NASCAR: Indianapolis Chaos And Results*SPOILER*

(from autosport)

Jimmie Johnson held off Carl Edwards in a seven lap sprint to the chequered flag after 11 caution periods made for a chaotic race as NASCAR had to limit the amount of green-flag running in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

As feared before the race, tyre wear hampered the normal running of the event. A 14-lap period of green flag running between laps 34 and 48 was the longest all afternoon before officials had put out the yellow flags.

First to experience issues was Dale Earnhardt Jr, but after him others soon followed. Incidents caused the first two cautions of the day as drivers struggled with handling, even before the first scheduled competition caution which had been set for lap ten.

On lap 30, while running fifth, Juan Pablo Montoya had the tread of his right rear tyre come apart, digging a hole on the right rear panel of his car and leaving enough debris on the track to cause the third caution of the day.

A few laps later, it was Matt Kenseth's turn, but in his case the rubber that came apart completely destroyed the right rear of his car, putting an end to what was the longest green flag run of the whole race.

After that, NASCAR decided to run no more than 12 laps under the green flag, causing the yellows to come out another six times and for a total of 52 laps. However, drivers wouldn't drive those 12 laps on the limit, lapping nearly two seconds off the pace to avoid blowing out tyres before the cautions.

Despite teams getting ready to run the Pocono specification tyres that NASCAR had planned for, they were not used at all.

With so many cautions, teams swapped between changing two and four tyres at each stop, allowing the lead of the race to change 26 times between 16 different drivers.

In the end, the last two cautions were going to be the decisive ones to gain track position for the final sprint of the race, after NASCAR decided to put out a competition caution for the last time with ten laps remaining.

Denny Hamlin had taken on right-side tyres only during his last two stops approaching the last caution, and looked fast enough to keep his rivals at bay after leading before the last stop.

However, Jimmie Johnson's pit crew got the reigning champion out of the pits first with new right-side tyres, followed by Edwards, Hamlin and Elliot Sadler.

In the final seven laps of racing once the green flag waved for the final time, Johnson and Edwards pulled away and lapped faster than they had done all afternoon. Despite the Roush Fenway driver's best efforts, there was nothing he could do to prevent Johnson's second career victory at the Brickyard and his second of the 2008 season.

"I knew what we were setting up for," said Johnson, who led the most laps during the afternoon. "I was worried the stop before the last that maybe we had to go two laps to win this thing, but my crew chief called it perfectly.

"We had a great stop at the end, and a great car all weekend long. It really was a pleasure to drive it."

Edwards scored his best result at the Brickyard, but was disappointed to miss out on victory after running so strong all afternoon.

"Jimmie and I were about the same speed," Edwards said. "I just couldn't do anything with him. He did a really good job. We didn't come here to run second so that's a little frustrating, but considering everything that happened today, I thought my guys did a really great job.

"We're going to win this eventually. We get one shot a year, and we get better every time so it'll be fun to come back."

Hamlin was happy to finish third, although he probably found himself without enough grip for the final sprint of the race. He ran nearly a fuel stint - around 30 laps- on his left side tyres on the final part of the race, as Johnson and Edwards had both taken on four new tyres on their penultimate stops.

"It just wasn't meant to be," Hamlin said after finishing third and leading 26 laps. "Everyone who was out in the clear seemed like they could go, but ours seemed like we could really go and pull away from the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) even when he had four tyres. They just got us on pit road and we couldn't make up the difference."

Sadler got his best result of the season with fourth place, followed by Jeff Gordon, who looked fast at times leading a handful of laps.

Points leader Kyle Busch also had a few laps in the lead, but he seemed to struggle more than his rivals with tyre wear early on. On his last stop, his crew had an incident on pit road which cost them the chance of a better finish.

"We messed up our strategy there at the end," Busch said. "The 48 (Johnson) and the 24 (Gordon) had the field covered today. I think they had a lot of horsepower and had us covered down the straightaway. They would just pull out, pass, and pull back in line before we would get to the next corner."

Red Bull's AJ Allmendinger led a handful of laps and claimed his first career top ten, while Patrick Carpentier was the highest finishing rookie in 18th place.

"I'm really happy," said Carpentier. "The last five races we've had a couple of top-20 finishes with the pole so I'm really happy. The car was fast all day and we had fun.

"At first I felt kind of sorry for the fans, but it was a long day with all those stops. But we made it through and I'm glad that NASCAR ran the race anyway and that's the only way we could do it."

The standings remain mostly unchanged at the front. However, Denny Hamlin has moved up four spots from 12th to eighth, while Matt Kenseth dropped three to 11th and Kevin Harvick is now outside the top-12 who make the Chase in six weeks time.

Pos Driver Make Laps
1. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 160
2. Carl Edwards Ford 160
3. Denny Hamlin Toyota 160
4. Elliott Sadler Dodge 160
5. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 160
6. Jamie McMurray Ford 160
7. Kasey Kahne Dodge 160
8. Greg Biffle Ford 160
9. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 160
10. A.J. Allmendinger Toyota 160
11. Mark Martin Chevrolet 160
12. Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 160
13. Ryan Newman Dodge 160
14. David Ragan Ford 160
15. Kyle Busch Toyota 160
16. Bobby Labonte Dodge 160
17. Reed Sorenson Dodge 160
18. Patrick Carpentier Dodge 160
19. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 160
20. David Gilliland Ford 160
21. Sam Hornish Jr Dodge 160
22. Marcos Ambrose Ford 160
23. Tony Stewart Toyota 160
24. Martin Truex Jr Chevrolet 160
25. Scott Riggs Chevrolet 160
26. Casey Mears Chevrolet 160
27. Terry Labonte Dodge 160
28. J.J. Yeley Toyota 160
29. Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 160
30. David Reutimann Toyota 160
31. Regan Smith Chevrolet 160
32. Jason Leffler Chevrolet 160
33. Robby Gordon Dodge 160
34. Michael McDowell Toyota 160
35. Dave Blaney Toyota 160
36. Travis Kvapil Ford 160
37. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 148
38. Matt Kenseth Ford 144
39. Juan Montoya Dodge 124
40. Kurt Busch Dodge 119
41. Paul Menard Chevrolet 118
42. Brian Vickers Toyota 93
43. Michael Waltrip Toyota 91

 

That race was pitiful. I don't wanna jump on the "Goodyear sucks" bandwagon, but they don't seem to be doing themselves many favors...

 

poor , poror event...sad finish to a sad day. there was NO racing as a result of the ten lap sprint format. race won in the pits.

 

Should be "Nascar Sucks". They created that monster of a car, ask any engineer! Then they fail to schedule a test. Many problems could be overcome by changing the downforce package and/or the spring/shock combos but the powers that be have their heads up their a$$ as usual. There will be even more empty seats at Indy next year for sure.

 

+1. They should issue a full refund to ticketholders. The Dead Parrot 400.

 

Remember this, like the Michelin faux pas, was not of the Speedway's doing. Why should they issue any refund, better to kick the numbskulls out, not like the NASCRAP guys aren't embarrased by the stature of this event and it's prize money. Why else did the NASCRAP people happily let this happen, good job it wasn't on network TV but on cable where it barely belongs. They need to quickly accept responsibility to avoid having to run Hoosiers (or Falken or somesuch) when G'year pull the plug.....

 

In 41 years of following motorsports, that was the worst excuse for an auto race that I've ever seen!!

I agree, the fans should get their money back.

 

What makes the new car a monster? I dont know much about them as I have never paid much attention to NASCRAP. Just curious.

 

Nascar does not dictate the spring and shock packages that the teams utilize.

 

The F1 McShakedown was worse.

 

Good Circle Track magazine article here: http://www.circletrack.com/ultimateracing/ctrp_0712_nascar_cot_concept/index.html

Higher cG, less aero grip, slides around more (which caused a lions share of the Indy problems).

 

Thanks for the article, Peter. I'd forgotten all about Circle Track magazine! Also a similar article in RaceCar Engineering within the last few months.

Nonetheless, in my humble opinion, Goodyear has had 20-25 races with the COT and over 18 months of development time, a test at IMS with the COT several months ago, and at least one COT race at Pocono, so I think the lion's share of blame is headed towards Akron.

 

What I didn't understand was the later competition yellows. The first one, fine. After that, the teams knew what the tires were going to do. These are professional drivers and crew chiefs. Let them make the calls on the pit stops, and if they need to make 8 green flag stops during the race so be it.

Bad bad racing. Actually, most of the races this year have been pretty dull, and this long-time NASCAR fan is about to turn off the TV on Sundays. Thank god football is almost here.

 

This year? How about every year.

Agreed, watching Man Utd repeat will be better....

 

I wonder how the fans reacted when they came to see a race and instead saw a 43 car tire test.