Defending Champ Johnson Slams Wall, Takes A Hit In The Point Standings

INDIANAPOLIS — There is no more popular driver in NASCAR racing than Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and it appeared the legions of fans at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway were going to get their wish by seeing their hero win Sunday’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.
But after leading twice for 33 laps, an engine pulley broke and ended his race on lap 137.
Earnhardt’s Chevrolet made it one more lap before he pulled it into the garage area with a 34th-place finish.
“I felt the power steering lurch coming off the corner, and then it was like I had run into a giant rock or something,” Earnhardt recalled. “The belt came off and the engine went up in smoke. I was running fifth. I thought that was pretty good. It’s hard to lead these things every lap. We broke a pulley off the front end of the motor, the harmonic balancer is still there and the pulley is gone. I guess the motor broke, but you’ll have bad luck every once in a while.
“Until then, we had been running great all weekend. We were fast in practice and we had a great qualifying run. Then, we had a really good race car that was hauling when we were in the lead or near the front.”
Earnhardt has yet to win a Nextel Cup race this season and has never won at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. And after dropping out of the race, Earnhardt was a bit breathless.
“These races aren’t easy,” he said. “You are in the middle of working your butt off and then all of a sudden you stop.  You get a little adrenaline rush and then you are tired.”

• There has never been a back-to-back winner of the Brickyard 400, and after Jimmie Johnson crashed twice on Sunday, he guaranteed that streak would continue.
Johnson was part of a eight-car pileup in the short chute between turns one and two on lap 47 and then later hit the wall on lap 62 when the fender rubbed his tire, causing it to go flat.
Johnson finished 39th one year after winning the race.
“It’s feast or famine here for us,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately, I had a situation early in the race where (Denny) Hamlin slid inside and got into (Matt) Kenseth and we all got caught up in a wreck and damaged the car. And from there, we were just trying to get the car straightened back out and get our lap back; which, I just got by the No. 8 (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) and was in position for the Lucky Dog and then the left -front tire blew back out and I went into the wall.
“I’m OK. The impact wasn’t too bad. The flames had me nervous there inside the car, and I lost some eyelashes and the side of my face got pretty hot.”

• Jeff Gordon’s third-place finish increased his Nextel Cup lead over Denny Hamlin to 371 points. But when Gordon comes to the Brickyard, he isn’t happy unless it’s a victory.
The only four-time winner of this race knew he didn’t have enough to beat race winner Tony Stewart.
 “We had a pretty good race — we had to come from 21st-starting position,” Gordon said. “I wasn’t sure how good our car was going to be in traffic.  In there early on, we really motored on up through there.  I really thought we had something for them.  We just got a little bit too tight. We tried freeing it up.  One time we took four tires, and that just got us so far behind, we played catch-up for the rest of the day.
“I was happy to get to third. Tony was the guy to beat. I don’t think anybody had anything for him.”

• After Ginn Racing merged with Dale Earnhardt, Inc. last week, it meant this would be Mark Martin’s first race for the combined team.
He finished sixth in his DEI debut, giving Martin his ninth top-10 finish in 14 Brickyard starts.
Ironically, the DEI car was using Hendrick Engines as part of the existing arrangement at Ginn Racing.
“I’ve never had a motor that ran like that in my whole life,” Martin said. “This is an incredible group of guys that make up this U.S. Army race team. They give me awesome race cars that are really unreal to drive.
“This was a great effort today by this team. We had to fight back from some adversity, and I am really pleased with the finish today.”

• Hendrick Motorsports and JR Motorsports announced Monday they would be merging their NASCAR Busch Series efforts for the 2008 season.
The partnership will campaign two full-time race cars under the JR Motorsports banner that utilize Hendrick Motorsports engines, chassis and engineering support.
 
• Team owner Chip Ganassi’s NASCAR Nextel Cup drivers swept the front row for Sunday’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard for the first time in the team’s career.
Reed Sorenson, a 21-year-old driver, and Juan Pablo Montoya, a NASCAR rookie from Colombia who has raced in Formula One and CART, were the two fastest drivers and led the field to the green flag of Sunday’s race.