INDIANAPOLIS -- It wasn't the one that got away. It was the one that was taken away.
That's how Juan Pablo Montoya felt after having one of the most dominating performances of the NASCAR season derailed by a speeding penalty on pit road late in Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.
"I swear on my children and my wife, I wasn't speeding,'' Montoya radioed to his crew after being called back on pit road to serve a "drive through" penalty after having raced out to a nearly five-second advantage on the field and led 116 of the first 125 laps.
"Thanks NASCAR for screwing my day," he continued on the team radio.
"Frustrated? The word isn't frustrated. I've been robbed before and I've been screwed before and they outdid themselves this time.''
What could cause utterances of this nature to be used to describe one of NASCAR's crown jewel events, held on sacred racing ground at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?
Tony Stewart couldn't have been happier than to race one of his very close friends for the win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His very close friend Kevin Harvick ... not so much.
Stewart says he raced Harvick with respect:
"I work really hard because if I'm going to preach about give and take, it's stupid for me to not do the same thing. If I want people to race me with respect, I'm going to race people with respect. Like I said, I didn't mean to get into Kevin. That wasn't my intention. I didn't have to do that. That could have screwed me up, could have cut a tire down more than it would have accomplished to get into him. There was no logical reason to get into him. That was a mistake on my part."
Take that, everyone who says Stewart never admits when he's wrong. Of course, we have to wonder if he'd be so forthcoming with the acknowledgment if it was his fender that got caved in.
Dave Blaney got something in Indianapolis last week he hasn't have since the beginning of the season - a guaranteed starting spot for the next race.
When Ginn folded into DEI and gave up the #13 team, they forfeited their position in the top 35 in the owner standings and the Wood Brothers / JTG Racing #21 got their guaranteed starting spot at Indy.
Veteran driver Bill Elliott saved a provisional, but finished 23rd, giving up the #21's position in the standings to the #22 of Blaney, who finished 9th--a season best.
Question I have to ask, yet again--and at the risk of upsetting the Blaney fans again (yes, he has some)--is, what is Blaney going to do with it? He didn't capitalize on it at the beginning of the season and he only has a 37 point cushion headed to Pocono.
So, what do you think? He holds on to it or gives it back to Elliott?
Two races have had quite the impact on the points picture for Jimmie Johnson.
Following a 10th-place showing at Daytona for the Pepsi 400, JJ found himself solidly in the top-5 of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series standings in fourth place, 407 back of leader Jeff Gordon.
Three weeks and 800 miles later, Johnson is reeling. The 2006 champ now sits 9th in the championship hunt.
Sunday at Indianapolis, Johnson had his second dose of tire failure in as many races. The Lowe's Chevy ended its day for good in a fireball that singed Johnson's eyebrow(s?) and his eye lashes against the turn 3 wall at Indy after a previous incident put the No. 48 a lap down and with fender damage.
At Chicago, Johnson was running at the front when another tire exploded and slammed Johnson to the turn 3 wall, as well.
The race to the Chase for the Nextel Cup is well under way and the points margins are narrowing as the stakes get higher with each passing race. Following each race on the the road to the Chase, the Fanhouse will take a look at the week's biggest winners and losers.
Race to the Chase Standings after the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard:
7. +1 Kevin Harvick 8. +1 Kyle Busch 9. -2 Jimmie Johnson 10. -- Clint Bowyer 11. -- Martin Truex Jr. 12. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
13. +1 Kurt Busch 14. -1 Ryan Newman 15. -- Jamie McMurray 16. -- Greg Biffle 17. +1 Mark Martin
Biggest Winner Kurt Busch - All he had to do this week to gain momentum in the race to the Chase simply finish the race and capitalize on the misfortune of the two drivers in front of him impeding his way to the top 12. Check. Biggest Losers Dale Earnhardt Jr. - He led several laps and was looking at a top 5 finish when the engine blew on the #8 Bud Chevy. Junior didn't fall to the 13th spot this week, but the unlucky break cut his 30-point cushion inside the top 12 to 13 points.
Ryan Newman - He was already dropping fast in the opening laps today when he spun into the wall and retired from the race, giving up the 13th position to Busch and distancing himself further from the Chase.
It's only one race since we posted them, but so far it looks like the Fanhouse was right on the money assigning better Chase odds for Busch, than Earnhardt and Newman.
Tony Stewart fans hope that the road to the championship does indeed begin with the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.
Stewart started closing in on race leader Kevin Harvick with 15 laps to go today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The friendly competitors rubbed each other around the track for a bit and with eight laps left Stewart was finally able to pull by Harvick and ran away with the win in front of a pro-Smoke crowd of 200,000.
The win at his home track was Stewar'ts second in a row, his second on the season and his second at the track where wins mean the most to the Indiana native.
The #29 car was a little worse for the wear and Harvick was relegated to a 7th place finish. He gave Stewart a lil' love tap after the checkered flag and was invited immediately to the hauler by NASCAR ... Are they serious? Was he?
Juan Pablo Montoya, who won the first Indianapolis 500 he ran in a Chip Ganassi IRL car, was hoping for a repeat in NASCAR and barely missed with an impressive 2nd place finish. His teammate, Reed Sorenson, brought home his second top 5 finish of the season.
It was a rough day for a few drivers hoping to compete in this year's Chase for the Nextel Cup. More to come ...
I suppose now that the remainder of the NASCAR season will be broadcast on ESPN and ABC, the chance of seeing ABC talent at NASCAR events just increased exponentially.
Fine with me--as long as they're all as easy on the eyes as this week's grand marshal, James Denton, the real-life handyman who plays Mike Delfino, the smokin' hot resident plumber on Wisteria Lane.
The "Desperate Housewives" star is a lifelong sports enthusiast:
"I've always been a big sports fan. I grew up a Richard Petty fan, as many were in the 1970s, and Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough was big, and Bobby Allison, but Petty and that No. 43 STP car ... I think kids just fell in love with it for some reason."
He's never been to a race, though, so this is a plumb gig for Denton, who is also a 20-year Allstate customer:
"This is an incredible honor to be named the grand marshal for this year's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. I'm a huge sports fan, so to be able to wave the green flag at one of NASCAR's premier races is going to be an amazing experience."
Too bad he'll only be waving the green flag and not giving the engine command. As per tradition at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the most famous words in motorsports will be delivered by IMS Chairman of the Board Mari Hulman George. Very, very anti-climatic.
This weekend in Indianapolis, ousted Ginn Racing driver Joe Nemechek is wearing his emotions on his sleeve:
"It's just a deal where you're a little disappointed only because of the promises that were made to you at the beginning of the year ... We accomplished a lot.
"Being locked in is a big, big deal. That's tough. And all of a sudden to see all the points just disappear is pretty tough. That is something I worked hard at. I had a lot of pride in it and all of a sudden it's gone. In this business, we're finding out you never know what's going to happen."
Nemechek agrees with most that the team's failures were sponsorship-related:
"I own my own Busch team. I've owned a Cup team. I know what makes these teams go ... The one area they failed was locking down enough sponsorship dollars to do it. If any one person has to keep forking out millions of dollars, it gets old pretty quick."
Once again, Mother Nature is wreaking havoc on the NASCAR schedule.
Nextel Cup qualifying was originally scheduled for this morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Fortunately, for the drivers outside the top 35, NASCAR officials switched things up after they had to cancel the first practice last night due to rain.
They held practice early this morning and moved qualifying to 5:30PM ET giving those who need to qualify on time a shot at making the race. Based on what I don't know ... they're meteorological expertise?
Beneficiaries of NASCAR's decision are the Michael Waltrip Racing drivers, including substitute driver Terry Labonte, and the Red Rull racers, Brian Vickers and A.J. Allmendinger.
For sure the driver who benefits most from the change in schedule instead of the cancellation of qualifying is Joe Nemechek. The recently ousted Ginn driver is hoping to hold on to his position in the points standings even though he no longer has a full-time ride and despite the fact that his driver points position does him absolutely no good when it comes to qualifying.
On "NASCAR Live" there was some discussion that when they pushed back qualifying NASCAR also changed this to an impound race but by this morning they'd changed their minds about that. Again, great for the teams.
But what made NASCAR make the decision this week and not the other times that qualifying got rained out? Is it just because we're now in the race to the Chase? Or is it because the fans (and drivers) complained so much when they didn't that NASCAR finally saw the light?
INDIANAPOLIS -- It wasn't the one that got away. It was the one that was taken away.
Dave Blaney got something in Indianapolis last week he hasn't have since the beginning of the season - a guaranteed starting spot for the next race.
Two races have had quite the impact on the points picture for Jimmie Johnson.
The race to the Chase for the Nextel Cup is well under way and the points margins are narrowing as the stakes get higher with each passing race. Following each race on the the road to the Chase, the Fanhouse will take a look at the week's biggest winners and losers.
Tony Stewart fans hope that the road to the championship does indeed begin with the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.
I suppose now that the remainder of the NASCAR season will be broadcast on ESPN and ABC, the chance of seeing ABC talent at NASCAR events just increased exponentially.
This weekend in Indianapolis, ousted Ginn Racing driver Joe Nemechek is wearing his emotions on his sleeve:
