The 14th NASCAR race at IMS brings many story lines
By Steve Ballard/Indy Star
Can Jeff Gordon succeed on his third try to become the first five-time winner on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval?
Can Jimmie Johnson, who used an Indy victory last year as a springboard to his first Nextel Cup championship, become the first back-to-back winner of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard?
Can Tony Stewart, fresh off his first win of the season, get on one of his patented summer winning streaks and go to victory lane at his home track for a second time?
Those are among the questions to be answered next Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but they aren't the only story lines going into the race. Here are five things to watch as NASCAR comes to town for the 14th time:
Montoya to make history
Just by starting the race, Juan Pablo Montoya will go into the record books as the first driver to compete in all three major events at the Speedway.
The 2000 Indianapolis 500 champion competed five times in Formula One's dearly departed U.S. Grand Prix. His final F-1 start was in last year's USGP, when he touched off a multicar crash on the opening lap. A few weeks later, he stunned the racing world by jumping to NASCAR with his former open-wheel boss, Chip Ganassi.
Montoya already has shown his road racing prowess by winning a Busch Series race in March in Mexico City and a Cup race last month at Sonoma, Calif. Progress on ovals has come more slowly, but he sits a respectable 20th in the standings halfway through his rookie season.
"I feel like I've learned probably like 40 percent of what I've got to learn," the Colombian said. "I think we're still miles off."
Five Hoosiers in field
Indiana will be well-represented in the 43-car field with five drivers who were either born or grew up in the state.
Gordon (Pittsboro) and Stewart (Columbus) both have multiple NASCAR championships and are contenders again. Gordon has four wins this season and sits comfortably atop the standings, while Stewart is sixth in points.
Ryan Newman (South Bend) would like to see some of the Penske Racing magic that has produced 14 May wins in Indianapolis extend into July. His best finish in six Indy starts is fourth in 2002, the only time he has cracked the top 10.
For David Stremme (South Bend) and Tony Raines (LaPorte), their incentive goes beyond wanting to perform well in front of friends and family. Both have reasons to be concerned about job security, Stremme at Chip Ganassi Racing and Raines at Hall of Fame Racing.
No head start from testing
With NASCAR putting limits on testing this year, Indy was not on the list of approved tracks. So teams will have to rely on last year's data with little time to re-acclimate to the nuances of Indy's 2.5-mile flat oval with its four distinctly different turns.
Gordon said it probably opens the door to more teams having an opportunity to win the race because no one arrives with an advantage gleaned from testing.
His teammate takes that one step further. Johnson, who struggled at Indy until winning last year, said testing at the Speedway only confused him.
"Testing there is so hard because the track takes so long to rubber in. We always found testing there to be very frustrating," he said. "So for us, it just saved us from having to go up there and chase our tails for two days."
Last time for current cars
Say goodbye to those Chevrolet Monte Carlos and Dodge Chargers. This is the last Brickyard 400 with the current cars before NASCAR goes full time with its Car of Tomorrow, which Chevy is branding as an Impala and Dodge as an Avenger.
The original rollout for the COT was to be over three years, with Indy not on the schedule until 2009. But money and manpower issues prompted team owners to lobby NASCAR to make the switch early.
Gordon is OK with that decision but said the COT still needs a lot of work if it is to satisfy NASCAR's goal of creating better racing.
"There are some great benefits to that car, but it still needs some adjustments," he said. "I know we have done well with it, but I'm still not convinced you're going to see better racing week in and week out.
"I'm not saying I have the solutions. I'm just saying we need to keep working on it."
Race to the Chase
Although the Chase for the Nextel Cup is expanding from 10 to 12 drivers this year, several big names are going to be left out.
With just seven races left before the cutoff, seven drivers (Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards, Stewart and Johnson) are reasonably secure and three others (Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer) are in decent shape. But five drivers are separated by a mere 168 points for the final two positions, with Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr. currently clinging to those spots.
Kurt Busch, the 2004 Cup champion, is joined by Newman, his Penske Racing teammate, and Jamie McMurray in close pursuit.
"I'm optimistic, but I'm also being a realist about it all," Busch said. "It's not like we're battling just one guy to make the cut."
Greg Biffle and Casey Mears are the only other drivers retaining faint hopes, which leaves Montoya, Bobby Labonte, Kasey Kahne and Dale Jarrett among the outsiders.
By Steve Ballard/Indy Star
Can Jeff Gordon succeed on his third try to become the first five-time winner on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval?
Can Jimmie Johnson, who used an Indy victory last year as a springboard to his first Nextel Cup championship, become the first back-to-back winner of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard?
Can Tony Stewart, fresh off his first win of the season, get on one of his patented summer winning streaks and go to victory lane at his home track for a second time?
Those are among the questions to be answered next Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but they aren't the only story lines going into the race. Here are five things to watch as NASCAR comes to town for the 14th time:
Montoya to make history
Just by starting the race, Juan Pablo Montoya will go into the record books as the first driver to compete in all three major events at the Speedway.
The 2000 Indianapolis 500 champion competed five times in Formula One's dearly departed U.S. Grand Prix. His final F-1 start was in last year's USGP, when he touched off a multicar crash on the opening lap. A few weeks later, he stunned the racing world by jumping to NASCAR with his former open-wheel boss, Chip Ganassi.
Montoya already has shown his road racing prowess by winning a Busch Series race in March in Mexico City and a Cup race last month at Sonoma, Calif. Progress on ovals has come more slowly, but he sits a respectable 20th in the standings halfway through his rookie season.
"I feel like I've learned probably like 40 percent of what I've got to learn," the Colombian said. "I think we're still miles off."
Five Hoosiers in field
Indiana will be well-represented in the 43-car field with five drivers who were either born or grew up in the state.
Gordon (Pittsboro) and Stewart (Columbus) both have multiple NASCAR championships and are contenders again. Gordon has four wins this season and sits comfortably atop the standings, while Stewart is sixth in points.
Ryan Newman (South Bend) would like to see some of the Penske Racing magic that has produced 14 May wins in Indianapolis extend into July. His best finish in six Indy starts is fourth in 2002, the only time he has cracked the top 10.
For David Stremme (South Bend) and Tony Raines (LaPorte), their incentive goes beyond wanting to perform well in front of friends and family. Both have reasons to be concerned about job security, Stremme at Chip Ganassi Racing and Raines at Hall of Fame Racing.
No head start from testing
With NASCAR putting limits on testing this year, Indy was not on the list of approved tracks. So teams will have to rely on last year's data with little time to re-acclimate to the nuances of Indy's 2.5-mile flat oval with its four distinctly different turns.
Gordon said it probably opens the door to more teams having an opportunity to win the race because no one arrives with an advantage gleaned from testing.
His teammate takes that one step further. Johnson, who struggled at Indy until winning last year, said testing at the Speedway only confused him.
"Testing there is so hard because the track takes so long to rubber in. We always found testing there to be very frustrating," he said. "So for us, it just saved us from having to go up there and chase our tails for two days."
Last time for current cars
Say goodbye to those Chevrolet Monte Carlos and Dodge Chargers. This is the last Brickyard 400 with the current cars before NASCAR goes full time with its Car of Tomorrow, which Chevy is branding as an Impala and Dodge as an Avenger.
The original rollout for the COT was to be over three years, with Indy not on the schedule until 2009. But money and manpower issues prompted team owners to lobby NASCAR to make the switch early.
Gordon is OK with that decision but said the COT still needs a lot of work if it is to satisfy NASCAR's goal of creating better racing.
"There are some great benefits to that car, but it still needs some adjustments," he said. "I know we have done well with it, but I'm still not convinced you're going to see better racing week in and week out.
"I'm not saying I have the solutions. I'm just saying we need to keep working on it."
Race to the Chase
Although the Chase for the Nextel Cup is expanding from 10 to 12 drivers this year, several big names are going to be left out.
With just seven races left before the cutoff, seven drivers (Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards, Stewart and Johnson) are reasonably secure and three others (Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer) are in decent shape. But five drivers are separated by a mere 168 points for the final two positions, with Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr. currently clinging to those spots.
Kurt Busch, the 2004 Cup champion, is joined by Newman, his Penske Racing teammate, and Jamie McMurray in close pursuit.
"I'm optimistic, but I'm also being a realist about it all," Busch said. "It's not like we're battling just one guy to make the cut."
Greg Biffle and Casey Mears are the only other drivers retaining faint hopes, which leaves Montoya, Bobby Labonte, Kasey Kahne and Dale Jarrett among the outsiders.