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"But it's a very hard race to win, as any race is in Winston Cup because there's so many good people out there.
"You have to have things go right and today, they didn't."
"It just wasn't one of our days," a frustrated Zipadelli said. "I could write a book on the five years that I've been racing here. It seems like we can put good cars together and we can do everything, and cautions go when we don't need 'em."
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| Stewart, an Indiana native, saw his record at the Brickyard drop to 0-for-5. Credit: Autostock |
Stewart, his facial expressions hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses, jumped out of his car, quickly changed in his hauler, jumped on a golf cart and was driven away without talking to the media.
The Indiana native, gunning for his first victory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, led three times for 60 laps, and even when he wasn't at the front, he wasn't wasting any time getting there.
Starting 15th, Stewart was in fifth after 10 laps and passed Bill Elliott for the lead by lap 26, building an advantage of more than five seconds before pitting under green.
By lap 51, Stewart had recaptured the point, steadily pulling away from Ryan Newman until the lead had grown to more than 10 seconds.
 | VIDEO CLIPS | | | |  | A seven-car accident bunches the field with 16 laps to go
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|  | Kevin Harvick pulls away in the final laps
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| |  | Hear from the top finishers at Indianapolis
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Even with Jamie McMurray cutting the lead to 4.4 seconds with under 60 laps to go, Stewart seemed to be in cruise control. But a slow pit stop under caution on lap 106 left Stewart seventh on the restart.
It was an omen of bad things to come.
"Just had a bad pit stop and pretty much got us behind," Zipadelli said. "We work all day to build an eight-second, 10-second lead for nothing, basically. It's disappointing.
"That was a turning point for us for some reason. You get frustrated and go backwards."
Stewart fought his way back to third, then pitted for two right-side tires and fuel under green on lap 131. That was expected to be Stewart's last trip down pit road, but the car, which had been so good earlier, turned evil.
"The car was too tight," Zipadelli said. "Tony and I were talking. He felt like if we got the car better then he would be able to pass some cars.
"It's a chess match. You stay out and take the track position and clean air, or you come in and try to make your car better.
So after a seven-car accident on lap 145, Stewart came in for two left-side tires and returned to track in 10th. He wound up 12th, never able to recapture the magic.
"We had that caution and it ate up a bunch of laps," Zipadelli said. "We needed a couple of laps to get going to be good and let everybody get spread out. It just didn't work out that way."
For Gibbs, losing in the big game is never easy, but it happens.
"We've been good here several times and things just haven't worked out for us," Gibbs said. "It's a hard place to win a race. You can get caught up in gas mileage and caught up in the back, which is what happened to us in the end.
"Today wasn't our day."
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