Tire issues steal show at Brickyard

INDIANAPOLIS -- A telling image that something was very wrong at this year’s NASCAR race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway came before the race was even one-third completed.

As the 43 cars in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard crawled around the massive track under a caution period, track safety workers were picking up dozens of rubber fragments strewn across the back straightaway.

The shards were residue from a ruptured tire on one of the cars, the latest in a spree of early tire failures Sunday that plagued the Sprint Cup Series’ second-most prestigious race behind the Daytona 500.

Indeed, more than 200,000 saw reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson win his second Brickyard 400 from the pole -- or perhaps survive is a better word -- after one of the most bizarre Cup races in recent memory.

When it became clear that Johnson and the other drivers couldn’t run more than a dozen laps around the famed 2.5-mile speedway without risking catastrophic tire damage, NASCAR repeatedly threw the yellow caution flag every 10 to 15 laps for teams to put on new tires.

The problem: The tires supplied by Goodyear were being chewed up prematurely by Indy’s abrasive pavement.

Carl Edwards, who finished second behind Johnson and ahead of third-place Denny Hamlin, summed up the day by calling it “a debacle.”

NASCAR President Mike Helton felt compelled to appear on the race’s telecast, saying there were “a lot of unanswered questions” as to why the tires were failing.

And Johnson said, “I’ve never been part of anything like this. Every lap I was concerned about it, every corner, in fact. Everybody was just taking care of their stuff.”

Even so, they and most drivers applauded NASCAR, Goodyear and team crew chiefs for using the go-stop-go procedure in the interest of safety.

“NASCAR called a great race, they kept us from tearing up race cars,” Johnson said after he and his Hendrick Motorsports team ceremoniously kissed the strip of bricks at the start-finish line left from the speedway’s early years.

The racing generally was close, owing to the cars being repeatedly bunched together by the caution periods. But fans were deprived of long stretches of green-flag racing.

“That wasn’t a race today,” said Ryan Newman, who finished 13th in a Penske Racing Dodge. “It’s ridiculous. It’s disrespectful to the fans.”

This was the 15th running of the Brickyard 400, so NASCAR is familiar with the track’s pavement. But it was the first race at Indy with NASCAR’s new Car of Tomorrow, which causes more right-side tire wear than the previous car.

A trio of drivers tested the COT here early this year, but the tire Goodyear developed from that data was ill-matched for the race.

“I understand the [frustrated] fans,” said Johnson’s team owner Rick Hendrick. “A race this big we should have everybody here and test. We didn’t want to go through this, either.”

Joie Chitwood, the speedway’s president, said, “It’s not the race you want to present to the largest crowd to watch a stock-car race this year.”

But, he said, “we appreciate NASCAR and Goodyear working closely together to manage the tire situation,” and said the facility was available if NASCAR wants more testing dates.

The race called to mind another controversial day at Indianapolis in 2005, when a tire problem prompted 14 of 20 drivers in a Formula One race to protest by pulling off the track just before the start.

On Sunday, it was known before the race that there could be problems. Teams had reported rapid, severe tire wear after the practice sessions Saturday, and NASCAR said Sunday morning that it would call caution periods early in the race to check the tires.

But the caution periods proved necessary throughout the 160-lap race, with the last coming only seven laps before the checkered flag.

Johnson, an El Cajon native who also won here in 2006, led Edwards on that final restart and never relinquished the lead. And for many drivers, those last seven laps were the only time they raced without trepidation about their tires failing.

“No one ran 100% until the last run,” said Edwards, who drives the No. 99 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing. “I thought we were better than Jimmie, but he did a good job of holding back just a little more than I thought he was.”

Asked who he held responsible for the tire woes, Edwards said, “Obviously it’s the folks that make the tires.” But he added that “everybody is doing their job. Everybody is trying their hardest. Every once in a while I run into the wall.”

As for Goodyear, Greg Stucker, its director of race tire sales, said “obviously the tread wear didn’t improve as we thought it would over the course of the afternoon.”

“We take it on our shoulders, and we have to improve it,” he said. “I don’t think anybody likes to race like this, us included.”

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james.peltz@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Allstate 400 at the Brickyard

At Indianapolis Motor Speedway Lap length: 2.5 miles. Start position in parentheses:

*--* Pl. Driver Car Laps Pts. Earnings 1 (1) Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 160 195 $509,236 2 (9) Carl Edwards Ford 160 175 $366,700 3 (23) Denny Hamlin Toyota 160 170 $331,516 4 (6) Elliott Sadler Dodge 160 165 $290,745 5 (5) Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 160 160 $275,111 6 (8) Jamie McMurray Ford 160 150 $206,850 7 (4) Kasey Kahne Dodge 160 146 $225,491 8 (12) Greg Biffle Ford 160 142 $196,225 9 (32) Jeff Burton Chevrolet 160 143 $233,783 10 (26) A.J. Allmendinger Toyota 160 139 $178,775 11 (2) Mark Martin Chevrolet 160 130 $210,383 12 (11) Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 160 132 $180,950 13 (3) Ryan Newman Dodge 160 124 $207,975 14 (16) David Ragan Ford 160 121 $170,000 15 (19) Kyle Busch Toyota 160 123 $180,700 16 (27) Bobby Labonte Dodge 160 115 $195,536 17 (22) Reed Sorenson Dodge 160 112 $184,689 18 (15) Patrick Carpentier Dodge 160 109 $154,375 19 (40) Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 160 106 $169,875 20 (20) David Gilliland Ford 160 103 $175,183 21 (38) Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge 160 100 $195,400 22 (24) Marcos Ambrose Ford 160 97 $148,825 23 (14) Tony Stewart Toyota 160 94 $197,461 24 (25) Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet 160 96 $182,408 25 (35) Scott Riggs Chevrolet 160 93 $166,133 26 (31) Casey Mears Chevrolet 160 85 $162,725 27 (43) Terry Labonte Dodge 160 82 $161,083 28 (39) J.J. Yeley Toyota 160 79 $153,825 29 (36) Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 160 76 $142,225 30 (33) David Reutimann Toyota 160 73 $145,200 31 (42) Regan Smith Chevrolet 160 75 $152,600 32 (21) Jason Leffler Chevrolet 160 67 $140,700 33 (29) Robby Gordon Dodge 160 64 $163,558 34 (30) Michael McDowell Toyota 160 66 $150,097 35 (41) Dave Blaney Toyota 160 63 $140,300 36 (28) Travis Kvapil Ford 160 60 $168,214 37 (18) Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 148 52 $186,661 38 (10) Matt Kenseth Ford 144 49 $187,241 39 (13) Juan Pablo Montoya Dodge 124 46 $167,408 40 (7) Kurt Busch Dodge 119 43 $139,425 41 (37) Paul Menard Chevrolet 118 40 $147,300 42 (17) Brian Vickers Toyota 93 42 $147,600 43 (34) Michael Waltrip Toyota 91 34 $139,494 *--*

RACE STATISTICS

* Average speed of race winner: 115.117 mph.

* Time of race: 3 hours 28 minutes 29 seconds.

* Margin of victory: 0.332 seconds.

* Caution flags: 11 for 52 laps.

* Lead changes: 26 among 16 drivers.

* Lap leaders: J.Johnson 1-15; D.Earnhardt Jr. 16-23; J.Gordon 24-29; J.Johnson 30; S.Riggs 31; Ky.Busch 32-35; J.Gordon 36; J.Johnson 37-48; T.Kvapil 49-51; Ky.Busch 52-61; J.Johnson 62-66; B.Vickers 67; A.Allmendinger 68-71; J.Johnson 72-82; M.McDowell 83; R.Smith 84; M.Truex Jr. 85-87; C.Edwards 88-90; J.Johnson 91-99; D.Blaney 100; E.Sadler 101-105; J.Burton 106-115; J.Johnson 116-123; D.Hamlin 124-138; C.Edwards 139; D.Hamlin 140-150; J.Johnson 151-160.

* Leaders summary (driver, times led, laps led): J.Johnson, 8 times for 71 laps; D.Hamlin, 2 times for 26 laps; Ky.Busch, 2 times for 14 laps; J.Burton, 1 time for 10 laps; D.Earnhardt Jr., 1 time for 8 laps; J.Gordon, 2 times for 7 laps; E.Sadler, 1 time for 5 laps; C.Edwards, 2 times for 4 laps; A.Allmendinger, 1 time for 4 laps; M.Truex Jr., 1 time for 3 laps; T.Kvapil, 1 time for 3 laps; S.Riggs, 1 time for 1 lap; R.Smith, 1 time for 1 lap; M.McDowell, 1 time for 1 lap; D.Blaney, 1 time for 1 lap; B.Vickers, 1 time for 1 lap.

* Top 12 in points: 1. Ky.Busch, 3,004; 2. D.Earnhardt Jr., 2,751. 3. J.Burton, 2,733. 4. J.Johnson, 2,689. 5. C.Edwards, 2,684. 6. J.Gordon, 2,544. 7. G.Biffle, 2,460. 8. D.Hamlin, 2,453. 9. K.Kahne, 2,441. 10. T.Stewart, 2,399. 11. M.Kenseth, 2,366. 12. C.Bowyer, 2,362.