Another week, another win for Tony Stewart.

Forget kissing the bricks, climbing the grandstand fence is rapidly becoming a new tradition for Tony Stewart, who clinched his second win in three years at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 

After leading a race high of 66 laps, it looked clear that Tony would bring home the victory for his Home Depot race team. But a former Indy winner was hot on his tail. With twenty laps to go, fellow driver and friend, Kevin Harvick passed Stewart on the final restart of the Allstate 400.

Stewart did not dare to give Harvick the lead for too long. As the laps wound down, Stewart began his fatal advance and re-gained the lead once again. Lap 151 saw the last lead change of the race; the hometown kid got second consecutive win at the Brickyard and kissed the beloved row of bricks once more. Stewart now moves one sport in the Chase standings to fifth and keeps a 42-point lead over sixth place driver, Carl Edwards.

Current points leader Jeff Gordon has another reason to smile on top of securing a third place finish in the last few laps of the race: the Allstate 400 marked the first race that wife Ingrid attended since the birth of the couple’s daughter, Ella Sofia (who was also in attendance), back on June 24th.

Juan Pablo Montoya finished a strong second, after qualifying in the same position. With an average finish of 22.6, many critics wondered if this Formula One-turned-NASCAR driver was worth the hype that he received at the beginning of the season.   Hopefully, Montoya’s solid weekend will silence the doubters and reassure himself and his team that they are a contending force, hungry for their first cup win.

Starting just one position in front of Montoya for the start of the Allstate 400 was fellow teammate, Reed Sorenson. Keeping his car clean and out of trouble all day, Sorenson drove his way to his second top five finish of the season and advanced himself four spots in the championship points standings; he now sits pretty at spot 24. If the Target crew can keep the momentum rolling and are able to bring home another strong weekend, Sorenson could easily break the top 20 and place themselves two spots behind Ganassi teammate Montoya, who is currently 18th.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. could not mirror the success of Montoya or Sorenson: he suffered a devastating blow when his engine blew on lap 136. This misfortune couldn’t have come at a more inconvenient time. After leading a career high of 33 laps at Indy, the number 8 Chevy emitted plumes of smoke from the rear of the car. A broken pulley off of the front end of the motor is to be blamed. Thankfully, he suffered no critical blow in the championship standings, and still holds firm to slot number 12 after Ryan Newman, the man chasing down the final Chase spot, ran into a wall on lap 21.

DEI seems like they need to calm down from all the hype surrounding their merger with Ginn. Six races remain for Newman and Junior to duke it out, so DEI must focus on what they know how to do best: win races.
Now two weeks after his first win since he was a rookie, Jamie McMurray wasn’t able to add another win to his record after getting caught up in a multi-car wreck on lap 46 that also collected defending winner Jimmie Johnson, Ricky Rudd, Scott Riggs, Bill Elliott, and Carl Edwards.

Johnson’s luck ran out as a tire cut on left front of his Lowes Chevy, sending him flying into the Turn 3 wall, where the rear of his car burst into flame. Keeping a calm head, Johnson was able to safely steer his car to a stop and get out before the smoke and flames consumed his car further. 

Some drivers celebrate by drinking milk; others prefer to kiss rubber-crusted bricks. For Tony Stewart, climbing the fence at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the only way to celebrate.

Race Results

Overall Standings

Questions and comments may be sent to Larissa at larissasmith@sportsgrumblings.com.