2007 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard

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2007 Nextel Cup Series

Daytona 500 Auto Club 500 UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 Kobalt Tools 500 Food City 500 Goody's Cool Orange 500 Samsung 500 Subway Fresh Fit 500 Aaron's 499 Crown Royal Presents The Jim Stewart 400 Dodge Avenger 500 Nextel All-Star Challenge Coca-Cola 600 Autism Speaks 400 Pocono 500 Citizens Bank 400 Toyota/Save Mart 350 Lenox Industrial Tools 300 Pepsi 400 USG Sheetrock 400 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard Pennsylvania 500 Centurion Boats at the Glen 3M Performance 400 Sharpie 500 Sharp AQUOS 500 Chevy Rock & Roll 400

Chase for the Cup

Sylvania 300 Dodge Dealers 400 LifeLock 400 UAW-Ford 500 Bank of America 500 Subway 500 Pep Boys Auto 500 Dickies 500 Checker Auto Parts 500 presented by Pennzoil Ford 400

The 2007 Allstate 400 at The Brickyard was the twentieth race of the 2007 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series season and the first race under the ESPN/ABC section of the TV coverage. It was held on July 29, 2007 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana.

Contents 1 Pre-Race 2 The race 2.1 Race results 3 Notes 4 Post-race 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Pre-Race

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

• Dale Earnhardt Inc. merged with Ginn Racing, taking over the #01 team of Mark Martin and Aric Almirola, and closing the #13 and #14 teams after Ginn had released Joe Nemechek and Sterling Marlin because of sponsorship difficulties. The #14 and #15 teams switched positions in the standings, guaranteeing Paul Menard, the driver of the #15, a starting spot. Regan Smith, who had shared driving duties with Martin, was re-assigned to the Craftsman Truck Series.
• It was also announced that actor - and supporter of the Victory Junction Gang Camp - Paul Newman would return to NASCAR after a prolonged absence last running the #37 Kmart sponsored Ford in the mid 1990s by purchasing the Robert Yates Racing franchise and running the teams under the newly established Yates/Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing banner, which has been successful in the open-wheel Champ Car World Series.

Two other rumored announcements - one in which Hendrick Motorsports would finalize a deal with PepsiCo, with the Mountain Dew and AMP Energy Drink brand sharing a race schedule on the #5 with new driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and that Budweiser, Earnhardt Jr.'s current sponsor, would switch its money over to the #9 team, owner Evernham Motorsports and driver Kasey Kahne - did not materialize.

Terry Labonte filled in for Michael Waltrip in the #55 Toyota which originally made Bill Elliott, winner of the 2002 race, and his #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 #13 and #14 teams from Ginn, Elliott was assured of racing in this event.

Originally, there were a total of 51 cars with an entry including the #13 listed driverless and sponsorless as well as the #14 with Smith driving, but with the DEI/Ginn merger, the final total was 49 cars.

[edit] The race

[edit] Race results

Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Team
1.	#20	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Joe Gibbs Racing
2.	#42	Juan Pablo Montoya (R)	Dodge	Chip Ganassi Racing
3.	#24	Jeff Gordon	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	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	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	Ford	Wood Brothers/JTG Racing
24.	#88	Ricky Rudd	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	Chevorlet	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

DNQ:

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	Toyota	Michael Waltrip Racing
#36	Jeremy Mayfield	Toyota	Bill Davis Racing
#78	Kenny Wallace	Chevrolet	Furniture Row Racing

^[1]

[edit] Notes

• For the first time in event history, there was not a testing session before the 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 scheduled to air on ESPN all along; ABC will not join coverage until September. Additionally, this was the first NASCAR Cup race on ESPN since the 2000 season finale of what was then the Winston Cup Series, the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway now called the Georgia 500. Jerry Nadeau was the race winner in his only Cup victory.
• Dale Jarrett's failure to qualify means that only four drivers have started every Brickyard 400 since its inception in 1994: Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte, Mark Martin and Bill Elliott.

[edit] 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.^[2][3]

On the Tuesday after the race, Stewart was fined $25,000 and lost 25 points in the NEXTEL Cup standings due to the infraction. Joe Gibbs Racing, for which he drives, also lost 25 points in the owners' standings. His position in the standings (5th) did not change.^[4] 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.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Complete results
• Points standings