Day's story at Indy has ups and downs in points race

INDIANAPOLIS -- Every event in the run to the cutoff for the Chase for the Sprint Cup is critical and, on Sunday, when a stunning miscalculation on the tire combination for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard affected everything about the competition at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, tires only affected one of the most radical point swings.

Maybe that was the case. Denny Hamlin, who came into the day 12th in the Chase standings, had his race affected by the tire situation and its accompanying odd strategic decisions; yet Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing crew chief Mike Ford played the game well enough to finish third and advance four spots in the standings (read more).

Cup Standings

Race to the Chase

Pos.	Driver	Behind 12th
13.	Kevin Harvick	-2
14.	David Ragan	-56
15.	Brian Vickers	-132
16.	Ryan Newman	-144
17.	Martin Truex Jr.	-216
18.	Kurt Busch	-281

• Complete Standings

While acknowledging that, Hamlin was still disappointed not to win.

"When we saw the 17 [Matt Kenseth] had issues, the 83 [Brian Vickers] blew up, we knew we needed a top-10 day," Hamlin said. "We knew that, at the beginning of the day. This race only comes around once a year [and] it's prestigious -- so you hate to let a win slip away. In the back of your mind, you have to be happy knowing you had a good points day [and] that's where we are."

But that's the chase for the top spots in the standings. With six events remaining before the Chase cutoff at Richmond International Raceway's Chevy Rock & Roll 400, Kevin Harvick fell four positions in the standings and out of the top-12 spots that guarantee a place in the Chase.

But rather than experiencing tire trouble, Harvick's No. 29 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet was caught in a spin by Kurt Busch's No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge (watch video), which resulted in a 37th-place finish for Harvick and 40th for Busch, the inaugural 2004 Chase winner who's also struggling to get back to 12th.

Kenseth had a catastrophic right-rear tire failure on his No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford (watch video), making him the Chase contender most directly affected by tires, and while his crew also made a good recovery to get Kenseth to the finish in 38th, he dropped three spots in the standings and currently sits 11th, only four points clear of 12th-place Clint Bowyer, who missed an opportunity to gain more ground Sunday when his No. 07 RCR Chevrolet finished 19th.

Just how critical each race is, is borne out by Harvick's 13th position being only two points behind Bowyer, which gives Harvick a positive vibe for this weekend's Pocono race.

"Our Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet was going to be really good [Sunday so] my guys did a great job getting me back out on the racetrack after the accident so early in the race -- they've done a great job the last couple of months," Harvick said. "We'll just go on to Pocono and try and get the best finish we can and get ourselves back in the top 12 in points. Hopefully, we will be good and I think we will be fine for the Chase."

David Ragan, who's made the most of his second season in Cup, took full advantage of the circumstances by driving his No. 6 Roush Fenway Ford into 14th at the finish, which enabled him to cut his gap to 12th in the standings virtually in half, from 98 points behind coming into the day to 56 behind Bowyer coming out.

"That was the weirdest race I've ever been in," Ragan said of taking advantage of his veteran crew chief Jimmy Fennig's expertise. "To conserve tires and think about stopping that often and it was just kind of a different strategy than we've ever been a part of and we learned from it."

Tire wear-y

NASCAR and Goodyear begins the task to make sure what happened at the Brickyard on Sunday never happens again.

• Complete story, click here
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Vickers was another big loser, who lost a position in the standings, but more importantly went from 95 points behind 12th coming into the day to 132 points behind going out after the engine in his No. 83 Red Bull Racing Toyota failed, relegating him to 42nd in the rundown.

"We never can afford to take a points hit -- it's a tough day out there," Vickers said when he got to the garage. "We dropped a cylinder. They tried to take the parts out so we could continue to run, but it didn't last."

In addition to Busch, who also missed a golden opportunity to gain and might have suffered a critical blow when he went from 245 points behind 12th coming into the day to 281 out leaving Indy, Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr. also missed golden opportunities to make bigger gains in the standings.

Newman's third-place starting position in Penske Racing's No. 12 Dodge ended in a 13th-place finish that only enabled him to gain 18 points in the standings, currently 144 out of 12th.

Truex, whose Chase hopes were severely impaired by a 150-point penalty incurred after his No. 1 Dale Earnhardt Inc. Chevrolet failed to pass opening inspection at Daytona earlier this month, spent time in the top 10 on Sunday, but ended up finishing 24th, which gained him 17 points in the standings, leaving him 216 out of 12th.

"We had the same issues most of the other guys had," said Truex, who added that the situation was probably the most frustrating he'd ever experienced in racing. "The right-side tires would wear out after about 10 laps. There were times out there when you were just hanging on, hoping your right-rear tire wouldn't blow. It's frustrating when you can only go 10 laps and have to start worrying about the tires."

Truex also was working again with crew chief Mike Greci, who he formerly worked with in the NASCAR Touring Division, as Greci replaces regular crew chief Bono Manion for his six-race suspension that came with the Daytona penalty.

"Mike did a really good job this weekend," Truex said, "and all the guys worked hard and we had the car pretty good during the race. I wish we could have gotten a better finish, but it's just tough when you're racing for only 10 or 12 laps at a time [so] we'll just have to put this behind us and get ready for Pocono."

Teams are pursuing getting into the top 35 in the owner standings just as vigorously and Scott Riggs' achievement Sunday in Haas CNC Racing's No. 66 Chevrolet was almost lost in the tire hubbub and the Race to the Chase.

Riggs' 25th-place finish was only so-so, but combined with Michael McDowell's 34th-place run in Michael Waltrip Racing's No. 00 Toyota and Riggs' team jumped over McDowell's in the owner standings and thus will be in 35th, and locked into the field for next weekend's Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway.

Haas CNC is feverishly trying to get its 66 into the top 35 and keep it there, so when former two-time champion Tony Stewart moves to the two-car team in 2009 as an owner-driver, he could wheel the non-top-35 car using a past champion's provisional -- if that program is in place -- to guarantee his place in the lineup while his teammate would drive the guaranteed car.

McDowell, the Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate who has maintained a position in the top 35 since his season started in the sixth race of the year, goes to Pocono 14 points out of the top 35, but more critically needing to qualify for the race on his speed.

In June, McDowell qualified 39th for the Pocono 500 and he would have made the field, barely, if he was a "go-or-go-home" car.

Also:
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