Brick By Brick . . .

(Indianapolis, IN)

Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A track rich in tradition and a relative newcomer to the sport of NASCAR; the inaugural race being only 20 years ago in 1994. During that short history, the Indy Motor Speedway had been known for long green flag runs, close finishes and fuel mileage strategy. The iWCR would call this track home for the 13th week of Season 3 and it would be up to the drivers to make another chapter in the short but prestigious history of this track. Galen would once again be our points leader heading into another week and after a rough week at Phoenix where he finished 17th, Galen would look to bounce back with another solid run.

Qualifying would open with several drivers laying down laps that would be as fast or faster than anything run in practice on this hot, 90 degree day. Johnny Reed Foley would grab the Pole position with a lap of 50.158 and no one would really be close to that time. He would be followed by Randall Drake, Ken Worley, Galen Gidman, and Joe Roberts.

The Green flag would drop with Johnny Reed Foley leading down all 20 drivers and they would make an effort to get single file as quickly as possible. Ken Worley would smack the wall in turn 3 due to some issue and immediately fall to the rear of the field and as the pack came around for the completion of lap 1, it would be Foley followed by Drake, Gidman, Roberts and Perryman. By time the first couple of laps had ticked by, the top 5 cars had really started to separate themselves from the rest of the field. The GFTL race team would occupy the top 3 positions and the 8th position at this point early in the race and they'd be strong all night. A lot of good hard racing would continue to take place until lap 8 when the first caution of the evening would fly.

Lap 8 would bring out the first caution of the evening. Shawn Butler would be in the middle of passing Brian Wildasin in turn 3 and drive his car a little too low, catching the apron. This would cause him to lose control and slide up into Brian, taking them both into the wall. Shawn would recover to get a top 10 finish but Brian's night would be done and he'd go on to finish 19th.

The green would fly again on lap 14 with Joe Roberts and Johnny Reed Foley breaking away from the field. These two would be extremely strong for much of the night and they'd battle it out in the early going of the race. Roberts would eventually make the pass for the lead but at the same time the 2nd caution of the evening would fly at lap 23. Ken Worley would get lose coming off of turn three and finish what he started on lap 1 by smacking the inside wall in the infield. He would go on to finish 18th and his night would be over.

The 3rd caution of the evening would fly on lap 34 as Allen Boes would smack the wall off of turn 4. Unfortunately, he would be running in the 3rd position as this occurred and he would collect the likes of Travis Townsend, Kristopher Perryman, and Thomas Brandner. Thomas would only sustain minor damage but the other 3 drivers would have their nights ended by this accident and go on to have finishes outside the top 10.

The 4th caution would fly on lap 41 with Michael Leiby clobbering in the inside wall just in front of pit lane. Michael would get lose off of turn 4 and never recover, careening across the track and eating the inside wall. Unfortunately for Leiby, this would end his night at he would blow his engine upon impact and come home in the 14th position.

Lap 45 would bring out another caution but not for conventional reasons. Joe Roberts, Randall Drake and Galen Gidman would all disappear from the track and in their panic, they'd throw the caution due to not realizing the wrecks they were seeing were not actually taking place. It was essentially a bad LSD trip for some of the best drivers in the field, but unfortunately... it was a bad trip. All three drivers would spend the rest of the night trying to play catch up with only Joe Roberts getting back on the lead lap by race's end. The act of drivers dropping out and losing connection would continue to be a problem as the evening wore on.

On lap 57, Zach Chahalis would get lose in turn 3 and fly through the infield, thus bringing out the 6th caution of the evening. Zach would only sustain minor damage and it wouldn't really affect his evening. The 7th caution of the evening would involve Paul Krumrei and the outside wall on lap 67. Paul would be alright but he'd sustain enough damage to cause himself to go down several laps and finish outside the top 10.

Around this time, while everyone was cycling around with pit stops and others were making up laps, Johnny Reed Foley and Thomas Brandner were cementing themselves as the dominant forces in the race. Foley would lead a total of 58 laps on the night and Thomas would lead 22. Those 2 would lead over 75% of the race by time the checkered flag flew.

With 13 laps to go, the 8th caution of the evening would fly after a long green flag run. Evan A. Matwijejko would get into Deiondre Artis in turn 1 by over driving the corner. Evan would be alright but Deiondre's night would be over. Fortunately, no one else would be involved.

During the round of pit stops that would follow the 8th caution of the evening, Johnny Reed Foley would get tagged for speeding entering pit lane. This would really sour Johnny's night as he would go to the back of the field due to the penalty accessed. Also, under this caution, several more drivers and even an announcer would fall out of the server, as the night continued to be plagued by connection issues..

With 9 to go the green would fly and the 9th caution would immediately fly as John Virga would miss a shift on the restart and get run over by Joe Roberts. This would cause a chain reaction involving the likes of Foley and Shawn Butler. Foley would get the worst of this wreck and blow his engine, thus ending his night with a 10th place finish.

With 5 to go the green would fly for the final time with Thomas Brander leading them down followed by Evan A. Matwijejko, Keith Shoener, Zachary Chahalis, and Joe Roberts. Thomas would take off into another zip code while Evan, Zach and Keith would fight intensely for the 2nd position. By time the last lap rolled around Thomas would extend his lead to over 3 seconds and coast home to an easy win. Thomas, who didn't necessarily lead the most laps, lead the most important lap. He survived not only the 9 cautions but the server issues to bring home his 1st win of the season and his 4th top 5 in the last 6 races.

Congrats, Thomas!