NASCAR Brickyard 400: Paul Menard Outlasts Jeff Gordon For First Sprint Cup Win

Pit road was a busy place Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and perhaps no one experienced more struggles than Tony Stewart. Although he was in position to stretch his fuel at the end, Stewart’s day suffered a number of setbacks on pit road, making his pursuit of a third Brickyard 400 win much more trying.

The first incident came early in the race on Lap 25 when the field began to peel onto pit road for the first round of green flag stops. As he followed Kevin Harvick in for service, the No. 29 car slowed and forced Stewart to jump to the outside. In doing so, the two made contact and the No. 14 hit the commitment cone and was issued a pass-through penalty by NASCAR.

Paul Menard’s victory in the Brickyard 400 on Sunday was extremely well-received in the NASCAR garage, as several competitors went way out of their way to praise Menard’s character and express their happiness to see the Richard Childress Racing driver in Victory Circle.

“Paul’s been around this place for a long time – he’s been here since he was a kid,” Tony Stewart said. “It couldn’t have happened to a better guy; that is a pretty deserving win right there. I’m happy for him getting his first one that way.”

When you have four Brickyard 400 victories under your belt, you obviously know how to get the job done. And in the closing laps of Sunday’s race, it appeared veteran driver Jeff Gordon was going to score his fifth all-time victory at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Coming up perhaps just one lap shy of overtaking eventual race winner Paul Menard, Gordon at least fulfilled one of two goals – making a solid championship statement.

Paul Menard’s dramatic fuel mileage win in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis did more than give the Richard Childress Racing driver his first career victory – it thrust him into a Chase wild card spot.

Gaining five spots in the standings, Menard is now in 14th – 55 points behind 10th-place Dale Earnhardt Jr., but with an all-important victory in the win column. He joins Denny Hamlin as the two current wild card contenders.

NASCAR said Brickyard 400 attendance declined by only 2,000 this year, which would beat most expectations and be a major victory for Indianapolis Motor Speedway if accurate.

Because the attendance number – NASCAR said there were 138,000 people at Sunday’s race – is just an estimate and not an official number, it’s impossible to say for sure. But there were several sections in the turns that were completely empty and weren’t sold at all.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t have much of a reaction to his 16th-place finish at the Brickyard 400 on Sunday. Why? Because he didn’t know what he or his team could have done to get a different result.

“We played it out, and that was the result we got,” he said. “I don’t know – if I was to be angry about it – what to be angry about.”

Paul Menard shocked the racing world at Sunday afternoon’s Brickyard 400 by saving enough fuel to hold off a hard-charging Jeff Gordon and score his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory in one of the sport’s biggest races of the year.

The majority of Sunday’s race was typical Indianapolis Motor Speedway racing, with the field getting strung out during long, green-flag runs. Yet as the closing laps approached, a late caution put many teams in a position to gamble on fuel.

Brickyard 400 race day is finally here, and we’re live at historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway for all the action.

Though the Brickyard race typically isn’t one of the more exciting showcases of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing, it’s still NASCAR’s second-biggest race. With more than 100 years of racing history at IMS, every NASCAR driver wants to drive to Indy’s Victory Circle and kiss the bricks.

Jamie McMurray said he’s already “looking at next year” and trying to develop setups that will get his team back to the level of competitiveness it enjoyed in 2010.

“I haven’t really written this season off, but for the most part, I have,” the defending Brickyard 400 winner said Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “...You’re already building on what you have for next year. There’s a lot of racing left and I still think we’ll have the opportunity to win a race, we just have to hit on the right stuff.”

Just like a UPS delivery man, David Ragan apparently has a good sense of timing.

On a Brickyard 400 weekend in which Ragan is running a special throwback paint scheme to honor NASCAR Hall of Famer Ned Jarrett, Ragan claimed the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a speed of 182.994 mph.

The cold front that brought showers and storms Friday afternoon and evening will be into southern Indiana and Kentucky by Saturday afternoon. There could be a few lingering showers or storms but most of that activity should stay south of Indianapolis and be out by midday.

Despite being a “Cold Front” there won’t be much relief from the heat or steam of summer in central Indiana. The best news I have is the remaining race schedule for Nationwide and Sprint Cup looks to remain dry.

With just three tweets and 11 follows, Matt Kenseth has gained himself close to 3,300 followers on his first day in the Twittersphere.

His first tweet was retweeted over 30 times.

Greg Biffle has been teammates with Carl Edwards ever since the latter driver came into NASCAR with Roush Fenway Racing.

But Biffle sounded frustrated on Friday when he was asked about Edwards’ still murky future. Edwards, a free agent after this season, has yet to decide whether he will stay at Roush Fenway Racing or leave for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Jimmie Johnson has received apologies before from Juan Pablo Montoya, but he’s tired of hearing them and the excuses behind them.

As for an apology after the two drivers had another incident? Johnson is still waiting.

When Dale Earnhardt Jr. rolled into Michigan International Speedway six weeks ago, he was third in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings and only seven points away from taking over the lead.

Earnhardt Jr., his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team and Junior Nation were all feeling positive and enjoying what had been the most consistent season of Earnhardt Jr.‘s career to that point.

This was supposed to be a grand weekend for Travis Pastrana, ESPN and NASCAR. The action sports star was to pull off his long-planned “Pastranathon,” going back and forth from the X Games in Los Angeles to Indianapolis for his highly anticipated NASCAR Nationwide Series debut.

Instead, this weekend has turned into one of incredible disappointment.

NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 weekend has arrived, and we’re live at Indianapolis Motor Speedway – as well as Lucas Oil Raceway – for all the activities.

It’s a big weekend in Indianapolis. Not only is the Brickyard 400 the second-biggest race of the season – trailing only the Daytona 500 in prestige – but Travis Pastrana is making his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut on Saturday night.