Brickyard looms large for struggling drivers

LONG POND, Pa. -- Steve Park, Jerry Nadeau, Jeremy Mayfield, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton were among the host of NASCAR Winston Cup drivers that saw patchy seasons continue Sunday at Pocono Raceway.

From Park and Earnhardt Jr.'s huge crash on the Pennsylvania 500's opening lap to Burton's heartbreaking cut-down tire when he was in sight of a possible victory, the entire group was pretty pleased when the rain cleared long enough to complete the race, albeit 25 laps short.

Even Matt Kenseth, who's been good enough this season to win a series-leading three races, faltered despite gaining a top-10 finish and lost another spot in the point standings, to fall to 10th.

	Matt Kenseth lost another spot in the point standings after Pocono. Credit: Autostock

Now, the series goes to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday's Brickyard 400, and if there was any place more appropriate to turn a season around, it hasn't been discovered yet.

"We found something at the end of the test session," Earnhardt Jr. said. "Until then, it hadn't been a great couple of days, but suddenly we found something that made a huge difference, and the car really responded.

"So, now we have a lot of hope that we're going to be strong there this weekend. It's one of those tracks where you have to have a good setup for the flat turns. If you're not on the money with the chassis, you're not going anywhere fast."

Indy would be an ideal second oasis in a row for the Dale Earnhardt, Inc. pair of Park and Junior. On the first lap at Pocono, Rusty Wallace squeezed Park into the wall, and by the time the melee was over, Park was lucky to have only a destroyed Chevrolet while Junior was relegated to an also-ran 37th-place finish.

Last season at Indy, Park was seventh and Earnhardt Jr. was 10th, so the Brickyard would be an ideal rebound spot from what was a first-time occurrence in a Winston Cup car for Park. After he slammed the guardrail inside Turn 1, his car barrel rolled twice before doing a half-roll up onto its nose, before it flopped back on its side.

Park, trapped inside, managed to remain calm until he saw Junior's face at his window.

"I know how to react when it does go upside down," Park said. "I tried to stay calm and do everything I was supposed to do to get out of the race car. I was just disappointed that I was kind of trapped because of the way the safety devices are in the car and the window opening and stuff."

Unfortunately, it marked the 16th consecutive race in which Park has finished no better than 20th since he returned to the seat of the No. 1 Monte Carlo after returning from injuries suffered last Labor Day weekend at Darlington Raceway.

Kenseth was philosophical after his eighth-place run Sunday, which at one point seemed like it would reward him much more handsomely.

SEASON STATS • Jeff Burton • Dale Earnhardt Jr. • Matt Kenseth • Jeremy Mayfield • Steve Park

"At least we had a respectable finish out of it," he said. "We probably had a top-five car if we had the right track position, but it was the worst I've seen it as far as passing. It was hard to hit the setup on the head and it was hard to get a car to turn behind somebody and make a run and pass someone."

At Indy, another flat track like Pocono, he at least tested successfully in the last couple weeks, because he's looking at more of the same.

"Indy is a tough track for stock cars to run side-by-side on so track position is really, really important," Kenseth said. "So during the test we spent a lot of time on qualifying setups. We need to qualify up front so we can race up front."

Nadeau is another driver who has paddled around to different cars after being released by Hendrick Motorsports in May. Since an eighth-place finish at Bristol in April, he has had only one top-20 result.

He was involved in two cautions in the Tunnel Turn late in the race at Pocono that did a lot to set up Bill Elliott's victory, but did little for Nadeau.

"The wreck over there that put us out, we blew a tire, obviously," Nadeau said. "But we had no brakes all day and we struggled with that. It was just a bad deal.

"I got into Jeremy that one time getting into the Tunnel Turn (and) I hate it I did. I thought I was underneath him, but I couldn't stop. He was a lap down and I wasn't sure why he was racing me so hard, but I thought he saw me and I couldn't stop and obviously I got into the back of him and he got loose."

"That's two weeks in a row he has got me," Mayfield said. "We were already loose and struggling -- I would have let him go (but) it tore a race car up.

"It was my fault. I was loose going in there, but that's two weeks in a row he could have give me a little bit of a break. I'll bet he does next time."

Mayfield was another who was looking forward to Indy.

"I've done well there before," he said. "I really like that track. There's so much history there. It's a big race for everyone. We went out and tested there with Bill (Elliott) and Casey (Atwood, Evernham Motorsports teammates). As a team, we've all got some good information for this weekend.

"You know, we've gotten taken out the past couple of weeks, but we're headed in the right direction. We've just got to keep after it."

Nadeau summed up another rough Winston Cup weekend, saying, "Overall, it would have been a pretty good day, but oh, well."