Brickyard 400 Weekend: Jamie McMurray Kisses The Bricks At Indy

Tony Stewart used a two-tire pit stop to pull off a late top-five finish, which he said "feels like a win" compared to the way his Stewart-Haas Racing team began the weekend.

Stewart said his car had "been terrible all weekend," which left him in a "doom-and-gloom mood," but crew chief Darian Grubb pulled a late night on Saturday running through simulation software to try and figure out what improvements could be made – and it paid off.

"If somebody would've said we were going to finish in the top five, I would've told them they were crazy," Stewart said. "We were not a top-five car last night. We were a 20th-place race car."

Stewart said he fought dehydration because he was sick the last few days, but doctors at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield care center "worked with me the last two nights trying to get me feeling better."

"Because of that, that got us where we are today," he said.

Is his Stewart-Haas Racing team ready to win again? Stewart wasn't ready to go that far.

"We're still lacking, I'll be honest," he said. "I wish I could say we are where we need to be, but I'm proud of our organization. All of our guys at Stewart-Haas Racing who don't get to come to the racetrack on the weekend, they've really been working hard. The engineers have been working long hours and staying afterward each day, trying to make us better.

"That's all – as a driver and especially as a car owner – you can ask for is the hard effort these guys are putting forth."

By now, race fans are well aware of the start-and-park teams who show up every week with no intention of running the entire race but who are simply there to collect money for running a few laps and quitting.

NASCAR requires teams to declare a reason why they are out of the race, which can vary from "Engine" to "Overheating" to "Vibration" to "Handling."

Quite often, the drivers are pretty up front about their situations. But when a representative from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway public relations department asked the drivers for quotes following their exits, not all of them may have told the entire truth.

Which, if any, were honest? Decide for yourself:

TODD BODINE, finished 37th. Official reason: Rear gear. "We had a vibration in the gearbox, and it got to rattling so bad, I had to park it." Total laps: 52; total money: $134,675.

DAVE BLANEY, finished 41st. Official reason: Electrical. "We had a transmission problem in practice and it just kept getting worse. So we pulled it out." Total laps: 20; total money: $134,225.

JOE NEMECHEK, finished 40th. Official reason: Vibration. "In that first-lap accident, we got into the grass. We broke the splitter and knocked the bottom end out of the radiator. We fixed those, but we picked up a vibration we couldn't get rid of." Total laps: 33; total money: $134,375.

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, finished 42nd. Official reason: Overheating. "I got caught up in that first-lap accident. We must have stuffed some dirt into the carburetor. We tried to clean the carburetor, but it didn't work." Total laps: 19; total money: $134,125.

When Juan Pablo Montoya overdrove his suddenly ill-handling car and hit the wall in the waning laps of Sunday's Brickyard 400, he immediately slammed on his brakes to try to slow the car and get to pit road.

Unfortunately, two cars were in the way when he tried to come across the track – Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Marcos Ambrose.

And despite what Earnhardt Jr. called a "great, great car," the No. 88 team was relegated to a 27th-place finish after the incident.

"I don't know how he got in the fence, but I wish he could have managed to get a little further clear of everybody when he was headed to the pits," Earnhardt Jr. said. "...I didn't even see him hit the wall. I just know he came flying across Marcos' hood in a dead hurry to stop the car and get to pit road, and I didn't have nowhere to go.

"I drove into the side of Marcos and probably screwed him up. I saw he had to pit and work on his car, so I'm sorry about that. Damn it, you know? I guess Juan was just frustrated."

Earnhardt Jr. took a hit in the point standings, dropping one spot to 14th. He's now 93 points outside a spot in the Chase.

"The finish is a bitch, but what are you going to do?" he said. "I can't help what happened to me out there. I didn't do it to myself this time. My crew was good and we made some good adjustments on the car and we actually had made it better. We're getting better. We're still missing a little bit, but we're getting better."

At the start of the race, Earnhardt Jr. said he was one of the best cars on the track, but when track conditions tightened his car, "we were really shit after that."

But crew chief Lance McGrew had the team take a spring rubber out of the left rear, and Earnhardt Jr. said, "Man, that thing was great" after the change.

Just prior to the Montoya incident, Earnhardt Jr. was running inside the top 15 and said he was competitive with Kurt Busch (who finished 10th) and Kasey Kahne (13th). But the Hendrick Motorsports driver said he didn't think his team was much better than where it was running when the wreck occurred.

"That's about as good as I think we are right there," he said. "We just gotta find a little bit more, but we're learning. If we keep having this kind of luck, we're not going to make the Chase, and that's just something we'll have to live with. But we'll keep working to try to make it."

Asked if he was worried about his Chase chances after a less-than-stellar result, Earnhardt Jr. shook his head.

"I got no reason to worry – it does what it does to it," he said. "That's pretty much how I feel about it. You know, it's disappointing, of course. But I ain't gonna damn worry about all that."

The second-biggest race of the season is upon us, and it's time to talk about it.

Let us know what you think of the on-track action, break down the wrecks and critique the TV broadcast.

But before anything, let us know who you think is going to win (our pick is Jimmie Johnson).

Make sure the auto-refresh box is checked so you can see the latest comments from other fans and SB Nation's Jeff Gluck.

Scott Speed was not his typical outgoing, ebullient self on Saturday after qualifying 30th for the Brickyard 400.

The Red Bull Racing driver looked frustrated, and said his team was continuing to search for answers about its performance.

"In general, we've still been off," he said. "I don't know where (the speed) is at. If you go back to Chicago, the feel of the car to me felt really similar to when we were running top-10s at the beginning of the year and running really well.

"We just don't have any speed. Not really sure where it's coming from."

Speed said at Red Bull, "everyone is searching for something," which has made for a "really tough atmosphere." The absence of 2009 Chase participant Brian Vickers hasn't helped, but Speed said the team was struggling well before that.

"It sucks running like we are right now," he said. "I much more enjoyed the beginning of the year. It's not just myself, it's the whole team. Everyone is really frustrated at where the speed has gone."

Chicagoland was a prime example. Last year, the Red Bull cars qualified 1-2 for the race and ran strongly. This year, Speed qualified 39th and finished 30th; interim teammate Reed Sorenson qualified 24th and finished 27th.

"It's like we know we have a good package there, we know it's super solid and we just can't make it work," he said. "It just doesn't have the speed."

In regard to rumors that Speed has already signed a contract extension for next season, the former F1 driver said, "I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about it."

Did he expect to be back with Red Bull next year?

"We'll see," he said.

In the meantime, Speed said, "I just try to do everything I can do the best I can and focus on what I can do the best, and not try to be a crew chief or a team manager."

Ryan Newman announced Friday during a Chevrolet question-and-answer session with fans that he and wife Krissie are expecting their first child.

When reporters asked him about it on Saturday, he had a little fun before confirming the news.

Here's what happened (reporters' questions in bold):

So you're going to be a dad, apparently?

That's what they're saying. I don't know.

You don't know?

No.

You're always the last to know.

I guess, yeah.

Well it was said on the Chevy stage.

Somebody asked me a question. I answered the question.

So are you excited about what they said?

Yeah. I am.

What was the question and the answer?

What question? What answer?

The question about the baby and the answer you gave.

What baby? Hornish's? Biffle's?

Carl's, I don't know.

Carl's going to have more than a baby if he keeps it up.

So you don't want to talk about it yet?

Talk about what?

The potential question on stage?

There was no potential question. There was a question.

I'm confused.

Well, if you're confused, I don't want you to write about it.

Are you going to be a dad?

Yeah, that's true.

Congratulations. Have you come up with a name yet?

A name? They already changed it from the Allstate 400 to the Brickyard 400.

Mark Martin is tired of hearing rumors and stories and questions about his future next season.

He's said time and again that he's driving the No. 5 car for Hendrick Motorsports in 2011 and, despite what people say about Kasey Kahne possibly replacing him at Hendrick a year early, Martin said he will pilot the 5 next year.

"I just want to do what I said I was going to do," he said Friday. "That's what we're going to do. That's what they want. That's what I want.

"I don't know why everybody makes such a big deal out of this. I understand it'll all be put to rest whenever they announce what Kasey's going to do. I understand that. But you should be focusing on that – what Kasey is going to do – because I've told you what I'm going to do."

Martin recruited Kahne to replace him at Hendrick in 2012, but with Kahne's ride for next year still unannounced – and with other possibilities looking scarce – people keep suggesting Martin will step aside a year early.

ESPN analyst Ray Evernham told reporters Friday morning he believes Martin will announced in three or four weeks he will leave Hendrick after this season so Kahne has a ride.

Martin seemed to grow more frustrated by the word when reporters questioned him about his future.

"You can speculate all you want, but when you ask me a question and I give you my best, honest answer and you second-guess me and you second-guess me, I start to get tired of it," he said. "And that's where we're at. It's very disrespectful. I just feel like it's very disrespectful."

Carl Edwards said he accepted NASCAR's points penalty in light of the other cars that were wrecked as a result of his incident with Brad Keselowski at Gateway last weekend, but offered no signs of regret for his actions otherwise.

"It's not OK to move me out of the way," Edwards said Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "If somebody else wants to let people move them out of the way for the win, then that's OK with me. They can do whatever they like. I can't allow myself to be run over like that."

Edwards scoffed at Keselowski's claim that the initial contact between the two was unintentional. He said several times that Keselowski knew exactly what he was doing when he tapped Edwards and made a pass on the final lap, and said the Penske Racing driver was too good to make a mistake like that.

"I believe that he did not make a mistake – that was intentional," Edwards said. "He moved me out of the way to gain an advantage – and it almost worked. He almost won the race. You know, that's what he did. NASCAR knows what happened and he knows what happened and that's why they penalized him.

"I'm telling you as a race car driver – and any other race car driver will tell you – that wasn't a slip-up. And if it was a slip-up, you have a little bit of insurance you leave yourself when you go down in the corner like that. On the last lap, you might not say, 'I'm going to drive down in this corner and hit this guy,' but trust me, it's real easy to say, 'I'm going to drive down into this corner a little bit harder than I have, consequences be damned – and this guy's going to be the one that pays.'"

And because of Edwards' firm belief that Keselowski hit him on purpose – thus potentially snatching a win away – Edwards said he was left with no choice but to retaliate.

If it had been another driver, Edwards said he could have given him the benefit of the doubt. Given their past history, Edwards was certain he needed to stand up for himself.

"I didn't get here by allowing anybody to run over me," he said. "I gotta say 'Thank you' to my fans who understand what happened there. It's simple: He took the win away from me; I took it back from him. The only bad part is, other people were involved. I apologize to those people and accept my penalty for it.

"It is very possible to be kind, but not be weak. There's a big difference. I feel like as a person, it's my job to be kind to people, treat everybody the way I like to be treated. But I will not be walked on. I will not be stepped on. The people who are my fans and the people who know me, they respect that. And the other ones, they either can't understand it or they don't want to."

Edwards said every single person who has approached him this week has expressed support and told Edwards he did the right thing at the end of the race. He said multiple drivers have said the same thing to his face.

If the situations were reversed, Edwards said, he would not have hit Keselowski's car. If he did, he said he wouldn't have "taken advantage of it as much as he did."

"I would truthfully rather have finished second in that race and had a good race...than the way the race went," he said.

Edwards insisted that there was little difference between his actions and Keselowski's – even if the outcomes were not the same. Edwards said he could just have easily been turned into traffic like Keselowski did and gotten creamed by oncoming cars.

"I've learned that it's better not to go out and initiate contact to gain an advantage," he said. "I'm not the one initiating these instances. I just did a better job keeping my car under control."

To that end, Edwards said he was initially surprised by NASCAR's penalties (since NASCAR had indicated Saturday night that there would be none) but was pleased officials recognized Keselowski's part in the incident and penalized him as well.

"NASCAR, at the beginning of the year, said 'Take the gloves off. Have at it. Go race,'" Edwards said. "I still think NASCAR accepts that's the best way. There are unintended consequences to that, and the torn-up cars that weren't mine or Brad's, that's a bad result."

Edwards said he has no plans to speak with Keselowski – figuring it would accomplish very little – but said there's nothing personal between the two drivers.

"The idea (after Atlanta) was we were supposed to go forward and race one another clean," he said. "It's tough, guys. Any driver that's being honest will tell you that when you're put in that position, it's very tough to decide what to do. But when you've repeatedly had trouble with somebody, it becomes not so tough."

Edwards said people who have spoken to him suggested he should have lied in Victory Lane to make it sound as if his actions were unintentional. But they weren't, and that's just part of his personal code.

"When someone takes something from you, you can either live with that – and Saturday night, I couldn't – or you go get it back," he said. "I just go do the very best I can, guys. And when I was done, I walked out of there with my head held high."

Don't expect Brad Keselowski to protest NASCAR's decision to put him on probation as part of the penalties issued for his incident with Carl Edwards at Gateway last weekend.

Keselowski said the penalty "didn't seem to really bother me," even though he felt like he didn't do anything wrong.

"I know there were some of my fans that got really upset about it," he said Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "To me, it tells me NASCAR doesn't want me to go out and intentionally retaliate against Carl, which is great. I didn't want to. I'm actually glad that they took that away, so now I don't have to worry about that."

He later added that because everyone would have expected him to pay Edwards back by crashing him in a future race, the penalty was "Almost a relief as much as anything else."

Keselowski's comments were part of a 20-minute session with reporters in which he patiently and calmly answered question after question about his incident with Edwards.

Among the notable items from the interview:

• Keselowski hasn't spoken to Edwards and doesn't feel doing so would be productive. "Obviously, whatever talk we had at Bristol (after the infamous Atlanta incident) was not necessarily productive, so I don't see how it would be any different."

• Since Edwards didn't have the benefit of seeing a replay, Keselowski said he "could see why Carl would be upset." In the car, drivers only see what's in front of them, and Keselowski noted "all he knew is that I made contact with him." But Keselowski insisted he did not intentionally make contact with Edwards and instead "slipped a tiny bit" as he was trying to maintain position.

• The imaginary line Edwards crossed in NASCAR's "Have at it, boys" policy remains somewhat murky for Keselowski, who called it "more clearly defined, but not quite defined yet." Keselowski said he wished NASCAR had issued a similar penalty after the Atlanta race.

• The Penske Racing driver said he wouldn't do anything differently next time because it wasn't intentional. "You can't be mad at yourself for racing hard," he said. Even prior to the contact, though, Keselowski said he felt Edwards would hit him and move him out of the way, so he gave him room to pass – which is how Edwards got by in the first place.

• Keselowski said he had no opinion on whether the penalty assessed to Edwards was the correct number of points, but said he was simply pleased NASCAR reacted to send a message that such moves are unacceptable. "Intentional wrecking is a big gap from 'Boys, have at it' in my mind," he said.

• Asked if he felt the Edwards incident was "personal," Keselowski said: "I guess if that's not personal, I don't know what personal is."

• To those who wondered why Keselowski wouldn't just fight with Edwards after the incident, Keselowski said he understood "a lot of people are really big on that" but added "I just don't see what that accomplishes at all." He said he wasn't scared to fight but reasoned, "It just gets you in more trouble most times. I was as guilty of that as anyone else when I was much younger and I think I probably learned those lessons at an earlier age."

• Keselowski said he was surprised and pleased about many of the reactions he'd heard or seen from fellow drivers, including rival Denny Hamlin, who took Keselowski's side on Twitter. "It's funny how as a group, we all have a way of rallying around what we think is best for the sport," Keselowski said. "To be clear, I don't think intentional wrecking is good for the sport. So it's good to see that some people will step up and say what they think is best for the sport in spite of everything."