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View From The Couch – Indy

On Monday morning at the water cooler the NASCAR fans that have been talking about Kyle Busch all summer will be talking about tires. In November, the same fans might be talking about Hendrick Motorsports and Jimmie Johnson. Whatever struggles the organization had early in the season are no longer an issue. Jimmie Johnson was in a class by himself at Indianapolis, leading 71 laps and winning his second Brickyard 400. As I have written before, Jimmie Johnson is still the reigning Cup holder. It is his until someone takes it from him. He and the #48 team have their speedway program in order after the slow start. It’s not just Johnson’s team either. Jeff Gordon ran in the top five all day, led 7 laps and had a 120.1 driver rating while finishing 5th. Dale Earnhardt Jr had a very fast car but had to play catchup the entire race after an early flat tire put him a lap down.

Thanks to the tire wear issues, the race was reduced to a series of heat races. With green flag runs lasting no longer than 12 laps thanks to crashes and NASCAR dictated competition cautions, there were 11 caution flags that created essentially 12 segments. Despite the erratic pace to the day, Johnson always found his way to the front. Of the 12 “segments”, Johnson was the leader entering the pits on 8 of them not to mention when he took the checkered flag. While others tried pit strategy to gain the lead, Johnson simply drove to the front with ease. That is the kind of performance it will take to beat Kyle Busch during the Chase. Sunday Hendrick Motorsports showed that they can still produce dominant cars, and my guess is that there’s more where that came from.

  • Almost every driver and team owner said the same thing about the tires. That it wasn’t NASCAR’s fault, they did the best they could do and every team had to deal with the same issues. It almost felt like a little Gazoo-sized Mike Helton was on their shoulders reminding each person to speak well of NASCAR. And then there was Ryan Newman:

    That wasn’t a race today. It’s ridiculous. That’s a lack of preparation from NASCAR to Goodyear to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to put on a show like they did for the fans today. It’s disrespectful to the fans and I wish that it didn’t have to be that way. That’s not the way NASCAR racing is suppose[d] to be.

    Newman is right that it isn’t fair to the fans, but I’m not sure how anyone could have fixed it once the weekend began.

  • Marcos Ambrose qualified for his second Cup race and finished a respectable 22nd. It was a nice Cup debut for JTG Daugherty Racing. The team plans to run full time in 2009. Ironically the team that JTG split from, Wood Brothers Racing, failed to qualify for the event.

  • After suffering through a miserable first 14 races this season with Gillett-Evernham, Elliott Sadler is beginning to improve. He scored his second top five of the season with a 4th place effort at Indy. His first top five was based on pit strategy, but Sunday’s run saw Sadler stay in the top ten all day. With good tracks like Michigan, Bristol and California coming up Sadler could make a strong run at the top 20 in points.

  • After several good runs that ended with disappointing finishes, AJ Allmendinger finally scored his first top ten at the Cup level. He ran inside the top ten almost the entire day and at times was battling for the lead. He finished 10th to eclipse his previous best of 12th.

    This is where we need to be running and we’re starting to do it consistently, and that’s how you gain respect from these guys. We just need to keep running up there each week and learning from them. When you get your chance, finish top-five or go for the win, or just take what you can get. This is why I’m here — I want to run with these guys and it feels good.

    Meanwhile teammate Brian Vickers had engine problems and finished 42nd. Which is only 41 places lower than I predicted last week.

  • The tire situation at Indy is something that happens several times each season. Whether it’s a rough track, rain washing away the rubber build up or simply a shoddy tire construction, it would be nice if NASCAR and Goodyear had a backup plan. I’m am far from a tire expert but what if there was some kind of tool or vehicle that could lay down extra rubber into the racing grooves? It’s something that could be used prior to a race or during a race when a problem surfaces. Maybe it’s a truck that drags rubber around the track, holding another burnout contest or the Goodyear blimp bombarding the track with rubber pellets or some kind of application that is sprayed on the track. It seems like there must be some kind of better solution than simply waiving a caution flag every 10 laps.

  • On the announcing side of things, it’s great to see Dale Jarrett in the booth for ESPN. The chemistry and intellingent banter with Andy Petree is fantastic.

    • For more racing news check out Trouble in Turn 2

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