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July 28
TONY BEING TONY Fresh off winning two weeks in Chicago and happy to be back home in Indiana, two-time NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion Tony Stewart showed Friday that he still doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Or reporters, for that matter. Asked what’s so special about Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Stewart ripped into a television reporter. “You’re kidding, right?” Stewart fired back.
July 28, 2007
A scheduling change could be what helps Denny Hamlin win Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
At least he hopes so.
July 27
Persistent afternoon showers washed out the first day of Allstate 400 at the Brickyard activity July 27 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, forcing IMS and NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series officials to adjust the schedule for Saturday’s qualifying day. AutoRacingDaily.com
July 27
Race Record—Bobby Labonte, Aug. 2000, 155.912 mph.
Slowest Race Record—Jeff Gordon, Aug. 2004, 115.912 mph.
Worst Starting Spot to Win—Jeff Gordon, Aug. 2001, started 27th.
2006 Pole Sitter—No. 31, Jeff Burton, 182.778, finished 15th. CaledonianRecord.com
July 27
Although technically not a native of Indiana, Jeff Gordon was raised in Pittsboro and his racing skills were honed during those formidable years in the Hoosier State.
And in the 13 years NASCAR has been coming to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Gordon has made himself to home. He won the inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994, and is the track’s Cup leader in victories (4), top-fives (7), top-10s (10), poles (3) and laps led with 433, which far surpasses second-place Dale Jarrett’s 186.
July 27, 2007
Every rule has its exception, and Jeff Gordon was just that in the inaugural running of the Brickyard 400 in 1994. As a second-year driver with only one victory under his belt, he led nearly 60 percent of the laps and captured his first victory on the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval.
July 27, 2007
Gordon has already achieved legendary status at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway—he’s the only four-time winner of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. He also has seven top-fives and 10 top-10s in 13 Brickyards and an average finish of 9.3 despite his 16th-place finish last season. He has led nine of the 13 races for 433 laps. A record fifth win at the Brickyard could give Gordon an advantage for his fifth Cup championship; six Brickyard 400 champions have proceeded to win the title in the same year. FoxSports.com
July 27
Behind all the whining, charm, wit, blaming, cockiness, compassion and who knows what else that envelopes Tony Stewart lies the essence of the man nicknamed Smoke: a darn good racecar driver.
So when Stewart, a two-time Cup champion, goes 20 races without a victory, people talk.
July 27, 2007
The only drivers to win the Brickyard more than once are Jeff Gordon, who has four victories here and Dale Jarrett, who won twice. There have been five different Brickyard winners in the last five seasons.
In terms of pure racing, the Brickyard isn’t the greatest track in the Nextel Cup Series, but it is a race every driver wants to win. Passing is challenging, mistakes are punished, but for the driver who can persevere, the rewards are tremendous.
July 27, 2007
“Growing up in Indiana, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, for me, was it. And my whole career just seemed to take off to another level after that win, and it’s been fantastic.”
Gordon’s teammate Jimmie Johnson learned that first-hand last year. Johnson began 2006 with his first Daytona 500 win.
Tony Bolick, Sporting News.Com
July 27, 2007
Given the Denny Hamlin-Tony Stewart brouhaha at Daytona, and then Stewart’s win at Chicagoland, it will be perfect theater when Hamlin one-ups the No. 20 and 41 other competitors at Indy. Flat tracks have been a strength for Hamlin, and Indianapolis qualifies as such.
July 26, 2007
Hendrick Motorsports must be thrilled to see the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway looming.
Not only have Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson been two of the top contenders this season, but both are past winners at the track — and both managed to turn victories at Indianapolis into in championship-winning seasons.
By Rea White - FOXSports.com
July 26
“Obviously, Indianapolis is a very special place for me,” Mears said. “My dad raced there and my uncle won four Indy 500s there. “It’s a track with a lot of history and heritage, especially in the open-wheel world, and with me racing in NASCAR, it has become my Indy 500 in some ways. I can’t think of a place where a win would mean more to me.”
By Jeff Bartlett - Times-Mail
July 25
Now Johnson is a changed man, and for this we can thank two very big facts: He won last year’s Brickyard 400 and went on to take the Nextel Cup championship.
“I’m excited to go back,” he says about Sunday’s race. “It’s the first time I’ve ever been excited to go back to Indy. I’ve always struggled there.”
Yes, three straight years of worsening Brickyard 400 performances qualified as a struggle — Johnson went from ninth to 18th to 36th to 38th before last year’s breakthrough.
By Pete DiPrimio - News-Sentinel
July 25
But, he won’t be drawn into the argument that is raised each and every time stock cars show up at the venerable speedway: which race is bigger, the Daytona 500 or the Brickyard?
“I don’t know that I’m qualified to speak on whether it’s bigger in the sport or not,” Stewart said in his team’s weekly news release in advance of Sunday’s 400.
By Mark DeCotis - FloridaToday.com
July 25
“This is the first time since my rookie year (2002) that I’ve been excited to go back to Indy,” said Johnson, who last year became the second Nextel Cup driver in a row and sixth in 13 years to use a Brickyard win as the springboard to a season championship. “I’ve always struggled there.”
By Steve Ballard - IndyStar.com
July 25
So you want to know who’ll kiss the bricks? Well, the chalk choices are Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. Points leader Gordon owns four career Brickyard wins; Stewart has won once at his home-state track and is coming off a victory at Chicago. But I’ll go with another former Brickyard winner: Kevin Harvick. The driver of Richard Childress Racing’s No. 29 appears to have come out of a minor slump.
By Brian De Los Santos and Charlie McCarthy - CBS.SportsLine.com
July 25
So when a driver can find something that might bring him good luck, he jumps all over it.
Winning the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard this weekend is as good as it gets for a guy looking for a little statistical luck on the way to a Nextel Cup title.
By Terry Blount - ESPN.com
July 24
DAVID STREMME: Well, it was pretty neat last year. Everybody’s always, you know, talking about going to Indianapolis and watching the 500 or watching the Brickyard. I was never able to really participate in a lot of that because I was doing a lot of local races and stuff. Any time I got to the Indianapolis area, I’d go by the track. Being right in the town, there’s so much history there, it’s just cool.
Only one other driver has won five times at Indianapolis Motor Speedway: Formula One great Michael Schumacher, who won the U. S. Grand Prix in 2000 and again from ’03-06.
Roush Fenway Racing has failed to visit Victory Lane at only two current tracks on the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series calendar: Chicagoland Speedway and this weekend’s track, Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The drought may come to an end Sunday afternoon. A number of Roush Fenway drivers have performed well in recent years at IMS.
Bill Jr. ’s vision included a concept once thought to be the ultimate longshot: A NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
That vision clarified in 1994, when France’s concept became reality with the running of the inaugural Brickyard 400.
This way there’s no competition from people wanting to go to their vacation homes or spend the day at the beach. While the regular motorhomers complain they can’t take the time off of work to go to Monday races, television rating soar as people, bored with reality television shows, get to see exciting night-time Nextel Cup events. Small track owners rejoice because their Saturday night bull ring races become popular again. The nation’s church officials discover increased attendance and support NASCAR’s shift from Sunday events to Monday Night racing.
Now it’s time for two aspirin, a wait to head out to the Brickyard 400, and maybe the return of sanity.
By Lewis Franck - SportsIllustrated.cnn.com
July 24
Juan Pablo Montoya comes back to the Speedway to make history. He races in Indy for the eighth time, but he’s a Brickyard rookie.
Montoya drank milk in victory lane in 2000 in his only Indy 500. He raced six times on Indy’s road course in the US Grand Prix. Now he heads to the Brickyard in a stock car. Juan Pablo Montoya becomes the first driver to race IndyCar, Formula One and NASCAR at the Speedway.
By Rich Nye - Eyewitness Sports
July 24
Six times the winner at the Brickyard has gone on to win the championship in the same year. It once happened four times in a row, 1998-2001, and the last two Nextel Cup champions, Tony Stewart in 2005 and Jimmie Johnson last year, have done so after winning the Allstate 400.
Is it a coincidence? Well, in one way, sure. There isn’t anything about Indy that should logically predict a championship other than the simple fact that it’s one of the season’s more prestigious races and teams naturally tend to put a lot of effort into winning there. Great teams win races they target, and they also tend to win championships.
By Monte Dutton - AOL.com
July 23
Kissing the bricks after a victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway sometimes foreshadows bigger things.
For the past two years, the winner of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard has gone on to win the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series championship. In 2005, Indiana native Tony Stewart won his personal Holy Grail race, and went on to win the championship at season’s end. The same occurred last season, as Jimmie Johnson pulled off the Indy-Cup double.
