“INDIANA
250”
SPEEDWAY, INDIANA- The
Nationwide Series ran their final “Dash 4 Cash” race at the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway. The 2.5 Mile Superspeedway was the site for a 100 lap shootout. The
$100K Bonus would be raced for by Austin Dillon (3) (last two bonus race
winner), Elliott Sadler (11) (1x win), Sam Hornish Jr. (12) and Brian Vickers
(20). This past week has been a dominant one for Austin Dillon after winning
the $100K last weekend, he then won the Inaugural Truck Race at Eldora then he
competed in a Golf Tournament and won that also. The pole winner was Kyle Busch
(54), with Sam Hornish Jr. (12) starting beside him on row one.
In opening ceremonies,
Michael Langston provided the Invocation, Laura Bell Bundy Group then sang the
National Anthem. The Cup drivers in this race were: Kyle Busch (54), Matt
Kenseth (18) (In-race reporter), Kasey Kahne (5), Kevin Harvick (21) and Joey
Lagono (22).
The race ran very clean
until the first caution on lap 50, when NASCAR threw the yellow for debris on
track. This was never shown to viewers. Busch, Kenseth and Brian Scott (2) did
not make pit stops. On lap 62, Sam
Hornish Jr. (12) lost his points lead, as his car began to overheat and he took
it to pit road.
On lap 65, the second
caution came out with Kyle Busch sitting on pit road. The caution was for
Hornish Jr.’s car going up in smoke. At the same time, another point’s leader
began having trouble with engine overheating. Regan Smith (7) who has been atop
the standing for many weeks started overheating, from grass getting caught in
his grill. With the two drivers ahead of him in the point, Austin Dillon (3)
was in the perfect spot to take over the points lead.
On lap 83, another
debris caution was thrown. The debris came off of Nelson Piquet Jr. (30) car. A
piece of his race car fell off after he hit the wall. Joe Nemecheck (87) then
ran over the part, and his tire began to fail. He started heading for pit road,
when the tire came apart on track. During this pit stop, eight cars did not
make stops.
On lap 88, Trevor Bayne
(6), Kasey Kahne (5) and Parker Kligerman (77) got tangled up with one another.
Bayne slid into the side of Kligerman coming through a corner. Kahne attempted
to go inside the two of them and slid into Bayne. All three cars slid up and
into the wall, damaging all the cars. On the restart, Busch ran high through
the corner and into the side of Lagono. Brian Scott was able to run past the
two slower cars and was looking at taking away the victory from Busch. Busch
had dominated the race, leading all but a handful of the laps. It only took a
couple laps for him to retake the lead and win the race. This was his first
victory at Indy, and Joe Gibbs Racing was the reason he had the equipment to do
so.
The rest of the top ten
were: Brian Scott (2), Joe Lagono (22), Brian Vickers (20) (winner of the
$100K), Kevin Harvick (21), Matt Kenseth (18), Paul Menard (33), Kevin Swindell
(98), Michael Annett (43), Travis Pastrana (60).
The next race will be
on Saturday evening at 7:30 PM EST in Iowa on ESPN
“Brickyard
400”
SPEEDWAY, INDIANA- The
Cup Series made their way to Indianapolis to run the famous speedway. There
were 160 laps scheduled to be run on the 2.5 mile track. Ryan Newman (39) took
his special paint schemed car and put it n the pole. This was his 50th
career pole. He was sporting a “Smurfs” paint job and he broke the track record
with a pole run of 187.531 mph. (47.992) Jimmie Johnson (48) also broke the
track record with a speed of 187.438 mph. (48.016) In this twentieth running of
the Brickyard 400, Jimmie Johnson (48) and teammate Jeff Gordon (24) were both
attempting to get their record fifth win at the second biggest race event of
their season. Danica Patrick (10) had yet another first for female drivers,
being the first to ever run a race at Indianapolis, in the Brickyard 400.
In Opening Ceremonies,
Rev. Howard Brammer provided the Invocation. Cassadee Pope sang the National
Anthem, and Mari Hulman George was the Grand Marshall. A B-25 Bomber did a fly
over of the speedway. Sage Steele was the pace car driver.
Ryan Newman was able to
get off to a good start, leading the first twenty-nine laps. On lap 13, Dale
Earnhardt Jr. (88) was forced to make a pit stop, with a loose wheel. He would
fall a lap down early. During the first round of green flag stops, Jimmie
Johnson was able to go from a three second deficit to a three second lead. A
fact of Indy racing for Johnson was spoken about. In all the races that Johnson
has run, he was won all races that he lead at least one lap. He ran well in
this start of this race, and was leading after the pit stops were completed
again.
A second round of pit
stops had begun near lap 54, and on lap 59 the first caution of the race came
out. Timmy Hill (32) had stalled on track, not being able to get back to pit
road. Jeff Gordon (24), Kyle Busch (18), Matt Kenseth (20), Joey Lagono (22)
and Brad Keselowski (2) had not yet made their pit stops. There were twenty-one
cars left on the lead lap.
On lap 80, Jeff Burton
(31) had on-track issues when a drive-train. This sent him to pit road. A rear
gear was found to be the race ending situation. On lap 114, Timmy Hill again
brought out the caution for stalling on track.
Near lap 135, Johnson
and Newman made their final pit stops under green. Johnson made his stop first
and had issues. The crew took nearly seventeen seconds to make their four-tire
stop, that only took a little over twelve seconds all day. This opened the door
for Newman to make a two tire stop, and get out almost seven seconds ahead of
the faster car of Johnson. Newman was able to get to the checkered flag more
than two seconds ahead of Johnson, taking the record fifth win away from him.
Newman is an Indiana native, and claims a win at this track is all he has
dreamed about since he was a child. Johnson led the most laps on the day, and
the final pit stop really took that elusive number five away from him.
The rest of the top ten
were: Kasey Kahne (5), Tony Stewart (14), Matt Kenseth (20), Dale Earnhardt Jr.
(88), Jeff Gordon (24), Joey Lagono (22), Juan Pablo Montoya (42) and Kyle
Busch (18).
The next race is on
Sunday at Noon EST at Pocono, PA on ESPN.
