Allstate 400 at The Brickyard Race Review

Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- 07/27/08

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Monday Jul 28 2008 10:27pm

So, how many different nicknames did you hear for Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard after it was overΔ The Competition Yellow 400, The Brickyawn 400 …

Whatever you want to call the NASCAR event at Indy on Sunday, it's hard to call it a race.

Two years ago in the Brickyard, the average speed of the race was 137.182 mph. Sunday, the combination of a bad tire and the Car of Tomorrow yielded an average speed of just 115.117 mph.

As I wrote in my practice/qualifying update Saturday afternoon, "the biggest pre-race story of all can be summed up in one word: Tires."

Clearly, it is the biggest post-race story as well, and probably will be one of the biggest controversies of the entire season, if not the entire sport.

While the exact cause of the situation is still unresolved, the bottom line is that the tires were essentially incompatible for the race track.

I also said on Saturday that there were "rumors of one or more competition cautions planned for the early part of the race to check tire conditions."

While this did, in fact, occur, no one could have predicted what followed Sunday, as NASCAR threw a competition yellow every 10-12 laps for the duration of the 160 laps.

Was there racing during those 10-lap stretchesΔ Sort of. But after Matt Kenseth's right rear tire exploded with the force of small bomb, blowing out the adjacent part of his car all together, crew chiefs urged drivers to drive with extreme caution until the final eight or slow laps of the race.

One other thing I wrote Saturday, in regard to the four practice sessions and qualifying at Indy, was that "if one name jumps out at you from those five separate times on the track, it would have to be Jimmie Johnson."

It seemed pretty clear that after running in the top 5 in all four practices, leading two of them, and securing the pole for the Brickyard, that Johnson would be the car to beat.

Johnson did dominate what "racing" there was, leading the most laps (71) and going pole to pole for the win. The only other double-digit lap leaders were Denny Hamlin (26), Kyle Busch (14), and Jeff Burton (10).

Following Johnson across the finish line was Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Elliott Sadler, and Jeff Gordon rounding out the top 5.

Edwards and Hamlin looked to be the only real competition for Johnson as the race wore down. Hamlin was leading heading into the final pit stop, but Johnson's crew, along with his optimal pit stall, got him out front with less than 10 laps to go. Edwards was then running second, but could not catch the 48 once it was in clean air.

Several potential Chase drivers had problems Sunday, including Matt Kenseth as mentioned above, along with Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick. Kenseth finished 38th and fell three spots in points to 11th.

Though Stewart managed to hold on to his 10th-place spot in the standings, a 23rd-place finish was a major disappointment to the two-time Brickyard winner. Stewart battled a loose car all day and described the event as an "unbelievably tough."

Kevin Harvick was a hapless victim when Kurt Busch slapped the wall on Lap 14. He finished 37th and dropped four spots in the standings to 13th - below the Chase cutoff for now.

On the plus side, Johnson, Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, and Clint Bowyer all moved up in points. Hamlin was the biggest climber, up four spots to 8th, while Bowyer's one-spot jump to 12th puts him back among the Chasers.

The top three drivers in points, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Jeff Burton, all held their positions in the standings.

A few other notable Brickyard finishes: Jamie McMurray, 6th, AJ Allmendinger, 10th, Marcos Ambrose, 22nd, Brian Vickers, 42, and Michael Waltrip, 43rd.

This weekend it's on to Pocono, where Kasey Kahne posted a win just six races ago.