NASCAR and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway have a marriage made of championships. In the 17 Brickyard 400s at the famed 2.5-mile oval, 14 have been won by past or future Sprint Cup champions.
Defending Brickyard winner Jamie McMurray is one of three drivers who have not also won the season championship, but he feels lucky to have captured one end of the spectrum and looks forward to keep chasing the second.
“Winning there last year was really cool, (and) I look forward to going back,” McMurray said in this week’s national teleconference. “We had an off weekend, so I think everybody is recharged and ready to go.”
Like the Daytona 500 or IndyCar’s Indianapolis 500, NASCAR gives its competitors time to prepare for the Brickyard 400. The buildup usually leads to a great race.
“If you’re an open-wheel guy, I think that Indy is the most important race for you,” McMurray said. “I think if you’re a NASCAR guy, there’s just nothing like the Daytona 500. It’s because you spend two weeks there really leading up to it. You run the Shootout, the 150(-mile) qualifiers. There’s so much buildup around that race. That’s huge. (But) even for NASCAR guys, Indy has had so much history. The teams just put so much importance on that race with engines, new cars, everything that goes into Indy.”
A year ago, McMurray became just the third driver to win the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 in the same year, following Dale Jarrett (1996) and Jimmie Johnson (2006).
“Other than Daytona, it’s where everybody wants to win,” McMurray said of Indy. “Both of them are really cool, but it’s different, one of them being a plate track and one of them being more of an intermediate-type track. Both of them are still really cool to win.”
Smith said.
Regan Smith was running inside the top 15 a year ago at the Brickyard 400 when smoke began to fill the cockpit of his Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet at the midpoint of the race. He had snapped a rear-end gear and was forced to make several unscheduled pit stops, and then a more time-consuming stint in the garage. He finished 33rd.
“I was bummed after last year’s race because this is Indy, one of our biggest races, and to see a strong performance go south that quickly was very discouraging,” Smith said in a release.
The Denver-based team will introduce a new No. 78 Chevy for Smith this weekend.
“I don’t like to predict, because there are too many variables in this sport,” Furniture Row crew chief Pete Rondeau said. “What I do know is that we’ll be prepared for this weekend, and minus an unforeseen issue, the Furniture Row Chevrolet should have a good day on Sunday.”
Footnote.
The Brickyard 400 winner has gone on to win the Sprint Cup championships eight times. They are: Jimmie Johnson (2006, 2008, 2009), Tony Stewart (2005), Jeff Gordon (1998, 2001), Bobby Labonte (2000) and Dale Jarrett (1999).
