(By Sarah Farlee Managing Editor, CupScene.com)
Posted: Sunday,July 31st, 2011
INDIANAPOLIS – It was the tale of two races for Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., during Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Earnhardt led seven laps and looked be a contender early while Stewart struggled to catch a break, but the tables turned with 20 laps to go when Stewart was out front and Earnhardt was stuck in traffic.
“We cycled around and didn’t have the track position at the end and that is all it was,” said Earnhardt, who finished 16th and was happy with the way the car drove throughout the race.
“We lost a little track position there on one of the pit stops,” Earnhardt added. “I came out of my stall and this guy was going really slow all the way down pit road so I lost 10 spots just waiting on this guy to go into his stall which he was way down there and just cost us a lot track position there and you can’t get it back.”
The crows reacts as Dale Earnhardt, Jr., leads the field at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Sunday
Earnhardt compared the race strategy to fuel strategy teams use at a road course.
“You don’t want to be hanging around out there on the race track when everybody else is already inside a fuel window,” Earnhardt said. “I can understand why it turned out like it did.”
“Even if I had new tires, or better tires, I couldn’t pass people,” Earnhardt added.
Earnhardt says track position is tough and although the car was good, it wasn’t quite good enough and it struggled in traffic.
“Track position was everything like I thought it would be,” said Earnhardt. “You couldn’t pass. You could run as fast as the guys in front of you were running and that was it.”
Tony Stewart had strategy work out for the good, ending up with a hard fought sixth place finish. Stewart had issues early after getting caught for a commitment cone violation and serving a pass through penalty on pit road.
“It just was what it was,” said Stewart of the violation. “Kevin (Harvick) lifted earlier than I did coming off of turn four and versus running into him, I went to the outside of him and when we got to the cone there, I was in the wrong spot.”
“It was just one of those things, you are trying to get everything you can get,” Stewart added. “It was either hit the cone or run over the guy in front of me so I chose to hit the cone. We got the penalty for it.”
Stewart said the team fought for everything they could get all day long and that they didn’t have the best car by any means.
“They fought hard, and ended up getting something,” Stewart said.
Stewart said clean air was the only thing that helped the car. Stewart was out front with 20 laps remaining and led 10 laps before being forced to pit before running out of fuel.
“Come to find out we were three short and there was no way we could make up three,” said Stewart. “A lap and a half I think I could have got him, but there is no way we could have got him three laps.”
“We inherited the lead anyway because we stayed out and everybody else in front of us came in so we knew it was a borrow lead,” added Stewart. “But it sure was nice to lead here at Indy again.”
Stewart said the team did the right thing coming in for fuel and in the end it paid off.
“Whatever you get here, you appreciate it because you had to earn it,” Stewart said. “You don’t get anything free here.”
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