McMurray wins Brickyard 400
RECORD DAY FOR GANASSI AS MCMURRAY WINS BRICKYARD 400 AT INDY, by Charles Rouse
INDIANAPOLIS – Jamie McMurray of Joplin, Mo., led for only 16 laps the entire race, but those laps came when it counted the most, at the end, as McMurray’s No. 1 Pro Bass Shops Chevrolet took the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Brickyard 400 Sunday at historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was McMurray’s second victory of the season and his fifth Sprint Cup win in 278 career races. He has seven top-10 finishes to his credit in the 20 Sprint Cup races so far this season.
McMurray became only the third driver to win both the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 the same year. His boss, Chip Ganassi, co-owner of Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing, did his driver on better on this day, however. With McMurray’s come-from-behind-win on Sunday, Ganassi is now the only owner to win the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard race at the Indy track all in the same year.
All of the local NASCAR drivers from the Kansas City area fared well in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 race. Aside from perhaps an understandably ecstatic Ganassi, no one was happier for McMurray’s win than his friend and fellow NASCAR driver from the Show-Me state of Missouri than Carl Edwards, who hails from Columbia. Edwards, who drives for Roush-Fenway Racing, had reason to be happy for his performance in Sunday’s race as well, finishing seventh in the No. 99 Aflac Ford for his ninth top-ten run of the season in the Sprint Cup Series.
The 30-year-old Edwards drew his second probationary period of the season from NASCAR last week for aggressive driving. Edwards bumped Brad Keselowski’s car on the final lap of the Nationwide Series race last weekend at Gateway International Speedway in Illinois, sending Keselowski’s into a sideway slide into the track retaining wall. At the time, Keselowski was was leading the race, which Edwards went on to win. This is not the first time that Edwards and Keselowski have been involved in similar track incidents.
Edwards was docked 60 Nationwide Series driver points, almost a third of what he gained by winning the race, and was fined $25,000. Both drivers were place on probation, effective until Dec. 31. “I feel that NASCAR’s penalty is fair,” Edwards said on Friday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in response to the ruling. “The part I’m real happy with (on what NASCAR did) is, I can accept my penalty, but I’m happy that NASCAR recognized that Brad needed to be penalized too,” he added.
Edwards had an excellent run Saturday night, as well, coming in second to Kyle Busch in the Nationwide Kroger 200 at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis. Kansan Clint Bowyer, from Emporia, made it a threesome for the local drivers finishing in the top ten at the Brickyard 400. The Richard Childress Racing driver came in fourth in his No. 33 Wheaties Fuel Chevrolet behind second-place Kevin Harvick, the Sprint Cup Series point leader, and Edwards’ Roush-Fenway teammate Greg Biffle. It was Bowyer’s third top-five finish of the season and his 11th time among the top ten.
The race Sunday got off to a rough start. Kyle Busch and Sam Hornish Jr. collided on the opening lap, causing significant body damage to Busch’s car and involving seven other cars. When the cars from the Busch-Hornish collision slid into the infield area at Indy Motor Speedway, the debris that kicked up apparently got caught in the grills of several cars, including the No. 99 car of Carl Edwards, causing them to overheat. Although he began the race on the 10th row in 19th position on the starting grid, Edwards experienced trouble with his car in the opening part of the race and dropped back to 33rd place.
The dominant car throughout most of the race was the No. 42 Target Chevrolet driven by Juan Pablo Montoya. Montoya led for 86 of the 160 laps around the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Speedway. He gave up the lead, though, with 23 laps remaining when a caution flag came out for debris on the track. Most of the car field pitted, including Montoya, while pit row remained open during the caution. Montoya’s Earnhardt-Ganassi crew replaced all four tires. The first seven cars off of pit road, however, led by Montoya’s teammate McMurray, took only two tires.
By the time Montoya made it off pit road, the race pole sitter found himself back in seventh place. In an aggressive attempt to get back to the front, Montoya lost control and ended up crashing his car into the wall with 15 laps to go. The late-race accident ended his day and dropped him all the way back to 32nd in the final results. “When Juan was leading and I was in second, I thought this was just the way it was meant to be,” an all-smiles McMurray said in Victory Lane in Indianapolis on Sunday. “I won the (Daytona) 500, Dario (Franchitti) won the Indy 500, and Juan is going to win this race. I really thought it was his day.
“Just shows you to never give up, and just drive your heart out on every lap,” said McMurray. Montoya led this same race for 116 laps a year ago, but a late speeding penalty on pit row cost him the victory. As far as Edwards and Bowyer are concerned, there was no change in their positions in the driver standings after 20 Sprint Cup races. With six races left before the Chase for the Sprint Cup kicks in, Edwards remained 10th and Bowyer in the 12th and final qualifying position for the 10-race Chase series.
McMurray’s Brickyard 400 victory gained him two positions in the points standings to 16th, but still on the outside looking in insofar as qualifying for the championship series. Next weekend, the Sprint Cup Series moves to Pocono Raceway for the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500.
Charles (Chip) F. Rouse III, the Kansas City Sports Examiner, has spent over 40 years working in and with the news media. Rouse, a journalist by training and a graduate of the University of Kansas, has served in the role of newspaper reporter; in addition to radio and television. To view Chip’s sports articles, including this one, on Examiner.com, please click here. He welcomes your comments at crouse@massappealnews.com.