Top 25 NASCAR Drivers at the Brickyard | 15-11

Editor’s Note: This is the third of a five-part series looking back at the top 25 drivers to race in the 24 editions of the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Florida Georgia Line, based on victories, results, laps led, qualifying performance and other factors. The drivers will be unveiled five at a time, starting with No. 25 and finishing with No. 1. The 25th Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Florida Georgia Line is scheduled for Sept. 7-9 at IMS. View Top 25 NASCAR Drivers at the Brickyard | 20-16 and 25-21.

No. 15: Rusty Wallace. When it comes to determining the greatest driver in Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Florida Georgia Line without a victory in the event, it’s hard to argue against Rusty Wallace.

Wallace finished second an excruciating three times in his 12 starts at IMS. He finished in the top 10 nine times at the Brickyard. He led 148 total laps, second only to Juan Pablo Montoya among drivers without a Brickyard win. He was running at the finish and on the lead lap in 11 of his 12 starts, a blown engine in 1997 as the only exception.

Put simply, Rusty always wore a bull’s eye as one of the drivers most likely to win at the Brickyard. But it never happened.

Wallace led 110 laps before being hunted down by Bobby Labonte in the late stages of the 2000 race, but perhaps his biggest near-miss came in 1995.

Rusty lost by just .37 of a second to rival Dale Earnhardt. He held a commanding lead on Earnhardt when pitting on Lap 129 but got caught behind a pit-lane accident involving Joe Nemechek and Rich Bickle. That delay let Earnhardt take the lead for good.

No. 14: Paul Menard. Paul Menard has just two top-10 finishes in 11 career starts at the Brickyard, so some may wonder how he appeared in such a lofty spot on this list.

Well, when one of those top 10’s is a victory, it’s hard to place him below non-winners. As the old saying goes, second place is first loser.

There was nothing fluky about Menard’s first top 10 at IMS, his victory in 2011. Sure, it was his only victory to date in the NASCAR Cup Series, and he entered the race as the “other guy” at Richard Childress Racing besides teammates and Cup Series race winners Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer.

Menard also was 0-for-166 in his Cup career entering that race, but he ended the day in Victory Lane with arguably the most surprising win in the event’s history, beating Brickyard legend Jeff Gordon to the finish by .725 of a second.

While the first half of the race was a power play with no concern for fuel, two debris cautions – on Lap 95 and again on Lap 115 – transformed the race into a strategic showdown. Menard and crew chief “Slugger” Labbe calculated brilliantly.

Labbe urged Menard to save fuel, ordering Menard to let 2010 winner Jamie McMurray take the lead with nine laps to go because Labbe was convinced McMurray didn’t have enough gas to make the finish without a stop. Labbe finally let Menard stand on the gas with full throttle with four laps to go, and Menard quickly passed McMurray for the lead.

McMurray faded to fourth, and Gordon became the newest threat after rallying from 12 seconds behind the lead after a late fuel stop. But Menard drove perfectly over the final four laps to deliver an emotional first victory at IMS to his father, home improvement store magnate John Menard, who had sponsored and fielded cars in the Indianapolis 500 for more than two decades from the 1980s into the 2000s.

No. 13: Jamie McMurray. Quick – name the drivers who have won the Indianapolis 500 in cars owned or partially owned by Chip Ganassi. Here’s some help – Emerson Fittipaldi, Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti.

Now answer the same question for the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Florida Georgia Line. Again, some help, but it’s a much shorter list – Jamie McMurray.

Jamie Mac has five top-10 finishes in 15 starts at the Brickyard, including The Chipster’s only win in the race, in 2010.

That victory achieved a rare “double” for McMurray as one of only three drivers to win the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 in the same year, joining Dale Jarrett and Jimmie Johnson. Ganassi also won the Indianapolis 500 in 2010 with Franchitti, becoming the only team owner to win the three most prestigious oval races in America – the Daytona 500, Indy 500 and Brickyard 400 – in the same year. The “Chip Sweep” was born.

McMurray appeared to be the “best of the rest” behind teammate Juan Pablo Montoya in 2010. Montoya led McMurray by more than three seconds when a yellow flag flew for debris on Lap 139.

During the ensuing pit stops, McMurray, 2003 Brickyard winner Kevin Harvick and most leading teams decided to take just two tires. Montoya’s team decided on four tires, and he fell to ninth place on the restart on Lap 143.

Montoya was poised to charge toward the front with more fresh rubber and a faster car than his rivals. But he slid out of the racing groove and hit the SAFER Barrier on Lap 147, collecting fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the wreck. Montoya ended up 32nd.

Harvick passed McMurray for the lead on Lap 145 and led the field on the final restart, on Lap 150. But McMurray drove past Harvick for the top spot on that lap and beat Harvick to the finish by 1.391 seconds.

No. 12: Ricky Rudd. Long known as one of NASCAR’s greatest road racers, Ricky Rudd was pretty handy around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval, too.

Rudd was a major player in the first eight editions of the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Florida Georgia Line. He recorded four top-10 starts, including snatching the pole from Darrell Waltrip in 2000, and also produced three top-10 finishes during that span.

His results tailed off in his last five starts at IMS, with only one top-10 start and no top-10 finishes. But Rudd always will be remembered at IMS for his Brickyard victory in 1997, when he became still the only owner-driver to win the race in one of the most dramatic editions of the annual NASCAR classic.

Veteran Rudd scored one of the most popular victories in the 24-year history of the race by doing the seemingly impossible by stretching his last fuel run to a mind-boggling 46 laps.

His No. 10 Rudd Performance Motorsports Ford crossed the Yard of Bricks .183 of a second in front of Bobby Labonte. It’s still the closest finish in the history of this race.

Rudd led Lap 114, when he made his final pit stop. He took the lead on Lap 147 when leader Jeff Burton was penalized for speeding on his final pit stop.

The crowd held its collective breath over the last 14 laps to see if Rudd could hold off a charging Labonte while stretching his fuel run to the checkered flag. A three-lap caution period ensured Rudd made it to the finish first.

Rudd finally ran out of gas – on the cooldown lap as he prepared to enter Victory Lane for the biggest win of his career.

No. 11: Ryan Newman. Tony Stewart produced plenty of drama – and relief – when he finally broke through to win the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Florida Georgia Line in 2005, becoming the first Indiana-born driver to triumph in the race.

Ryan Newman became the second Hoosier native to win the Brickyard, in 2013. And while not as readily remembered as Stewart’s first win at IMS, the “Rocket Man’s” victory also included plenty of drama.

Newman entered the 2013 race with a pink slip in his hand, as Stewart had informed Newman that he had lost his ride with Stewart’s team after the season just two weeks before the race.

So Newman brushed up his resume for prospective car owners the best way possible: He earned his first Brickyard victory from the pole.

Newman grabbed the biggest win of his career since capturing the 2008 Daytona 500 by holding off the hottest driver at IMS for the seven previous years – four-time and reigning Brickyard winner Jimmie Johnson.

“Rocket Man” led the last 12 laps of the race in the third-fastest Brickyard race in history, crossing the finish line with an average speed of 153.485 mph. The win secured Newman’s status among the elite drivers in NASCAR and helped him land a ride with powerful Richard Childress Racing starting in 2014, the team for which he still drives.

The 2013 victory is one of three top-10 finishes in 17 career starts at the Brickyard for Newman. He always been known as one of the best qualifiers in NASCAR, and that trend continued at IMS. Newman won the pole in 2013, one of his event-record 13 top-10 starts, including an event-record eight in the top five.