Published: July 27, 2008 10:28 pm            

Hoosiers struggle with tires, track position at Brickyard

INDIANAPOLIS — In the marathon session that was the 15th running of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Hoosiers did not fair well.

No No. 5 win for adopted son Jeff Gordon, no No. 3 for Tony Stewart, and Ryan Newman’s final Brickyard with Penske Racing went from promising to disappointing.

Marred with tire issues, the three Indiana drivers dealt with competition yellows nearly every 12 to 15 laps.

“I can’t remember where we’ve ever had one quite like this. I know at Charlotte you had to be careful, but we could go a lot more laps than what we could go here today. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Gordon. “We couldn’t go more than 10 laps.”

Gordon started fifth, but within a lap ran second to teammate and eventual winner Jimmie Johnson. He maintained position throughout most of the race despite the numerous competition yellows. He shuttled between second and ninth all afternoon, but on lap 139, the second to last competition yellow, Gordon took just two tires as the team’s tire supply dwindled rapidly. He dropped quickly to 14th, radioing his crew that “We’re just not good anymore.”

Even with his troubled car, Gordon moved back into the top 10 three laps before the final competition yellow. Again, he took right side tires, but no fuel. On the restart on lap 153, never a driver to be counted out, Gordon was back in contention in the sixth position. The final laps belonged to Johnson and Carl Edwards, but Gordon came back to finish where he started in fifth place.

“I hate it that we didn’t get the track position that we really needed in the end,” Gordon said. “That hurt us from having an opportunity and I felt like we were as good as Jimmie, but we really were a second-place car because they had the track position.”

In 15 races at Indianapolis, Gordon has finished out the top 10 just three times.

Gordon said the main factor for him was where he was on the restart. When he was in third or fourth, he felt he could be a little conservative. But when he was in 7th or worse he said, “I had to push a lot harder and use up a lot more tire. That’s just kind of the way it played out.”

South Bend native Newman started third in his eighth Brickyard with confidence he had a chance to win at his home-state track. He slowly dropped position by position.

Newman left the pits in 30th slot after the competition caution on lap 30. Just as he made the slow dissent, Newman fought his way back position by position, climbing to 22nd in a little over 10 laps.

“I had to drive a smart race. Basically we had 10 laps to figure out our car, and that’s a tough task on everyone involved.”

He continued to battle back, working his way to 6th, but when the final yellow came and went, Newman had nothing left and finished 13th.

Normally relatively vocal, he had little to offer but disgust for the day.

“It was a ridiculous race. There was no racing involved other than the mandatory cautions, which was ridiculous,” Newman said.

Defending Brickyard Champion Stewart was not overly concerned with starting 14th on the grid, having won from that spot last year.

On Sunday, he rarely cracked the top 10 all day, seemingly auditioning Newman as a possible teammate for next season as they spent a fair amount of the race one position behind the other.

In the same quandary as everyone else on the track, he seemed relatively calm when questioned on air during a caution.

“It’s not ideal by any means. NASCAR is doing a great job of making the best of an odd situation,” Stewart said.

When it came close to the end, there seemed to be a glimmer of hope that Stewart could indeed pull off win No. 3 at Indy and the first of the season.

With just 18 laps remaining, Stewart found himself in fourth, but got passed by both Johnson and Carl Edwards, eventually falling to 10th.

The final yellow doomed Stewart to bottom of the field in 30th after taking just two tires on the final pit stop. With only seven circuits remaining, Stewart tried again, but 23rd was the best he could do.

“Just a tough day. I mean there are no other words to describe it. Just an unbelievably tough day,” Stewart said.

His 10th and final Brickyard for Joe Gibbs Racing was his worst finish ever. In 2001, he finished 17th and the last four years Stewart had two wins and two top 10s.

        

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