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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, event was raced on July 27 at the 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.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=2008 Allstate 400 At The Brickyard )〕 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. ==Pre-race news== As there was a two week gap in the schedule between the LifeLock.com 400 and this race, the last break of the season before a stretch of seventeen straight races, there was plenty of news stories to go around. * As expected, 2008 Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman and Penske Racing parted ways, effective following the season's end. * JTG Racing sold one-half interest to former Cleveland Cavaliers basketball star and ESPN anayist Brad Daugherty, and will be renamed JTG Daugherty Racing and enter the 2009 season with Marcos Ambrose as their driver. Little Debbies will be the sponsor of the #47 car. *Technical Director Steve Peterson, who led NASCAR's safety drive following the 2001 Daytona 500, died on July 15 at the age of 58 of an apparent heart attack. Peterson mandated the HANS device, the SAFER barrier and the Car of Tomorrow in the seven years since the death of Dale Earnhardt in the final moments of that race. *Due to their recent economic troubles, General Motors has announced that they will not renew their contracts to be the official pace car providers for Bristol, New Hampshire or Richmond. *Two weeks earlier, Tony Stewart announced he will be part-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009. Now, he will bring a new number (14, made famous by A.J. Foyt) and sponsors (Office Depot, coming from Carl Edwards' Roush Fenway Racing #99 and Old Spice). *Discussions have started between Chip Ganassi Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing on a possible merger between the two groups. Ganassi shut down the #40 team prior to the Coke Zero 400 while Waltrip's team will lose UPS after the season, with the sole sticking points remaining being which team will close to get within NASCAR's four-team cap as of 2010, and the brand of car to use (Waltrip teams drive Toyotas, while Ganassi uses Dodge.) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「2008 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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