Photo by ASP, Inc.

by Matt Taliaferro

There are 16 races left in the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, and already it is being remembered as the “Year of the Upset.” And Paul Menard solidified that designation in the Brickyard 400 at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday.

Menard, winless in 166 career Cup starts and a longshot in his No. 27 Richard Childress Racing Chevy, conserved enough fuel over the final 35 laps and held off a hard-charging Jeff Gordon to earn the unlikely win at the Brickyard.

In the process, he joined Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne, Southern 500 winner Regan Smith and Coke Zero 400 winner David Ragan as first-time winners on the circuit this year. Three of those — Bayne, Smith and now Menard — not only hit paydirt for the first time, but did so in crown jewel events, marking a first in the Cup Series.

“I knew that we saved plenty of fuel, but I was more worried about the guys that pitted for fuel and were coming hard,” Menard said. “Slugger (Labbe, crew chief) told me where Jeff (Gordon) was and he how fast he was coming. They set me loose with three laps to go, and the car was really good.”

Gordon, who led 36 laps and had one of the best cars on the grid, finished second. Smith, 2010 Brickyard 400 winner Jamie McMurray and Matt Kenseth rounded up the top 5.

“As disappointing as it is not win this race, it sure was great to run that good,” Gordon said. “And I gotta congratulate Paul Menard. I don’t think there’s anybody in this garage area that appreciates a win here at the Brickyard more than Paul. He grew up here as a kid and I think that’s pretty cool.”

Ah yes, the back story on Menard and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Menard’s father, John, owns the Menards chain of home improvement stores throughout the Midwest. As a long-time supporter of automobile racing in the United States, he has sponsored numerous Indianapolis 500 entries going back to 1982 — including three cars manned by Tony Stewart (1996-98), as well as son Paul’s ride since his debut in NASCAR in 2003.

Needless to say, with the family’s history and affinity for Indianapolis, there could not have been a better track for 30-year-old Paul — having run full-time on the Cup circuit since 2007 — to get his first win.

“My first year here was in 1989 — that I can remember, anyway,” Menard said. “Just spent a lot of time in the garage area. I didn’t miss an Indy 500 from ’89 to 2003; I was here for the inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994 — it’s just a really special place for my family and myself.”

No win at Indy comes easy, and this race was no exception. An otherwise staid race was thrown for a loop when Landon Cassill went for a spin with 41 laps to go. The top seven cars, led by Brad Keselowski, remained on track under the caution period, choosing track position over fuel and fresh tires. Menard, along with McMurray and Smith, among others, topped off their fuel cells just before the race went back to green with 34 laps remaining. Menard restarted 16th.

Once back to green, the majority of the field that had not pitted under caution made stops, as it cycled into a fuel window that would carry them to the end, handing the lead to Menard with 15 lap to go, although he was quickly passed by McMurray. Gordon, who pitted with 26 laps to go, found himself charging threw the field as the laps wound down, but was still 12 seconds out of the lead with only 12 laps to make something happen.

As the top-10 cars conserved fuel by running noticeably slower laps, Gordon surged, picking off positions as the race came to its conclusion. Menard was told to go full throttle with three laps remaining, as Labbe’s calculations showed the No. 27 machine had enough fuel. When the word came to the driver to punch it, he flew by McMurray and, although Gordon was able to work his way back to second just after Menard took the lead, the gap was too great for the four-time Brickyard winner, and Menard won the race to the checkered flag by .725 seconds.

“Every time I got to a car that was saving fuel it kind of held me up,” Gordon said. “I knew that we weren’t going to get to Paul, it was really about him running out of fuel.”

As for the race-winner, Menard not only enjoyed his most memorable day in NASCAR, but moved into a wild-card spot in the Chase for the Championship standings. NASCAR’s new Chase qualification rule states that positions 11 and 12 be awarded to the drivers with the most wins ranked 11th-20th. Menard and Denny Hamlin currently occupy the spots with six races until the playoffs begin.

“I think we're 14th (in points) now (and) with the wild card,” Menard said of the upcoming Chase. “We got five or six races left. We got a lot of work to do. We have Richmond and New Hampshire — those are two of our worst tracks, honestly. We have a lot of work to do.”

Photo by ASP, Inc.

by Matt Taliaferro

The announcement in 1993 set the world of motorsports on its ear. And the inaugural race in 1994 captured the attention of millions. The fendered stock cars of NASCAR — at the time the “next big thing” on the North American sporting landscape — were racing at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

With its roots cemented in the early years of the 20th century, Indianapolis, with its Gasoline Alley and still-surviving yard of bricks at the start/finish line, has long been a bastion of open-wheel racing; easily the most notable speedway in the world.

So when then-NASCAR CEO Bill France Jr. and former IMS president Tony George revealed to the world that NASCAR would occupy an annual date at the Brickyard, expectations and enthusiasm soared. And when Jeff Gordon, then a NASCAR newcomer, and racing legend Dale Earnhardt scored the first two wins at the speedway, the capacity crowds — thought to be in the neighborhood of 300,000, although IMS does not release attendance figures — felt it had witnessed history. It had seen something. And in all fairness, it had.

However, 18 years later, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and NASCAR find themselves at a crossroads. Gone are the bulging crowds, although NASCAR’s attendance figures — while typically inflated — estimated a gathering of 140,000 last season, still a nice pull. That number is nearly half of the estimate from just a few seasons prior, though.

So what happened to the perfect pairing of America’s most historical speedway and most popular racing series? Where is the hype and “can’t miss” nature of one of NASCAR’s crown jewel events?

The simple answer is that there is no simple answer, but a number of factors that have witnessed a decline in interest, attendance and ratings of the Brickyard 400.

The most obvious observation is that stock car racing at Indy — even back in its mid-’90s heyday — isn’t that exciting. Open-wheel IndyCar rockets jet around the flat 2.5-mile speedway in excess of 225 miles per hour, thanks to an abundance of front downforce that keeps the cars glued to the track. Stock cars, in turn, are incapable of producing such aero-dependent handling capabilities.

The result is 400 miles of drawn-out, largely single-file racing — hardly your steamy Saturday night in Bristol or crisp autumn afternoon at Talladega.

The 2008 Brickyard 400, a race that can only be described as a monumental debacle — when Goodyear tires turned to dust instead of wearing into the track evenly — didn’t do the event any favors, either. Whether this remains a reason why fans stay away, it marked the point when attendance — already in a noticeable slide — hit a point of no return.

And then there are the fans themselves, many saving pennies in a recession that seems will never end. If a family is to attend only one race per season, it needs to get its money’s worth. And again, NASCAR’s short tracks and plate venues offer the most bang for the ever-precious buck.

Sightlines at Indianapolis do not help the cause, either. NASCAR patrons are used to seeing nearly all of a race track, and at Indy, the famed pagoda and infield granstands make that impossible. Sitting on the living room couch watching a hi-def television allows for the storylines and any on-track excitement to play out via the 76 cameras employed by ESPN in unencumbered fashion.

Still, to drivers and teams alike, winning at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a career-defining achievement.

“Being at the Brickyard with NASCAR is an unbelievable experience,” veteran driver Jeff Burton says. “The things that are in front of me (in my career) that really mean a lot are winning a championship, winning a Daytona 500 and certainly the Brickyard is on that list as well.”

Of course, there are those outside of the competitors who can appreciate NASCAR's visits. The Brickyard is a demanding race, an event where driver and team must bring their A-game. The length, strategy and finesse involved often make the race an enjoyable mental exercise for the more informed viewers.

But again, that angle often presents itself just as well (if not better) from the comfort of the living room. Lost there is the “experience” of the day — the sights and smells of a NASCAR race and overall aura of the Birckyard itself. However, toss in any number of online resources for the at-home fan and suddenly, those on the couch are more plugged in to what's really playing out.

NASCAR and the speedway hope to make “being there” just as important to the fans once agin, though. The largest driver autograph session of the season has been organized at IMS on the day before the race. The catch? Only ticket holders for the 400 can attend. And next year, the Nationwide Series and the France family-owned GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series will compete at Indy on the same weekend as the Cup race.

Whether bringing in more stock car races is a good thing for the mystique of the speedway or whether it will help with attendance are debatable.

What’s not up for debate is that a once-cherished event has become — in the eyes of the all-important fan — just another race. And that needs to change.
 

Agree? Disagree? Let Matt know below. You can follow him on Twitter @MattTaliaferro