2007 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard

2007 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard

Race details
Race 20 of 36 in the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season
Map of the basic speedway
Date	July 29, 2007 (2007-July-29)
Official name	Allstate 400 at the Brickyard
Location	Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.5 mi (4.023 km)
Distance	160 laps, 400 mi (643.737 km)
Weather	Temperatures up to 86 °F (30 °C); wind speeds up to 12 miles per hour (19 km/h)
Average speed	117.379 miles per hour (188.903 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Reed Sorenson	Chip Ganassi Racing
Time	48.858
Most laps led
Driver	Tony Stewart	Joe Gibbs Racing
Laps	65
Winner
No. 20	Tony Stewart	Joe Gibbs Racing
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Jerry Punch, Andy Petree and Dale Jarrett

The 2007 Allstate 400 at The Brickyard, the 14th running of the event, was the twentieth race of the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season and the first of the season that was televised by NASCAR on ESPN. It was held on July 29, 2007 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana.

Pre-race

Two Nextel Cup Series teams announced changes in their ownership just before this race:

• Dale Earnhardt Inc. merged with Ginn Racing, taking over the No. 01 team of Mark Martin and Aric Almirola, and closing the Nos. 13 and 14 teams after Ginn had released Joe Nemechek and Sterling Marlin because of sponsorship difficulties. The No. 14 and No. 15 teams switched positions in the standings, guaranteeing Paul Menard, the driver of the No. 15, a starting spot. Regan Smith, who had shared driving duties with Martin, was reassigned to the Craftsman Truck Series.
• Terry Labonte filled in for Michael Waltrip in the No. 55 Toyota which originally made Bill Elliott, winner of the 2002 race, and his No. 21 Wood Brothers/JTG Racing team ineligible for the past champion's provisional since Labonte's championship is more recent than Elliott's. However, with the closing of the Nos. 13 and 14 teams from Ginn, Elliott was assured of racing in this event.
• Originally, there were 51 cars on the initial entry list, including the No. 13 team, which was left without a driver and sponsor. The No. 14 team was entered with Smith as the driver, but because of the merger between DEI and Ginn Racing, the final entry list only included 49 cars.

Race

Results

Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Team
1.	20	Tony Stewart (W)	Chevrolet	Joe Gibbs Racing
2.	42	Juan Pablo Montoya (R)	Dodge	Chip Ganassi Racing
3.	24	Jeff Gordon (W)	Chevrolet	Hendrick Motorsports
4.	5	Kyle Busch	Chevrolet	Hendrick Motorsports
5.	41	Reed Sorenson	Dodge	Chip Ganassi Racing
6.	01	Mark Martin	Chevrolet	Dale Earnhardt, Inc.
7.	29	Kevin Harvick (W)	Chevrolet	Richard Childress Racing
8.	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	Richard Childress Racing
9.	22	Dave Blaney	Toyota	Bill Davis Racing
10.	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Roush Fenway Racing
11.	2	Kurt Busch	Dodge	Penske Racing South
12.	1	Martin Truex Jr.	Chevrolet	Dale Earnhardt, Inc.
13.	07	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	Richard Childress Racing
14.	4	Ward Burton	Chevrolet	Morgan-McClure Motorsports
15.	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	Roush Fenway Racing
16.	6	David Ragan (R)	Ford	Roush Fenway Racing
17.	38	David Gilliland (R)	Ford	Yates/Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
18.	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Roush Fenway Racing
19.	43	Bobby Labonte (W)	Dodge	Petty Enterprises
20.	15	Paul Menard (R)	Chevrolet	Dale Earnhardt, Inc.
21.	83	Brian Vickers	Toyota	Team Red Bull
22.	11	Denny Hamlin	Chevrolet	Joe Gibbs Racing
23.	21	Bill Elliott (W)	Ford	Wood Brothers/JTG Racing
24.	88	Ricky Rudd (W)	Ford	Yates/Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
25.	49	Ken Schrader	Dodge	BAM Racing
26.	40	David Stremme	Dodge	Chip Ganassi Racing
27.	7	Robby Gordon	Ford	Robby Gordon Motorsports
28.	19	Elliott Sadler	Dodge	Evernham Motorsports
29.	10	Scott Riggs	Dodge	Evernham Motorsports
30.	55	Terry Labonte	Toyota	Michael Waltrip Racing
31.	33	Scott Wimmer	Chevrolet	Richard Childress Racing
32.	45	Kyle Petty	Dodge	Petty Enterprises
33.	26	Jamie McMurray	Ford	Roush Fenway Racing
34.	8	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	Dale Earnhardt, Inc.
35.	25	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	Hendrick Motorsports
36.	18	J. J. Yeley	Chevorolet	Joe Gibbs Racing
37.	70	Johnny Sauter	Chevrolet	Haas CNC Racing
38.	00	David Reutimann (R)	Toyota	Michael Waltrip Racing
39.	48	Jimmie Johnson (W)	Chevrolet	Hendrick Motorsports
40.	9	Kasey Kahne	Dodge	Evernham Motorsports
41.	96	Tony Raines	Chevrolet	Hall of Fame Racing
42.	12	Ryan Newman	Dodge	Penske Racing South
43.	66	Jeff Green	Chevrolet	Haas CNC Racing
Failed to Quality
Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Team
	08	Joe Nemechek	Chevrolet	EM Motorsports
	84	A.J. Allmendinger (R)	Toyota	Team Red Bull
	37	Kevin Lepage	Dodge	Front Row Motorsports
	44	Dale Jarrett (W)	Toyota	Michael Waltrip Racing
	36	Jeremy Mayfield	Toyota	Bill Davis Racing
	78	Kenny Wallace	Chevrolet	Furniture Row Racing
Source:

Notes

• For the first time in history, there was not a testing session before this race.
• This race marked the second time an Indy NASCAR race was on cable television. Either ABC or NBC televised all 13 of the previous events except for 1995, when ESPN showed the race on one day's tape delay. This time, the 400 was originally scheduled to air on ESPN, while ABC would not takeover the broadcast until September. Additionally, this was the first NASCAR Cup race aired on ESPN since the 2000 season finale of what was then the Winston Cup Series.
• Dale Jarrett's failure to qualify meant that only 4 drivers had started every Brickyard 400 since its inception in 1994: Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte, Mark Martin, and Bill Elliott.
• Kevin Harvick, who led part of the race until Stewart overtook him on lap 149, missed the victory by a close finish to become the 3rd driver to win the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 in the same year.

Post-race

For the second time since 2004, a winning driver uttered an obscenity in a live post-race interview when Stewart said "This one's for every one of those fans in the stands who pull for me every week and take all the bullshit from everybody else" to the ESPN reporter. At first, it was perceived to be in response to critics who have gone after his blunt and abrasive personality, but it has since been reported that Stewart was the subject of statements made by Pardon the Interruption co-hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon on the show that aired the day after Stewart's win at the USG Sheetrock 400. After Stewart joked about celebrating the victory by drinking a case of Schlitz beer, the co-hosts concluded that the driver was a bad role model for children. Whether the comments were a form of revenge against the network is open for interpretation.

On the Tuesday after the race, Stewart was fined US$25,000 by NASCAR, and lost 25 points in the driver's championship due to the infraction. His team, Joe Gibbs Racing, also was penalized 25 points in the owners' championship. However, his classification of fifth in the championship standings remained the same despite the penalty. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who said the word "shit" after winning the 2004 EA Sports 500 at Talladega Superspeedway had been given the same penalty that year.

External links

• Complete results
• Points standings

Previous race: 2007 USG Sheetrock 400

NASCAR Nextel Cup Series 2007 season

Next race: 2007 Pennsylvania 500