2008 Brickyard 400

2008 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard

Race details[1]
Race 20 of 36 in the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season
2008 Brickyard 400 program cover
Date	July 27, 2008 (2008-July-27)
Official name	Allstate 400 at the Brickyard
Location	Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.5 mi (4.023 km)
Distance	160 laps, 400 mi (643.737 km)
Weather	Hot with temperatures approaching 88 °F (31 °C); wind speeds up to 9.9 miles per hour (15.9 km/h)
Average speed	115.117 miles per hour (185.263 km/h)
Attendance	240,000
Pole position
Driver	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports
Time	49.515
Most laps led
Driver	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	71
Winner
No. 48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Jerry Punch, Andy Petree and Dale Jarrett

The 2008 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, the 15th running of the event, was the twentieth race of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season and the fifteenth NASCAR race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS). It was also the first race under the ESPN/ABC section of the TV coverage for the 2008 season. The 160-lap, 400 miles (640 km) event was raced on July 27 at the 2.5 miles (4.0 km) Indianapolis Motor Speedway located in Speedway, Indiana (a separate town surrounded by Indiana's state capital). Along with ESPN, the IMS Radio Network, working with Performance Racing Network, provided radio coverage (along with Sirius Satellite Radio) with both broadcasts starting at 1 PM US EDT.

The race was deemed a "disaster" for NASCAR, Goodyear, and Indianapolis. Due to the new Car of Tomorrow, the surface at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and problems with Goodyear tires, NASCAR was forced to throw competition cautions every 10–12 laps; an average of just 9 green flag laps were run during the race.^[2] Tires started to explode if the race was allowed to continue past that distance. Even at that distance, tires were down to the cords/nylon base. At the end of the race, every tire that Goodyear had brought to the track for the weekend had been used and were no longer usable.

The race was starting to rival the Daytona 500 in terms of the biggest race of the NASCAR season before the tire problems at this race. Since this race, attendance has dropped from a 257,000+ sell out to an estimated 100,000 at the 2010 race. By the 2013 race, the last year NASCAR tracked attendance, it dropped to 70,000.^[3]