South Bend, Indiana native Ryan Newman wins the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“Magic Weekend,” exclaimed Newman seconds after winning the race and winning the pole spot the day before.
Today was in essence was a repeat of yesterday’s pole completion. Jimmie Johnson ran the top speed early in qualifying and held it to the last qualifier, Ryan Newman, who then had the fastest lap of the day capturing the race pole.
Today, Newman took the early lead of the Brickyard but surrendered it to Johnson after the first set of pit stops. Johnson then dominated large portions of the race. But Newman beat Johnson on the last round of pit stops to get the advantage needed to win the race.
Johnson went in on a green stop pit stop but his team had trouble with the right rear tire exchange causing them to take a 17 second pit stop. When Newman came in shortly afterwards, his crew chief, Matt Borland, realizing the Johnson’s team issues, made the decision to replace only two tires thus gaining valuable time and thus track position.
“There’s definitely disappointment there. But that’s racing – it happens,” said Johnson. “We win as a team, we lose as a team, but I wouldn’t take any other team.”
Kasey Kahne finished third, the fifth top-10 result in his Brickyard career. His best finish is second in 2005.
“We kept falling back too far,” said Kahne. “It takes awhile to get back to the front. Congrats to Ryan. He had a big weekend. He deserved it.”
For Newman it was his 17th victory in 424 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. This is his first victory and ninth top-10 finish in 2013. Chevrolet has now won 11 consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“This is a dream come true for me,” said Newman “I can’t wait to push my lips on those bricks. I don’t realize it yet. It’s a dream come true. It’ll take a week or so for this to set in.”
But more importantly this win will be a resume builder for Newman who found out recently that his contract with Stewart Hass Racing team would not be renewed for next year and that he would have to find a new team for 2014.
“Obviously, it helps [Brickyard win],” Newman said. “The emotions have been an absolute roller coaster — no doubt. I got fired a couple of weeks ago and come back here and win the pole and win the race, and it’s all because of hard effort. These guys (his team) are behind me, and I’m behind them.”
Newman and car owner Tony Stewart have stated that they will be still be friends and that was evident by the surprise from the back bear hug Stewart gave Newman in winner circle.
“He did a great job all weekend,” said Stewart. “It was between him and the 48. That was clear to see. I didn’t know what strategy was going to be at the end. I just kept watching the Jumbotrons coming off (Turn) 4 to see where he was at.”
Stewart finished in 4th place.
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Post Race Notes:
Lights at Indianapolis Motor Speedway?
The talk around the race track all weekend was the future improvements panned at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the impact to the NASCAR race. Although it is has not been officially announced, the historic race track will have lights installed. And the rumor is the Brickyard race date could change to a Saturday night, the first race of the Sprint Cup Chase.
In April, the state legislature approved creation of a special taxation district that would raise enough funds to provide the speedway with a $100 million loan, $20 million of which would be used for a lighting system, and the rest for other improvements such as new video boards. Gov. Mike Pence signed the bill in May.
The Lack of Passing at the Brickyard
This was the twenty running of the Brickyard 400. There has been some criticism in the past that the race is not as exciting due to the limited amount of passing. Tony Stewart hit on this criticism straight on in this post race press conference.
“Look up ‘racing’ in the dictionary and tell me what it says in the dictionary, then look up ‘passing’. We’re racing here. That’s all I’m going to say. This is racing.
If you want to see passing, we can go out on 465 and pass all you want. If you can tell me that’s more exciting than what you see at IMS, the great racecar drivers that have competed here. This is about racing. This is about cars being fast. It doesn’t have to be two- and three-wide racing all day long to be good racing.
Racing is about figuring out how to take the package you’re allowed and make it better than what everybody else has and do a better job with it.
I’ve seen races that were won over a lap, I’ve seen 20-second leads here. For some reason in the last 10 years, everybody is on this kick that you have to be passing all the time. It’s racing, not passing. We’re racing.
It’s taking machines that are pretty even package-wise and let the drivers and teams figure out how to make the difference. I don’t understand where this big kick has come from. We need your guys’ help as much as anybody to remind people this is racing. When somebody does a good job, does a great job, everybody hates that. I don’t understand that. It baffles me as a racecar driver.”