Catchfence

The Brickyard 400 started with a wreck, ran through a stretch of overheating racecars and blown tires, settled into a period of green-flag stops, then ended in a four-tire stop that trapped Juan Montoya in aeropush, while teammate Jamie McMurray had no one to race against down the stretch to further the improbable nature of one of the most bizarre careers in modern NASCAR.

The Brickyard has become a lead-in to the Summer 500 at Pocono, and while the two tracks share similarities the differences outweigh them between Pocono’s different bankings, sharper corners, and greater track width; indeed the most striking difference is that the Brickyard at times is impassable while at Pocono the leaders periodically stack it five wide.

The winners and losers from the Brickyard are worth a look entering Pocono -

WINNERS:

JAMIE MCMURRAY – We all thought he was a plate track specialist and his season hadn’t been that stout with a lack of consistent muscle; he also didn’t finish at Pocono in June. That may be changing now after he led 72 laps at Chicago and now has the win at Indianapolis.

KEVIN HARVICK – His point lead began bleeding but a second place finish stops that for now.

RCR – All three RCR Chevrolets finished in the top ten and their ally in EGR used their engine to win.

KYLE BUSCH – He rallied from the opening lap spin to finish in the top ten.

AJ ALLMENDINGER – 16th isn’t worth celebrating, but Allmendinger was stuck a lap down for most of the race after the flurry of early-race overheating stops and was one of the few cars fighting for anything all day.

REGAN SMITH – For awhile he ran in the top twenty, commendable given the hopeless odds his team faces.

JACQUES VILLENEUVE – It isn’t much, but he made the field and didn’t embarrass himself like he so often has over the years.

LOSERS:

JUAN MONTOYA – For the second year in a row he led the most laps; for the second year in a row he got trapped in aeropush and was eliminated from contention. It was actually worse this year; in 2009 NASCAR cost him the race with a bogus speeding penalty, but this time a four-tire call wound up hurting his effort with an aeropush problem that looked worse than usual. Montoya then reverted to loose cannon form by crashing. One could sympathize with him last year; now there’s no reason to feel bad for him.

HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS – The entire organization laid a big egg between sub-par runs and a spat over Mark Martin’s future with the team.

RYAN NEWMAN – He started fifth but never contended for anything and despite winning at Phoenix is becoming less relevant to the sport.

PENSKE RACING – Kurt Busch’s decent effort couldn’t hide the irrelevance of Brad Keselowski and the embarrassment that is Sam Hornish, Jr.

JOE GIBBS RACING – This illustrates how different Indianapolis and Pocono are as racetracks – JGR has become the dominator at Pocono but at the Brickyard none of the Coach’s cars were in contention to win.

MAX PAPIS – Is this guy learning anything here?

The flat super-oval portion of the season thus continues next week.