POSTRACE RAIL: Allstate 400 at the Brickyard

July 31, 2008 - 10:54 AM

Monte Dutton

The winner and how he did it: Jimmie Johnson won the Allstate 400 for the second time in three years. The last four have been evenly split between Johnson and Tony Stewart.

Debacle: The quality of the race was adversely affected - almost to an absurd level - by excessive tire wear.

Just what the doctor ordered: A year ago Johnson, the eventual Sprint Cup champion, left Indianapolis ninth in the point standings. This year he is fourth. He's finished second and first in his last two races.

Assorted trivialities and historical notables:

A subpar performance didn't notably affect point leader Kyle Busch, who still leads Dale Earnhardt Jr. by 253 points.

The victory was Johnson's 35^th, tying him with Mark Martin for 17^th place all-time.

Kevin Harvick dropped out of the top 12 and was replaced by teammate Clint Bowyer. Bowyer trails Harvick by only two points, but there is a 54-point gap back to 14^th-place David Ragan entering the regular season's final six races.

Harvick dropped four positions in points. Denny Hamlin picked up fourth (to eighth).

The leading money winner is Busch at $4,657,463, followed by Carl Edwards at $4,509,825.

Juan Montoya, who was second at the Allstate 400 a year earlier, finished 39^th this time.

He highest-finishing rookie was 18^th-place Patrick Carpentier.

Mentionable stuff they said later:

"Second place is not what we came here for, but thanks for the fans putting up with this. It'll get better." - Carl Edwards (second)

"I tried not to focus on the fact that this was the Brickyard 400." - winner Jimmie Johnson, failing to note that it was the Allstate 400.

"It was the most boring race I have ever called." - Steve Letarte, Jeff Gordon's crew chief

"Nobody is to blame, as everybody did the best they could." - Mark Martin

"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 it didn't have to be that way." - Ryan Newman

"I don't think you could build a tire that would work on it (this track) with these cars." - Terry Labonte

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