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Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Week 20 Preview: Indianapolis

Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400

Indianapolis Motor Speedway


By Richard Tix

This week NASCAR heads to the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Last week Kyle Busch won for the third time in four races and takes his hot streak to Indy. But the real focus maybe on Jeff Gordon, the 2014 Indy race winner.

Gordon won the inaugural NASCAR Cup race here at Indy and will be running it one last time (at least as a full time driver). Gordon has 5 career wins here and when many fans think NASCAR at IMS they think of Jeff Gordon.

This maybe one of the hardest farewell tracks for Gordon so if he is running up front during the end of the race the crowd could go wild. Add onto all the history, a win would also lock Gordon into the Chase instead of him going week to week looking to get in on points. So, other than Gordon, who can we expect to be a front runner Sunday?



The Good
  • Jeff Gordon- Gordon has done it all here at IMS. He has 17 top 10's in 21 career starts, 5 wins, 3 poles, and an average finish of 8.4. He won last year and will look to go out at IMS with one last win.
  • Kyle Busch- Kyle Busch, the same Kyle that has won 3 of 4, is one of the best current drivers at IMS to not have a win yet. So, will he steal the show from Gordon and win 4 of 5? It could be done.
  • Jimmie Johnson- JJ had some early career struggle here with mostly luck, but since then he has four total wins. If he stay's away from his bad luck here that has dragged his average finish down he has a good shot at winning on Sunday
The Middle
  • Kevin Harvick- Not many times does a guy with a win at a certain track end up in the NASCAR Behind the Wall "Middle" category, but that's where Harvick finds himself. His lone win was in 2003 and since he only has two top 5's. In his last 9 starts he has an average finish of 11.66. I would expect him to finish between 5th-13th at Indy almost every time.
The Bad
  • Danica Patrick- Last year was not her fault, but in her short career here she has not done well. Most of it has to do with the fact that she has not had a lot of seat time in a Cup car here, but many drivers don't. She has yet to finish better than 30th.
  • Sam Hornish Jr- Only four starts here and Hornish has yet to crack the top 15. Worse yet, he only has finished better than 30th twice. Granted it is only in four tries, but he is now with RPM so more is expected.
  • Martin Truex Jr- Truex only has one top 10 at Indy in 10 tries so far in his career. What is more worrisome than that is that he only has three top 15's and only five top 20's in that same time. Many of those races were with DEI or MWR, so he doesn't have a ton of excuses not to be a top 20 car. 

About the Track: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Track Stats
  • A race has been won from the Pole three times in 21 NASCAR races (Newman 2013, Jimmie Johnson 2008, and Kevin Harvick 2003).
  • Chevy has won the last 12 races and 16 of 21 races total. Ford- 3, Pontiac- 1 Dodge- 1
  • Jeff Gordon won the Inaugural Cup race in 1994
  • Most cautions was 13 in 2004
  • Gordon has the most career wins here with 5. Jimmie Johnson is next in line with 4
  • 12 drivers have won at Indy including 8 that only won once.
  • Only four drivers have multiple wins (Gordon, JJ, Tony Stewart, and Dale Jarrett).
  • Gordon also has the most poles (3), top 5's (12), and top 10's (17) of any driver.
Track Info
  • Surface
    • Asphalt
  • Length
    • 2.5 miles
  • Banking
    • Turns: 9 degrees
    • Straights: 0 degrees

Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Race
Date
Cars
Winner(s)
St
Make / Model
1994-19
8/6/1994
43
Jeff Gordon
3
Chevrolet
1995-19
8/5/1995
41
Dale Earnhardt
13
Chevrolet
1996-19
8/3/1996
40
Dale Jarrett
24
Ford
1997-19
8/2/1997
43
Ricky Rudd
7
Ford
1998-19
8/1/1998
43
Jeff Gordon
3
Chevrolet
1999-20
8/7/1999
43
Dale Jarrett
4
Ford
2000-20
8/5/2000
43
Bobby Labonte
3
Pontiac
2001-21
8/5/2001
43
Jeff Gordon
27
Chevrolet
2002-21
8/4/2002
43
Bill Elliott
2
Dodge
2003-21
8/3/2003
43
Kevin Harvick
1
Chevrolet
2004-21
8/8/2004
43
Jeff Gordon
11
Chevrolet
2005-21
8/7/2005
43
Tony Stewart
22
Chevrolet
2006-21
8/6/2006
43
Jimmie Johnson
5
Chevrolet
2007-20
7/29/2007
43
Tony Stewart
14
Chevrolet
2008-20
7/27/2008
43
Jimmie Johnson
1
Chevrolet
2009-20
7/26/2009
43
Jimmie Johnson
16
Chevrolet
2010-20
7/25/2010
43
Jamie McMurray
4
Chevrolet
2011-20
7/31/2011
43
Paul Menard
15
Chevrolet
2012-20
7/29/2012
43
Jimmie Johnson
6
Chevrolet
2013-20
7/28/2013
43
Ryan Newman
1
Chevrolet
2014-20
7/27/2014
43
Jeff Gordon
2
Chevrolet


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