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CUP: This Year, No Rickyard
Despite a past string of Brickyard 400 victories, Hendricks Motorsports struggled in the 17th running of NASCAR’s key Indianapolis event.
Tom Jensen  |  Posted July 26, 2010   Indianapolis, IN
Previous 400 winner Jeff Gordon managed to reach the top 10 before an apparent splitter problem and tire trouble sent him home. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
For a team with seven victories (including four of the past six) in the difficult environment of the Brickyard 400, Hendrick Motorsports looked very, very average in Sunday’s 17th running of the race.

For a change, it was the Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing Chevrolets that dominated the NASCAR show and the finish, while the Hendrick cars, particularly those of former 400 winners Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, had tough days.

The finish order wasn’t a pleasant one for Hendrick. Mark Martin, the top Hendrick driver (and the only one to lead more than one lap, with 10), finished 11th but wasn’t a serious threat for the win.

Johnson and Gordon finished back-to-back, normally a good thing. On this day, however, Johnson was 22nd and Gordon 23rd, both barely on the lead lap.

And Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was hit by Juan Pablo Montoya after Montoya, who led much of the race, slammed the wall in turn four in the closing laps and bounced across the track into Earnhardt’s path.

Earnhardt finished the race but was two laps down in 27th.

Decidedly, on Sunday, the Brickyard was not the Rickyard.

Johnson, winner of the past two 400s and seeking to become the first driver to win three straight, never had a shot at the trophy. He wrestled with handling problems and lost a lap in the pits with 40 to go as his team changed shocks.

“I had high expectations for today, so, at this point, I’m a little confused,” Johnson said.

“We just had a really bad understeer problem on corner entry and to the center that we couldn’t get out of it. We made some attempts during caution flags and made some big changes on pit road, but nothing really woke the car up. So we’ll have to dig in and find out what happened.

“I’m disappointed with today, but this track has been real good to us over the last four years. We’ve had three wins. Now we’ll move on and be smarter and refine our package more for the future.”

Gordon also had a bad day. His car struggled to reach the top 10, finally had an apparent splitter problem that caused tire trouble in turn one and limped home.

“We were just kind of doing our best, and, all of a sudden, I felt a big vibration,” Gordon said. “I thought I had a loose wheel, but then they said the splitter was vibrating and then I don’t know. It must have broken off and cut the right-side tires. I just went along for the ride.

“To be honest with you, finishing 23rd for what we went through today wasn’t that bad.”

Earnhardt Jr. never cracked the top 10, but he had moved up to 13th with 14 laps to go. Then Montoya bounced off the wall and into him, sending the No. 88 to the pits with damage.

“I just didn’t really have much I could do,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “We had a great, great car. We were making it better. We were good at the start of the race – running with the best cars on the track. Then we got tight … in the middle of the race.

“This is a bitch, but what are you going to do? I can’t help what happens to me out there. I didn’t do it to myself this time, and my crew was good and we made some good adjustments on the car and we actually made it better. We’re still missing a little bit, but we’re getting better.

“We’re learning, but if we keep having this kind of luck, we’re not going to make the Chase, and that’s just something we’ll have to live with. But we’ll keep working to try to make it.”

Times will be better for the Hendrick Motorsports group at Indy next year, Gordon said.

“As a group, we’ll go back and review everything and try to see what we’re missing, and we’ll pay attention to the competition,” he said. “This is a unique place. We all want to win here.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

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