INDIANAPOLIS – Maybe, someday, racing fans will remember the 2008 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard for Jimmie Johnson's second victory in three years on racing's grandest stage.
Maybe.
Not for the foreseeable future, though.
No, yesterday will stick as a big day gone bad for stock-car racing.
“Nobody wanted to be in this position, Goodyear, NASCAR, teams, drivers, owners,” Johnson said after winning a race stopped repeatedly to keep tires from blowing.
“I'm sure it was long and boring at times, but NASCAR . . . kept us from tearing up race cars for no reason.
“We did everything we could today. We'll take our lumps, I'm sure, and come back next year and put on a better show.”
Johnson beat Carl Edwards out of the final pit stop and then held him off during a seven-lap dash to the finish.
The ending epitomized the race with its brief bursts of competition scattered among accidents, tire failures and 52 laps of puttering around under caution.
Aware of excessive wear during practice Saturday, NASCAR prepared a Plan B, having Goodyear truck in extra tires that had been scheduled for use next weekend at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania.
It also told teams it would call for at least two “competition cautions” to monitor tires. Durability never improved. The longest green-flag stretch was 12 laps.
“At the end of the race, I ran as hard as I could for seven laps,” Edwards said. “I don't know if it would have done that for nine laps.
“Early on I could run about 80 percent and it would make it 11 laps. But that's it.”
Greg Stucker, director of race tire sales for Goodyear, stopped short of calling the situation embarrassing. But he and Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition, admitted that they and teams grossly underestimated the stresses NASCAR's new car would put on right-side tires similar to those used successfully last year.
“This car is definitely different,” Stucker said. “It is challenging, but we need to understand what the challenges are and try to figure it out.”
Some of the drivers, particularly those who experienced failures, weren't as charitable.
“It was actually embarrassing, it really was,” said Matt Kenseth, whose right rear tire exploded so violently on the 47th lap that it blew out a window and tore off half a quarter-panel.
“I apologize to the fans.”
Still, there was a race, and someone had to win it.
Johnson, who started on the pole, led eight times for 71 laps and finished 0.332 of a second in front of Edwards.
“I felt like if we could have raced all day hard, I think the results would have been the same, 'cause we were really good,” said team owner Rick Hendrick, who scored his sixth victory in 15 Brickyards.
Johnson lost the lead repeatedly on pit stops by taking four tires while others gambled with two. Denny Hamlin was the only one to keep him at bay, twice in the final 22 laps.
Hamlin led into the final stop but was held up for a split-second when Reed Sorenson, pulling around into his pit, knocked Hamlin's right front tire from a crewman's hands.
Johnson beat Edwards as each broke his pattern and took two tires.
“I just called it out for the guys in the last pit stop. I said, 'Guys, we need a 5½-second right-side tire stop here,' ” said Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus. “Man, they did it, nailed it.”
Johnson pulled away on the restart as Edwards worried about Hamlin.
“I hung back a little bit and got a run from Denny, thinking I'd have several laps and be able to work Jimmie over,” Edwards said. “But I was never able to get to him.
“I thought it was ours.”
No, it was Johnson's. Whether it will be remembered for the winner or the circumstances, only history will tell.
The 2005 United States Grand Prix at Indy is still known for the Michelin teams' withdrawal that led to a short-field race for those on Firestones.
“I don't know who won that race with six cars, but the trophy is sitting at his house and he's a happy man,” Johnson said, referring to Michael Schumacher.
“This is going to be sitting at my house and I'm a happy man.”
One of only a few.
