The WING Racing Report

Paul Menard gets to kiss the bricks as the #27-Paul Menard wins the “Brickyard 400” Sprint Cup Series race at the Indianapolis motor Speedway for his first career win. He has become the 4th first time Sprint Cup race winner in 2011. Menard is the first driver to get his first career win in the Brickyard 400.
Following Paul was the #24 Jeff Gordon, going for his 5th Brickyard 400 win, finished 2nd, followed by #78 Regan Smith (his 2nd career top five), #1 Jamie McMurray (last years Brickyard 400 winner), #17 Matt Kenseth, #14 Toney Stewart, #16 Greg Biffle, #5 Mark Martin, #2 Brad Keselowski and #18 Kyle Busch.
Pole sitter, #6 David Ragan finished 23rd and points leader going in to the race, #99 Carl Edwards, finished 14th and maintains a 12 point lead over #29 Kevin Harvick.
There were 22 lead changes among 13 drivers; 5 cautions for 22 yellow flag laps.
 

 

2011 Sprint Cup Driver Championship Points Standings:
[after Indianapolis, race 20 of 36]:
rank, car#, driver, points, behind                                                                                               
1) #99-Carl Edwards [1 win], 682
2) #48-Jimmie Johnson [1 win], 671, -11
3) #29-Kevin Harvick [3 wins], 670, -12
4) #18-Kyle Busch [3 wins], 666, -16
5) #17-Matt Kenseth [2 wins], 666, -16
6) #22-Kurt Busch [1 win], 664, -18
7) #24-Jeff Gordon [2 wins], 630, -52
8) #39-Ryan Newman [1 win], 618, -64
9) #14-Tony Stewart, 609, -73
10) #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr., 606, -76
wild cards
11) #11-Denny Hamlin [1 win], 587, -95 [11th in points, 1 win]
12) #27-Paul Menard [1 win], 553, -129 [14th in points, 1 win]
others
16) #6-David Ragan [1 win], 546, -136 [16th in points, 1 win]
Two race winners are not inside the top-20: #2-Keselowski is 21st, 16 pts out of 20th; #78-Smith is 26th, 76 pts out of 20^th

 

 

Brad Keselowski wins at the final Nationwide Series race at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis: #22 Brad Keselowski won the “Kroger 200” at Lucas Oil Raceway, passing #6 Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. with three laps to go an surviving and green-white-checker finish. #30 James Buescher finished 2nd. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., who led 188 laps on the night, finished third followed by #88 Aric Almirola, #60 Carl Edwards, #38 Jason Leffler, #7 Joe Nemechek, #20 Drew Herring, #32 Reed Sorenson, and #18 Michael McDowell. There were 5 cautions for 28 laps and 5 lead changes among 4 leaders.

 

 






 

Driver standings following Lucas Oil Raceway:
1) #6-Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 740                                                                                                
2) #32-Reed Sorenson 737 -3
3) #2-Elliott Sadler 716 -24
4) #31-Justin Allgaier 689 -51
5) #88-Aric Almirola 671 -69
6) #38-Jason Leffler 646 -94
7) #09-Kenny Wallace 637 -103
8) #66-Steve Wallace 572 -168
9) #11-Brian Scott 566 -174
10) #63-Michael Annett 565 -175

 

 

Timothy Peters wins at Lucas Oil Raceway; After having a tire go down and spinning out in turns 1 & 2, #17 Timothy Peters came back to run down then race leader, #31 James Buescher. Timothy Peters took the lead with just six laps remaining and went on to take the checkers to pick up the win for the “AAA Insurance 200” at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis. This is Timothy Peters third career win. James Buescher finished second; his third second place finish this season. Points leader #13 Johnny Sauter had right front trouble late in the race and wound up finishing 23rd; four laps down. On the white flag lap, #5 Todd Bodine, with an ill-handling truck, got up into #3 Austin Dillon causing Dillon to hit the wall. As a result Dillon finished 9th, and Sauter hangs on to the point lead by just 4 points. Rounding out the top #81 David Starr, #7 Miguel Paludo, #33 Ron Hornaday Jr., #88 Matt Crafton, #22 Joey Coulter, #60 Cole Whitt, #3 Austin Dillon, #66 Ross Chastain. There were 7 lead changes among 6 drivers, with four caution flags for 28 laps.

 
 

 

Next up for the Sprint Cup Series is Pocono Raceway for the “Good Sam RV Insurance 500”, Sunday at 1pm on ESPN.

 





 

The Nationwide Series takes to Iowa Speedway under the lights Saturday night for the “U.S. Cellular 250 presented by the Enlist Weed Control System” at 7:30pm on ESPN2.