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•Green-white-checkered rule applied at Indianapolis•Hendrick meets with NASCAR
to discuss on-track celebration•Promising week ends poorly for W. Burton after
wreck•Debris foils Kenseth's quest for first Brickyard victory•Rash of flat
tires eliminates competition at Indy•R. Gordon experiences more hard luck at The
Brickyard
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Gordon dominates to win his fourth career Brickyard 400

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Mark Martin (right) saw a top-10 finish disappear at Indy. Credit:
AutostockGreen-white-checkered rule applied at IndyMartin, Earnhardt Jr. blow
tires on 161st lapBy Lee Montgomery, NASCAR.COM
August 9, 2004
09:51 AM EDT (13:51 GMT)
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SPEEDWAY, Ind. -- The green-white-checkered finish finally came to NASCAR Nextel
Cup racing, as the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway went to
overtime.

But the race still ended under caution.

The top three positions did not change after the race went green on Lap 159, as
Jeff Gordon won his fourth Brickyard 400, with Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler
finishing second and third, respectively.
Tony Eury Jr. Credit: Autostock
Behind them, though, the order was jumbled. The big losers? Two of the sport's
biggest names: Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin.

As the field roared down the backstretch on the way to the checkered flag,
Martin's left-front tire went flat. Behind him, Earnhardt Jr. lost a left-front
tire, and then NASCAR called for the caution to end the race.

Martin, who was running fourth with the race restarted, ended up 25th. Earnhardt
Jr. dropped from sixth to 27th.

"That's unfortunate, man," Earnhardt Jr. said. "My damn left-front tire blew
out. I had a sixth-place finish. I'm pissed off about it."

Junior was less upset about the green-white-checkered finish than about having
the flat tire. But car chief Tony Eury Jr. didn't care for the new rule.
BRICKYARD 400
Domination
Gordon gets his fourth Brickyard 400 winFinal Laps
Jeff Gordon holds off Dale Jarrett in a two-lap sprint to the checkersPoint
leader blues
Jimmie Johnson's engine expires on Lap 88Restart wreck
Several cars sustain heavy damage in a wreck on Lap 73Spin cycle
Stewart and Johnson spin in traffic but avoid getting hitEarly exit
Leffler hits the wall in the early laps• Results• Standings• Chase for the
Nextel Cup "Bubble" Standings

"If they'd run 160 laps, I would've been just fine," Eury Jr. said
sarcastically. "They screwed me."

Martin, however, was more philosophical.

"We ran good today, but unfortunately, things set us back," Martin said. "I just
wanted to have a chance, and we did. It was a great effort by the team, and we
ran awfully good. Things just didn't go our way."

On the other side, the top three finishers didn't mind it.

"I'm glad that we finally got one, and you guys finally talked about, and we're
the ones that won it," Gordon said. "It is really cool for the fans and for the
teams to see your car come across there under green-flag conditions and those
checkered flags waving. It does mean more."

Crew chief Robbie Loomis said Gordon's car had about five laps worth of fuel
left in the tank.

None of the finishers ran out of fuel, one of Jeff Burton's main concerns with
the green-white-checkered finish.

"Mark Martin might not like it because he ran the prescribed distance and had a
problem, and Earnhardt had a problem," Burton said. "I'm OK with it. There are
going to be winners in it and there are going to be losers in it."
Kasey Kahne Credit: Autostock
The winners Sunday were Kasey Kahne, who moved up one spot to finish fourth;
Kevin Harvick, who went from 11th to eighth, Bill Elliott, who went from 12th to
ninth; and Kurt Busch, who went from 13th to 10th.

"That green-white-checkered worked, but it worked at the expense of some good
race teams," Elliott said. "The sad side about it is that the race teams have
got to pay for it."

Earnhardt Jr., Martin and Ricky Rudd all had trouble on Lap 161 - one more than
the advertised 160-lap distance.

"You knew they were going to wreck," Matt Kenseth said. "They knew they were
going to wreck, and we knew they were going to wreck. It's not a surprise.
That's just going to be part of that rule."

But Kahne said things will all even out in the end.

"I was saying all along to give us one chance at a green-white-checkered," Kahne
said. "If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. If there is a wreck, and we're in
it, then that's a bad thing.

"But there are also times where you can pass a car or win the race. It all evens
out. The fans get a green-white-checker, they get a race that finishes under
green."



"I always end up being the man in
the middle." Dr. Maurice E. Gibb
www.pettyracing.com
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