Sunday 27th July 2008
The Car of Tomorrow was used for the first time at Indianapolis. The Goodyear tires suffered bad wear patterns, causing blowouts in some cases after only 8-10 laps of green-flag racing. After several blowouts and crashes early in the race, NASCAR mandated lengthy competition cautions at roughly 10-lap intervals for teams to change tires. The longest stretch of green flag racing all day was a mere 12 laps, effectively making the race, according Dale Earnhardt, Jr., a series of heat races with a ten-lap feature at the end. Fans, competitors, and media were highly critical of the event, which was rendered largely uncompetitive. Jimmie Johnson survived the tire problems to win, after only a mild challenge at the end by Carl Edwards.