400 felt different from the very beginning, with all the focus on the “super weekend” debuting next season, with all the questions about attendance, with the announcement of a forthcoming title sponsor. And it certainly ended unlike any other NASCAR event here, with the unsung and previously winless Menard using an epic fuel run to hold off a charging Jeff Gordon and strike a blow for everyman drivers at the most famous race track in the world.
“It’s pretty crazy,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr., concisely summing up the afternoon.
And it was, like a movie you had watched for 90 minutes that for the final half-hour suddenly featured a completely different cast. The first two-thirds of the race were the Brickyard as we’ve always known it, with the obvious power brokers up front taking turns trying to run away from one another. Then on Lap 120, everything changed. Cassill and David Ragan found themselves side-by-side entering Turn 3, and on older tires Cassill’s No. 51 car couldn’t hold the position. He turned sideways, and vehicles went skidding to the apron or through the grass in his wake. The accident required a lengthy cleanup, and afterward a few drivers ducked on to pit road to fill up, willing to sacrifice their track position for a shot at glory in the end.
“Those guys who made it topped off at the very end of that, and gave up all their track position. But they didn’t have any to start, so it didn’t matter,” said Alan Gustafson, Gordon’s crew chief. “I think Paul had to come in and clean the grass off the grille. That just gave him the opportunity to save fuel and make it, because he was able to stop and go. We were running obviously a lot better than that, so we couldn’t take that risk to get the fuel and give up the track position.”
Neither could the other top contenders at the time, who waited another 10 laps or more to come in for their final pit stops. One by one, they found themselves dumped out into deep traffic—the worst possible place at Indianapolis, where it’s notoriously difficult to pass—and pinned behind rivals who had decided to either stretch fuel as long as they could, or try and make it to the end. “How did we get all the way back here behind all these people?” Juan Montoya asked on the radio after he gave up a top-five position to pit, and emerged in 32nd. Earnhardt, Jeff Burton, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, David Ragan and others who had comprised the class of the field to that point could relate.
“We cycled around and didn’t have the track position at the end, and that is all it was,” said Earnhardt, who finished 16th. “Everybody was on a lot of different strategies, too.”
Suddenly it was a different race, with completely new contenders, and an outcome about as uncertain as debt-ceiling talks. Richard “Slugger” Labbe, Menard’s crew chief, knew his car had successfully made a 22-lap fuel run in practice on Saturday, and wondered about gambling to try and make the final 35 in the race. Last Monday at the team’s meeting, they had talked about potentially taking some risks on pit road to try and qualify for the Chase. Here was a gamble right in front of them, ready to be taken. As soon as the jack dropped, Labbe set the plan in motion, telling his driver to save fuel and use long gears.
“Seems to be a trend in the Cup Series, that people take gambles on pit road,” Labbe said. “It was our turn to get aggressive. I told Paul he had to support me. He supported me a hundred percent [Sunday]. Three times he had an occasion where he could have said ‘No, I don’t want to do that,’ but he did. Fortunately it worked out.”
Others followed suit. After the Cassill accident, Regan Smith said he had to come in and get grass cleaned off the front grille of his No. 78 car. Crew chief Pete Rondeau looked at the fuel strategy taking shape, and decided to top off. Smith estimated that he saved about two laps’ worth of fuel from that point on, and wound up third. He wanted to push it and try to go for the victory, but Rondeau—mindful of a dry tank that had ruined a potential top-10 effort two weeks earlier at New Hampshire—overrode his driver.
“We knew we had a lot of fuel saved. We saved a lot,” Smith said. “A Hail Mary would have been to go for the win. That’s what I wanted to do. Sometimes you’ve got to go for the points. That’s tough here, though.”
Parked right behind Smith on pit road was the car of defending Brickyard 400 champion Jamie McMurray, who used the same tactic to salvage his first top-five finish of a miserable season. “They told me when the caution came out that we were going to be two laps short,” said McMurray, who placed fourth, “and I told them in our team meeting [Sunday] that this was a track where I thought we could save two laps of gas. So it was very ironic that those were the two numbers.”
And it was stunning to some that the gambles paid off. “What surprised me really was those guys that were running up front and running hard and making it,” said Kyle Busch. “The No. 27 [car of Menard] made it; the No. 78 [car of Smith] made it. Those guys, I expected them to run out. But they must have had just enough.”
They did. For Menard, though, there were no guarantees, certainly not with Gordon steadily chewing up the distance between them. Like many of the early-race leaders, Gordon had been buried in traffic by the pit cycle, but his car was good enough that it was able to steadily make up ground between him and others who were going easy on the throttle, trying to make their fuel last. Gustafson estimated that the fuel-saving drivers were about a second a lap slower, allowing Gordon—and Matt Kenseth, who also charged back through the field—to get themselves back in the mix at the end.
They simply ran out of laps. It was an electric conclusion, with the No. 24 car flying past one vehicle after another, and closing to within .686 seconds of Menard at the while flag. It seemed to have all the makings of a heartbreaking finish of the kind Indianapolis specializes in, but by that time Labbe had already turned his driver loose. They had saved enough to get to the finish. They knew it, and the No. 27 car was a blur beneath the checkers, even if Menard was so fixated on his fuel pressure gauge he didn’t even notice.
“Paul did a great job saving fuel, because when I got there, even Regan and other guys, they were still pretty much checking up when I got there,” said Gordon, who came up .725 seconds short of a record-tying fifth Indianapolis victory. “It was easy to get by them. But Paul had saved enough to where he could go back to a full pace. By that time, my car was just too tight behind him.”
It was a popular and emotional victory, particularly given how active Menard’s family has been in the Indianapolis 500 over the years, but in some corners of the NASCAR garage competitors shook their heads and offered wry smiles that seemed to ask—what else do we have to do? It was an understandable sentiment, given what it typically takes to win at Indianapolis, and what transpired in Indianapolis on Saturday afternoon. No one questioned Menard’s worthiness as champion; in fact, other drivers went out of their way to complement someone who’s often received too much attention for his last name and sponsorship, and not enough for his prowess behind the wheel.
But for Indianapolis, of all events, to feature such a surprise winner and be decided in such a topsy-turvy fashion, seemed alien. What’s next—Nationwide cars at the Brickyard? Then again, this has been a topsy-turvy season, one from which evidently the most celebrated venue in motorsports is not immune.
“Us and [Gordon] probably had the two best cars overall for the day. It’s a shame one of us couldn’t get a win,” lamented Kenseth, who rallied to finish fifth. “But we ran pretty good, and hopefully we’re keeping ourselves in position like this, and hopefully there will be more races that come down to performance at the end of the race and we can be in the mix of things and have a shot at some wins.”
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer
Sprint Cup Series Standings 1. — Carl Edwards 682 — 2. — Jimmie Johnson 671 -11 3. +1 Kevin Harvick 670 -124. +1 Kyle Busch 666 -16 5. +1 Matt Kenseth 666 -16
Stewart leads late, finishes 6th at Brickyard
July 31, 2011
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)—Tony Stewart held onto a sliver of hope that he could claim his third Brickyard 400 title when he took the lead late in Sunday’s race.
He didn’t have enough fuel to stay up front.
Stewart stayed on the track when other drivers refueled and he took the lead on lap 134. He rocketed out to a 13.5-second lead before it became clear he couldn’t finish without making a stop. With 15 laps to go, he finally pulled in. Paul Menard won, and Stewart eventually finished sixth.
“We knew it was a borrowed lead, but it sure was nice to lead here again at Indy,” said Stewart, who won here in 2005 and 2007.
Stewart had a rough day at times, but he somehow salvaged it. He was penalized for running into a speed-limit cone early in the race, then he later collided with Kyle Busch on pit road.
“It’s a long pit road, it’s a narrow pit road,” Stewart said. “I feel bad for Kyle and those guys because they had a good day going at the time.”
When he went to the pits for the final time, he knew he had no chance at a win. He said a caution wouldn’t have helped because the other drivers near the front had already refueled and had fresher tires, so they likely would have stayed on the track, and he still would have had to stop for gas.
Despite starting 24th and making several mistakes, Stewart ended up with what he considered a good finish.
“That’s the hard way to do it, man,” he said. “We had to fight from the back a couple of times to get up there. I don’t even know how we finished sixth.”
MONTOYA’S LUCK: For the third straight year, Juan Pablo Montoya spent much of the race near the front of the field.
Once again, he faded late.
Montoya was running as high as third with 40 laps to go, but had to make a fuel stop, got mired in traffic and finished 28th. It was Montoya’s first race with new crew chief Jim Pohlman, who replaced Brian Pattie last week.
“It (stinks) when you run good all day, but I think Jim Pohlman and all the guys did a really good job all day,” Montoya said.
Two years ago, he led 116 laps and built a 5-second lead over the competition before getting flagged for speeding on the final pit stop. He finished 11th.
Last year, the Colombian dominated again, leading a race-high 86 laps before taking four tires instead of two during a late caution. The move dropped Montoya from first to seventh. He struggled on the restart and eventually crashed out and finished 32nd.
EARNHARDT STREAK: When Dale Earnhardt Jr. took an early lead, the popular driver gave his fans hope that his 112-race winless streak would end.
He led seven laps total, ran inside the top three for some time, but eventually finished 16th.
Earnhardt’s last victory was at Michigan in 2008.
He said passing was difficult on the narrow Indianapolis track, and he knew he didn’t have a chance once he fell back.
“Some guys were fast enough to get up there, and some of us didn’t,” he said. “We played it out, and that was the result we got. I don’t know what to be angry about if I was going to be angry.”
BIG-TIME SMITH: Regan Smith had never placed in the top 10 since beginning his NASCAR Sprint Cup career in 2007.
This year, he has placed in the top 10 in four of NASCAR’s crown jewel races. He was seventh at Daytona, earned his first career victory in the Southern 500 at Darlington, took eighth at the Coca-Cola 600 and finished third at the Brickyard 400 Sunday.
In his other 16 races this season, he hasn’t placed higher than 15th.
“We’ve just got to figure out how to perform on the rest of the stages,” he said.
GRAND-AM CHAMP: Reigning Grand-Am Rolex Series champion Scott Pruett looks forward to his debut at the Speedway next July 27.
Pruett raced in the Indianapolis 500 four times and finished 10th in the Brickyard 400 in 2000. Now, after he vowed not to drive Indy cars again, Grand-Am has gave him an unexpected chance to return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway after agreeing to hold Rolex and Continental Series events there next year as part of three days of racing at the track.
“There’s something magical about the Speedway,” Pruett said before Sunday’s race. “I love this place; I love Indy. Racers love Indy. If you just mention the word Indy, they know what it is—Indianapolis 500, Indianapolis Brickyard—even people who may not be race fans.”
SOLO DRIVES: U.S. women’s soccer goalie Hope Solo enjoyed her run as the pace car driver.
Race director David Hoots thanked Solo over the radio for getting the race started. She replied: “No problem guys; this is pretty amazing.”
Solo helped the U.S. national team advance to the Women’s World Cup final in Germany. She was named to the 2011 World Cup all-tournament team and was named the top goalkeeper of the tournament.
STENHOUSE THE SPOKESMAN: Nationwide driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr., has agreed to lend his voice to radio announcements promoting driver safety for the Ohio Department of Transportation.
Stenhouse also will participate in the Distracted Driver Simulator Tour for ODOT. He will demonstrate the difficulty of driving while distracted while using the simulator Monday at the Ohio State Fair.
It is part of the state’s “Every Move You Make, Keep it Safe” roadway safety campaign.
SUMMER SHOWDOWN: With his win Sunday, Menard positioned himself to earn an additional $3 million payout through Sprint.
Menard’s victory qualified him for the Sprint Summer Showdown. If Menard can also win at Atlanta on Labor Day weekend, he will earn $1 million for himself, another million for his designated charity and another million for a randomly chosen fan who went online and picked him to win Sunday’s race.
There are four remaining chances for fans to get online and pick a winner. Another finalist will be picked among those who choose the winners of the races at Pocono, Watkins Glen, Michigan and Bristol. If any of those race winners also claim victory in Atlanta, that driver will earn the payout for himself, his charity and the fan.
MISCELLANEOUS: Denny Hamlin qualified 14th, but he was forced to the back of the field at the start as a penalty for changing his engine. The original engine blew up late in Friday’s final practice. He finished 27th. … David Ragan, who won the pole less than a month after earning his first career Sprint Cup Series victory in July at Daytona, finished 23rd … Jamie McMurray, last year’s winner, finished fourth. … NASCAR’s attendance estimate was 138,000.
Paul Menard pulls off upset win at Indianapolis
July 31, 2011
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)—Paul Menard has won his first career Sprint Cup Series race by conserving fuel then holding off Jeff Gordon to pull off an upset victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Menard’s victory Sunday continued the trend of first-time winners this season in NASCAR’s crown jewel events. Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500, Regan Smith won at Darlington Raceway and David Ragan won earlier this month at Daytona.
David Ragan will start from po… AP – Jul 30, 4:55 pm EDT Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start … AP – Jul 30, 4:55 pm EDT
Jeff Gordon qualified eighth. AP – Jul 30, 4:55 pm EDT
Kyle Busch qualified 29th. AP – Jul 30, 4:55 pm EDT
Kasey Kahne was second fastest… AP – Jul 30, 4:55 pm EDT 1 of 5 NASCAR Gallery
Now Menard is winner of the Brickyard 400, making it to Victory Lane in his 167th series start. His only other NASCAR victory came in the Nationwide Series in 2006.
He saved enough gas over the closing laps to drive wide-open to the finish. He held off Gordon, who overcame a 12-second deficit over the final 12 laps to finish second.
Button comes through wet Hungarian GP for F1 win (PA SportsTicker)
July 31, 2011
By PAUL LOGOTHETIS AP Sports Writer
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP)—Jenson Button celebrated his 200th Formula One start with a victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix, while Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel stretched his commanding lead in the championship with a second-place finish in a wet race.
Button was steadiest in the constant drizzle at the Hungaroring circuit to secure his 11th career victory, with the McLaren driver finishing 3.5 seconds in front of Vettel.
Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was third ahead of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, who led for most of the race but dropped back due to five pit stops and a drive-though penalty.
Mark Webber was fifth to stay closest in the standings to his Red Bull teammate, who now leads by 85 points.
Keselowski wins Kroger 200
July 31, 2011
CLERMONT, Ind. (AP)—Brad Keselowski stayed close to the leaders all night and was strong in the two green-white-checkered laps at the end to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series Kroger 200 on Saturday night.
Keselowski led only seven of the 204 laps and took his first lead in lap 198. He had earned the pole in his previous two races but hadn’t won.
It was a good overall day for Keselowski, who earlier in the day qualified fifth for Sunday’s Brickyard 400.
James Buescher finished second after finishing second in the trucks race on Friday night.
Polesitter Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led 189 laps before finishing third. He led by nearly four seconds in lap 175 before the field tightened because of a caution following an accident.
Stenhouse still moved ahead of Reed Sorenson into the points lead. Sorenson finished ninth.
Action sports star Travis Pastrana was supposed to race on Saturday, but he fell at the X Games on Thursday night and broke his right foot and ankle.
NASCAR has announced that the race will move to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway next year after 30 years at Lucas Oil Raceway.
The race was clean until the end. The first caution didn’t come out until lap 48.
Elliott Sadler, who started last because of a crash during qualifying, moved up into the top 10 by mid-race. Through the first 100 laps, only Stenhouse and Carl Edwards had led laps, and the only caution flag had been for debris.
Michael Annett moved into second place after a good pit stop during the next caution and trailed only Stenhouse when the green flag came out for lap 120, but Trevor Bayne quickly passed Annett.
Stenhouse was pulling away from the field when a crash in lap 175 brought out a red flag. Annett and Tim Andrews made contact, then Steve Wallace spun and tagged both of their stationary cars on the way by. Wallace hit Annett, spun and went airborne, then ran into Andrews.
Carl Edwards was penalized for speeding in the pits while trying to edge past Stenhouse and Bayne and was sent to the back of the pack, and was in the 15th position when racing resumed. Stenhouse was in front heading into lap 184.
Bayne had mechanical problems in lap 188 while in second place, ending his quest for his first Nationwide victory.
“It blew up,” Bayne said shortly afterward.
Justin Allgaier’s car caught on fire while he was in second place during a late caution, but he was able to get out of the car safely.
Sadler crashed out in lap 198 while battling Keselowski and Stenhouse for the lead, bringing out another caution and setting up the shootout to the finish. Sadler’s crash allowed Keselowski to move up to the front row with Stenhouse, and Keselowski took advantage of his short-run speed to win.
Keselowski wins Kroger 200 (PA SportsTicker)
July 31, 2011
By CLIFF BRUNT AP Sports Writer
CLERMONT, Ind. (AP)—Brad Keselowski stayed close to the leaders and then ran strong in the two green-white-checkered laps at the end to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series Kroger 200 on Saturday night.
LEBANON, TN – APRIL 23: Carl … Getty Images – Apr 23, 6:59 pm EDT NASCAR Gallery
Keselowski had earned the pole in his previous two races but hadn’t won.
It was a good overall day for Keselowski, who earlier in the day qualified fifth for Sunday’s Brickyard 400.
James Buescher finished second. Polesitter Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led 189 laps before finishing third. He led by nearly four seconds in lap 175 before the field tightened. Stenhouse moved ahead of Reed Sorenson into the points lead.
NASCAR has announced that the race will move to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway next year after 30 years at Lucas Oil Raceway.
Force sets NHRA record for top qualifying (PA SportsTicker)
July 30, 2011
SONOMA, CALIF. (AP) —John Force became NHRA’s career leader in No. 1 qualifying positions when he raced to the top spot in Funny Car Saturday at the FRAM/Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway.
Force claimed his fifth No. 1 of the season and 139th of his career, which broke a tie with Pro Stock great Warren Johnson for the most top qualifying positions. Force took the top spot with a performance of 4.060 seconds at a top speed of 311.99 mph in his Ford Mustang.
FORT WORTH, TX – APRIL 07: NH… Getty Images – Apr 7, 10:47 pm EDT NASCAR Gallery
Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel), Allen Johnson (Pro Stock) and Hector Arana Jr. (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also will lead their categories into Sunday’s eliminations.
Schumacher earned his fourth No. 1 of the season in Top Fuel and 65th of his career with a 3.814 at 321.65 mph effort in his dragster.
Lap by Lap: Lucas Oil Raceway (NASCAR.com)
July 30, 2011
Pre-Race, 7:38 p.m.: Greg Ballard, the mayor of Indianapolis, gives the command to fire engines with five Navy SEALs standing behind him.
Pre-Race, 7:31 p.m.: Autumn Letendre, the widow of a soldier who died in Afghanistan, is singing the National Anthem.
Pre-Race, 7:30 p.m.: Mark Wright is giving tonight’s invocation.
Pre-Race, 7:26 p.m.: A sky-diver is touching down on the frontstretch.
Pre-Race: This track, first known as Indianapolis Raceway Park, has hosted races on what is now the Nationwide Series since the very first season of the division’s existence. Morgan Shepherd won that race, and he’s slated to start 32nd in tonight’s race.
Pre-Race: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is on the pole for tonight’s race at this historic track, the final Nationwide Series event to be held here. Brad Keselowski, Carl Edwards, Justin Allgaier and Trevor Bayne start second through fifth, while Brian Scott, Jason Leffler, Michael Annett, Michael McDowell and Steve Wallace round out the top 10.
All 42 drivers who attempted to qualify made the field.
Caraviello: At Brickyard, journey as important as destination (NASCAR.com)
July 30, 2011
INDIANAPOLIS—The only NASCAR driver to win consecutive races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was once so bad here it bordered on embarrassment. There was the time he failed to make the event on speed. There was the time a long pit stop and a spin ruined what had been a second-place run. There was the epically bad weekend when he didn’t get to qualify because his car failed inspection, took a penalty after the catch-can was left on during a pit stop, and had to be helped out by his crew after a hard hit ignited a fire under the hood.
Johnson barely remembers that latter episode, his bell had been rung so severely, and the resulting image—the driver slumped against the pit wall, his mind cloudy and his car smoldering—accurately summed up his frustrations at the sport’s most difficult race track. For years, he came to Indianapolis and doubted his own ability to compete on a layout that stood as a major road block between him and a championship in NASCAR’s premier series. The place, he said then, was “an emotional disaster” waiting to happen.
And then, almost overnight, something clicked. There are few transformations in modern NASCAR history as dramatic as Johnson’s at the Brickyard 400, where the despair of that 2005 experience gave way to a trip to Victory Lane the next season, and two more titles to come. If there was one moment responsible for uncorking all the power and potential bottled up within the best driver in NASCAR today, it was that 2006 victory at Indianapolis in which Johnson laid waste to the field—a singular achievement that propelled him to not just his first gold brick trophy, but also to the first of what would become five consecutive series championships.
“When we came back here in ’06, won here the first time, something was different from the first lap on track,” Johnson remembered. “I went around and put together a lap. It was top of the board. At that point, whoa, OK. I made some small changes in how to drive the track, and it equaled a lot of speed. Anytime you have a long straightaway, a small mistake leading onto that straightaway compounds and adds up to so much time. At that point, the light switch went on and I was like—oh, that’s how you drive this place.”
Indianapolis is that kind of track, its rectangular, straightforward appearance belying a degree of difficulty that can mystify even someone like Jimmie Johnson, and play a part in unlocking the greatness within him. Eight times the champion of the Brickyard 400 has gone on to win the series title, a sweep claimed most recently by Johnson two years ago. Almost every winner has come from the absolute upper echelon of Sprint Cup drivers. The field for Sunday’s race will contain only six past champions, a testament to not only the relatively brief history of the event, but also how hard it is to win here.
And it is hard, deceptively so. The four 90-degree corners all look the same, but they’re not. The turns are so sharp, the straightaways so long, that Indianapolis demands a blend of handling and horsepower not seen at other facilities. It’s very fast, very tight, and allows very little room for error, a combination that may sometimes make the competition less than dazzling, but also presents drivers and teams with a challenge unlike anything else.
“I don’t want to say it’s a hairy race track, but it keeps you on edge,” Ryan Newman said. “Speeds are up. The dirty air part of it, because of the speeds, lack of banking, keeps you on edge. I like it. It’s fun to drive it. I’ve always said, if you look at it from the air, all four corners look the same. But that’s not true. It’s just full of things like the wind here, [which] has a huge effect on balance, traffic, things like that. It’s a place you really got to be on top of it.”
There are no cheat sheets, no way for competitors to really prepare for the Brickyard until they’re on it with a steering wheel in their hands. The way you drive Indianapolis applies to Indianapolis and nowhere else. Even Johnson still has to work on it, fighting his natural tendencies to navigate a relatively flat track with square corners and little banking, and this is a guy who’s won here three times. If he can still struggle with the place—and he can, as last season’s 22nd-place finish readily attests—anyone can.
“My driving style hasn’t worked here,” Johnson said. “I have to focus really hard on the way to drive this race track. I think that happens to a lot of people. When you get off to a slow start, don’t qualify well, it’s so difficult to make up positions on the track, [so] starting up front is important. Although I say that, and the first one I won here, we got a flat and had to come back through the field. It’s tough to pass. You get sucked into the mistakes others are making on the track. You almost have to race the race track almost in a Darlington manner, not because the track is going to reach up and bite you and you’ll crash the car, but you’ll go a half second slower if you don’t drive the track the right way. That’s why this track is so difficult.”
Every driver who competes at Indianapolis remembers that moment when they realize they’re riding a monster. Brad Keselowski’s first laps around Indianapolis were at a Goodyear tire test following a 2008 Brickyard that was marred by tire failures. He still has a photo of one of the tires pulled off his car that day—a carcass of shredded and bubbled rubber eaten right down to the cords. That’s what he thinks of each time he slides behind the wheel at Indianapolis.
“It was very interesting. It was jaw-dropping fast,” Keselowski remembers of that test three years ago. “It was, oh my God. The thing about Indy, you’re just going down the straightaway, and … the engine is just pulling. You’re motoring and you’re motoring and you’re motoring, and you look off in the distance and you’re like—wait a minute. There’s a wall, and I’m going head-on for it. You just hope the steering wheel doesn’t fall off or a tire doesn’t blow or any of those things, because it’s going to really, really, hurt. I think that was my first thought thinking about this place.”
In a series where drivers are more accustomed to turns that are sweeping and high-banked, the abrupt corners of Indianapolis present a jarring change. The track is exceedingly fast, but those long straightaways empty into hard lefts that demand much heavier braking than other ovals of comparable size. A car’s performance at Indy can be undermined by a driving style that just doesn’t fit what the track requires, as Johnson so vividly discovered his first several times here. Keselowski experienced the opposite effect—Indy was one of the first venues he circled in a Cup car, so he had to unlearn habits he picked up at the Brickyard when he went to other tracks.
“You have to be very aggressive, but don’t overdrive it,” said Casey Mears, who’s made seven starts at Indy. “Some tracks you can really float it in, and take it easy and still make a pretty good lap time. Martinsville, you just absolutely charge the corners. At Indianapolis, you charge the corners, but if you charge them too hard, it will really mess up your lap. If you drive in a little too easy, it will really mess up your lap. And then you have the weather to contend with. If you get a cloud, or you don’t get a cloud, it really changes how the car wants to handle. There’s a lot of things to take into consideration when you make a lap around this track.”
Indianapolis offers a learning curve that never really flattens out, its history and mystique masking a narrow rectangle of gray asphalt that can kick anyone in the teeth. It’s mean and unforgiving and difficult enough that even years of experience offer no guarantees of staying off the wall. But it also offers rewards nearly unrivaled in motorsports, golden bricks and jugs of milk and names added to a list of immortals. Drivers typically have to go through one to get to the other, and Johnson—who qualified third, and will be one of the favorites to win the race Sunday—is proof of just how arduous and fruitful that progression can ultimately be. Like a scenic car trip, the journey at the Brickyard is as important as the destination.
“This track is one of a kind, and it’s so tough to stay on top of it,” Johnson said. “I watched the [Indy] 500, the month of it, everybody’s here for that, and the best in the business struggle with it. They come here and experience the same thing, too. All the years of racing here now have helped me, so I run the right line, so we’re adjusting the car to the right line. My first four or five shots coming here, I just wasn’t driving the place right, so we were setting the car up to the wrong line and the wrong style. That led to long days then. But now I have a good idea of where I need to be.”
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
