Jamie McMurray takes 2010 Brickyard 400

Monday, July 26, 2010
Jamie McMurray celebrates following his Brickyard 400 win Sunday. McMurray has captured both the Brickyard 400 and the Daytona 500 this season.

INDIANAPOLIS -- After a wild beginning to the 2010 Brickyard 400, the drivers settled down and watched as Juan Pablo Montoya led the most laps for the second straight year, only to come up short after wrecking on lap 146 and finished 32nd.

It was his teammate Jamie McMurray who captured the race on Sunday, making him just the third driver to win both the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 in the same year. McMurray started the day in fourth place. He never dropped out of the top six throughout the race.

After losing the lead late, he was able to overtake Kevin Harvick on lap 150 and hold off the No. 29 for the win.

"It's unbelievable," McMurray commented. "We didn't have the best car. When Kevin (Harvick) got by me a few laps from the end, I thought it was over."

McMurray's focus then turned to his owner and the feat he just had achieved.

"It's just an awesome day. It's unreal right now," he said. "How about Chip winning the (Indianapolis) 500, and both of these big races? We're just a great team right now."

Harvick's second-place finish helped extend his lead to 184 points over Jeff Gordon in the Sprint Cup standings. A late restart moved McMurray into the lead, and according to Harvick, all he could do was just watch.

"I got tight going into Turn 1 in the middle," he explained. "I had to wait and Jamie was able to carry the momentum around the outside. I felt like we had a top five car, but didn't have a winning car."

The win also gave car owner Chip Ganassi a rare distinction -- the only car owner to ever win the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400 in the same year. Ganassi relished in the win, but felt for Montoya

"It's pretty special," Ganassi said. "My heart goes out to Juan. He had a great day, too. This is a big, big day for our team. I'm glad it happened here in Indianapolis. It's incredible -- I need oxygen."

Two-time winner Tony Stewart jumped 10 spots to finish the day in fifth. His pit crew was able to gain him positions on every stop, which made a big difference. Following a late stop, Stewart commended his crew and informed his crew chief the changes they were making were working.

"I don't know what we did, but this is the best it's been," Stewart said

Following the race, Stewart acknowledged he finished well ahead of where he should have.

"It feels almost like a win, to be honest about it, because when we finished Happy Hour yesterday, I was in doom-and-gloom mode and I was honestly about a 20th place race car," he said. "I'm really proud of Darian Grubb, our crew chief, because of just how hard he fought starting up and working and trying to figure out how to give us a better race car today."

Stewart stayed in ninth in the points standings with 2,544.

Stewart-Haas teammate and fellow Hoosier Ryan Newman ended the day in 17th place, after tire issues forced him out of the top 10 early on lap 12.

Montoya's day ended when he slammed in the safer barrier in turn four and collected Dale Earnhardt Jr., as his car slid to toward pit lane. Both Montoya and Earnhardt fell one spot in the points chase. Earnhardt is two spots out of the chase in 14th place, while Montoya sits in 22nd.

The biggest mover in the race was Joey Logano in the Home Depot machine. After starting in 34th position, Logano moved his way up the field and ended his day in ninth place

The IMS has not been unkind to driver Elliot Sadler. The driver has failed to complete a lap in two consecutive Brickyard 400s and noted that in Sunday's race he simply ran out of real estate.

"This is two years in a row where we haven't made a lap yet," Sadler said. "Last year, we had engine problems and oil leaks, and then the wreck today. The No. 18 (Kyle Busch) spun out and we were trying to get checked up, but there was nowhere to go."

Despite an estimated crowd of 140,000, the stands were noticeably vacant Sunday, with huge gaps in most sections, including the home stretch surrounding the yard of bricks.

At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Top 10 finishers

1. Jamie, McMurray, 2. Kevin Harvick, 3. Greg Biffle, 4. Clint Bowyer, 5. Tony Stewart, 6. Jeff Burton, 7. Carl Edwards, 8. Kyle Busch, 9. Joey Logano, 10. Kurt Busch, 11. Mark Martin, 12. Matt Kenseth, 13. Kasey Kahn, 14. Paul Menard, 15. Denny Hamlin 16. A.J. Allmendinger, 17. Ryan Newman, 18. Bill Elliott, 19. Brad Keselowski, 20. David Gagan, 21. Marcos Ambrose, 22. Jimmie Johnson, 23. Jeff Gordon, 24. Travis Kvapil, 25. Scott Speed, 26. Martin Truex Jr., 27. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 28. David Reutimann, 29. Jacques Villeneuve, 30. Sam Hornish Jr., 31. Bobby Labonte, 32. Juan Pablo Montoya, 33. Regan Smith, 34. Kevin Conway, 35. Reed Sorenson, 36. Robby Gordon, 37. Todd Bodine, 38. Elliott Sadler, 39. Landon Cassill, 40. Joe Nemechek, 41. Dave Blaney, 42. Michael McDowell, 43. Max Papis