Top 25 Moments at the Brickyard | 15-11

Editor’s Note: This is the third of a five-part series looking back at the top 25 moments in the 24-year history of the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Florida Georgia Line. The moments will be unveiled five at a time, starting with No. 25 and finishing with No. 1. The 25th Running of the event is scheduled for Sept. 7-9 at IMS. View Top 25 Moments at the Brickyard | 20-16 and 25-21.

No. 15: Menard shocks field, delivers emotional win. Paul Menard entered the 2011 Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard winless at the top level, 0-for-166 starts in his NASCAR Cup Series career.

He was the most overlooked of the four drivers on powerful Richard Childress Racing, which also fielded cars for 2003 Brickyard winner Kevin Harvick and multi-time Cup Series race winners Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer.

But Menard turned his dreams into reality that day by driving into 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, and delivering an emotional gift to his father.

Menard qualified 15th in his No. 27 NIBCO/Menards Chevrolet and wasn’t a factor in the first half of the race. Cup Series stars Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne flexed the biggest muscles early, combining to lead 70 laps before Menard first led on Lap 82.

There was no concern about fuel or tactics while Gordon and Kahne dominated early. But 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 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.

That victory remains the sole win of Menard’s Cup career, and it’s hard to imagine any other victories with more meaning or emotion.

No. 14: McMurray finishes off ‘Chip Sweep.’ There are some athletes and teams that just find a way to deliver on the biggest stages at certain times in their careers.

That time was 2010 for Jamie McMurray and Chip Ganassi Racing.

McMurray entered the 2010 season with three victories in his seven full seasons in the Cup Series. He was a solid contender for victories but not one of the true superstars of the sport, as his previous best finish in the standings was 11th in 2004.

But McMurray opened 2010 with the biggest victory in stock car racing, capturing the Daytona 500. He then came to Indianapolis in July with plenty of motivation.

McMurray was trying to become just the third driver to win the two biggest races in NASCAR – the Daytona 500 and Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Florida Georgia Line – in the same season, joining Dale Jarrett and Jimmie Johnson. He also was trying to help team owner Chip Ganassi complete an unprecedented sweep of the three biggest oval races in the world in the same season, as Ganassi’s IndyCar driver Dario Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500 in May. Finally, a victory by any Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver at the Brickyard would erase the memory of crushing disappointment from the previous season for the team.

Indianapolis 500 and Formula One veteran Juan Pablo Montoya led by five seconds in the 2009 Brickyard in an Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet when he was penalized for speeding on pit lane after leading 116 of the first 124 laps, never leading again.

At the start of the 2010 race, it once again looked like Montoya would be the first Ganassi driver to win this race and deliver the “Chip Sweep.” 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 then 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.

Jamie Mac went on to earn a third win that season in the best year of his career. No driver has completed Daytona-Brickyard double in the same year, and no team has won Daytona, Indy and the Brickyard in the same year since 2010.

No. 13: Harvick comes through for RCR. Dale Earnhardt suffered fatal injuries in the Daytona 500 in February 2001, and his loss still is felt by NASCAR fans and the NASCAR community.

Earnhardt’s son, Dale Jr., started the process of coping and closure for many NASCAR fans with his poignant victory in the next race at Daytona after his father’s death, in July 2001. But Dale Jr. never enjoyed similar success at the Brickyard, and the team for which Dale Sr. won six of his seven Cup Series championships, Richard Childress Racing, hadn’t visited Victory Lane at IMS since “The Intimidator’s” win in the second Brickyard 400, in 1995.

While Dale Jr. shouldered the heavy burden of expectation for millions of his father’s fans, Kevin Harvick was a fitting replacement for “The Man in Black” at RCR. Harvick was brash, aggressive. He drove the famous Goodwrench Chevrolet, now carrying No. 29 and featuring hints of silver and red in its trademark black color scheme.

It’s safe to say Earnhardt would have been proud of Harvick’s performance Aug. 3, 2003. Harvick led 33 laps and became the first driver to win the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Florida Georgia Line from the pole.

Harvick used lap traffic to pass Matt Kenseth for the lead on a restart on Lap 145, and Harvick never surrendered the top spot. But there still was drama in the final 10 laps, as a big accident on Lap 146 that collected six cars in Turn 3 forced a restart with 10 laps remaining.

“Happy” chose the outside lane on the restart and drove away from the field, finishing 2.758 seconds ahead of second place Kenseth.

Emotion flowed freely in Victory Lane. It was the first Brickyard win for team owner Childress and RCR since Earnhardt’s victory in 1995. Harvick also was ecstatic to win on the track where his childhood racing idol, fellow Bakersfield, California, resident Rick Mears, won four Indianapolis 500s.

No. 12: Bodine family feud explodes. Geoff and Brett Bodine proved in the inaugural Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Florida Georgia Line that internal combustion is stronger than blood, at least in their family.

One of the most surreal scenarios in Brickyard history unfolded during the historic inaugural NASCAR race at the Brickyard on Aug. 6, 1994, as a simmering family feud between the Bodine brothers erupted on the famous 2.5-mile oval and in the media after they collided with each other twice during the race.

Geoff and younger brother Brett Bodine battled for the lead on Lap 100 of the 160-lap race, with contact between the two feuding brothers in Turn 3 that helped Geoff take the lead. But Brett exacted revenge in the next corner, hitting his brother into a spin that also collected Dale Jarrett and eliminated Geoff Bodine and Jarrett from the race.

Brett Bodine went on to finish second in the race, just .53 of a second behind history-making inaugural winner Jeff Gordon. But the biggest topic of conversation about Brett Bodine after the race wasn’t his outstanding result – it was about the lack of brotherly love between the Bodines.

“He spun me out,” Geoff Bodine said of his brother. “We've been having family problems, and he took it out on the racetrack. I never expected him to do that. He’s my brother, and I still love him, but he spun me out.”

Brett Bodine insisted he didn’t intend to wreck his brother but did confirm their feud and family problems after the race.

“It doesn't surprise me, coming from him,” Brett said of his brother’s remarks. “Unfortunately, that's the way he is. He has to blame it on something.

“He and I haven't spoken in a couple of months. It's more or less his decision, and I'll leave it that way. We’re going to Watkins Glen next week, and I’m sure if the two of us don't get together, Mom will get us together and slap our hands.”

Zing! The Thanksgiving dinner table may have been interesting at the Bodine family gathering in November 1994.

No. 11: Kahne conquers chaos to win. The 2017 Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard was the slowest Cup Series race ever at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with an average speed of just 114.384 mph. But it was the wildest of the 24 versions of the race.

Former USAC open-wheel star Kasey Kahne emerged from pure chaos over the last 17 laps to earn the biggest victory of his career and end a 102-race winless streak that dated to August 2014. The victory also was the record 10th for Hendrick Motorsports in this race and the first for the team not recorded either by Jeff Gordon or Jimmie Johnson.

Maybe it was destiny that this would be a crazy race. The first of three red flags flew just 11 laps into the 160-lap race when a vicious thunderstorm rolled through Central Indiana.

The race resumed after a delay of one hour, 47 minutes, and Kyle Busch won the first two segments of NASCAR’s new stage racing system that made its IMS debut. It appeared that series points leader Martin Truex Jr. was the only driver who could halt Busch from an unprecedented third consecutive Brickyard victory.

Then everything changed on Lap 111. Truex hit Busch while they battled for the lead on the restart. Both drivers crashed, and the two fastest cars on the property were out of the race.

Drivers and crew chiefs began to play the fuel strategy games typical to the Brickyard over the closing laps. But all those calculations flew off their pit boxes on Lap 151 when Clint Bowyer triggered a four-car crash on the front straight that also collected Kurt Busch, Erik Jones and 2010 winner Jamie McMurray. The red flag flew for the second time for cleanup.

Kahne pitted from third just as that accident unfolded, and he emerged with the lead on Lap 152. Kahne, Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski went three-wide for the lead on Lap 159, with Johnson the odd man out after spinning into the SAFER Barrier after contact with Kahne, who then tapped Keselowski.

That triggered a caution period on Lap 160 and NASCAR’s “overtime.” Then one of the biggest crashes in Brickyard history unfolded on the restart on Lap 163, when Michael McDowell nudged Trevor Bayne on the restart, collecting six other cars in a “big one” that turned the front straight into a snarl of crumpled cars and crushed dreams.

The last of the three red flags during the race flew for cleanup, with Keselowski as the leader for the second “green-white-checkered” attempt. The final restart, on Lap 166, came at 8:49 p.m., just 17 minutes before sunset.

Kahne dove under Keselowski for the lead in Turn 1 and started to pull away. Meanwhile, a three-car crash behind the leaders, involving Denny Hamlin, Ty Dillon and Paul Menard, caused Kahne to take the white and yellow flag together, sealing his victory just 11 minutes before the official sunset in Indianapolis.