Hard to call it a race

            INDIANAPOLIS - In 1969, when what is now Talladega Superspeedway opened, the tires were deemed by drivers unfit for the speeds there. NASCAR president William H.G. France said if they tires wouldn't go fast, the drivers would have to slow down.

            They walked out, instead.

            The situation was similar on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This time they slowed down.

            "Early in the race, we were running three-quarter speed," admitted Jeff Burton (who was running in the top five at the time). "Late in the race, we ran hard and had faith in NASCAR to throw the caution."

            In one of the weirdest days in NASCAR history, tire problems led NASCAR to slow the field six times for "competition" reasons. It would have happened quite a bit more had not accidents - blown tires, in the main - prevented the race from reaching the planned points.

            The race, run at an average speed of 115.117 mph was the second slowest in the 15-race history of NASCAR at Indy. Dale Earnhardt won the 1995 race at average speed 40 mph (155.206) higher.

Competition took care

            On race morning, NASCAR officials announced what they would do to remedy the tire crisis at Indy. They brought in a supply of tires that had been earmarked for next week's race at Pocono Raceway. While deemed similar by Goodyear's Greg Stucker, the Pocono compounds weren't the same as those provided for Indy.

            NASCAR's Robin Pemberton said he was reasonably confident the Pocono tires wouldn't be needed, and he was right, but only because attrition was so obvious in the early laps.

            Though a "competition caution" was scheduled for lap 10, crashes on lap four - Michael Waltrip, Sam Hornish Jr., Paul Menard - and lap 14 - Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch - postponed the artificial slowdown until lap 32.

            In fact, three times within the first 50 laps the field could not get to the so-called "competition caution" lap. Mark Martin pitted twice under green, yet somehow managed not to lose a lap.

            The Pocono tires weren't used. They were, in fact, softer than the ones Goodyear had planned to use.

Incredibly ...

            After this debacle of a race was over, Stucker, Goodyear's Director of Race Tire Sales, steadfastly refused to assume even a share of responsibility.

            Asked who was to blame, he said, "It's nobody's fault. It's the package, and that's what you need to understand."

            Asked if fans could be assured it wouldn't happen again, Stucker said, "Can't help."

            Asked about the lack of full-scale testing - only three teams participated in a private test - he said, "We had full-scale testing as far as we're concerned."

Similarly defensive

            Pemberton, NASCAR's Vice President of Competition, didn't seem particularly worried about it, either.

            "You know, you can criticize all you want," he said. "But when you come here and have the surface that we got ... we have to anticipate where the tires and the competition are going to meet on Sunday afternoon when the green flag falls. We have challenges when we develop tires here because you do have a dramatic change in surface grip as the track ‘rubbers' up.

            "We've been here 15 times, all right? ... We're 1-15 in the loss column. That coupled with a new car, that coupled with people who didn't think we were going to need to test here. ... We've got one time we didn't do the right thing. We tried to put our best foot forward and make the best judgment calls that we could getting prepared for this race. For sure, it didn't come off the way we wanted to."

Twin Peaks

            That's what Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished 12^th, could have been talking about instead of the race.

            "It was the most bizarre race I have ever run," he said. "I have never seen nothing like it. I was glad we got finished with relatively no true chaos. NASCAR did what they had to do."

            You can reach Monte Dutton at mdutton@gastongazette.com.