Elliott, heat scorch opponents

In the hottest-recorded Brickyard 400 in history, Bill Elliott blazed to victory Sunday, winning the ninth NASCAR race in Indianapolis in Elliott's 680th career race.\nElliott credited his crew for his dominating performance. \n"Regardless of what I did, I'm so proud of my guys. To come here and dominate like we did, we're chipping away at (the other teams)," he said.\nRay Evernham, Elliott's car owner, was in tears as Elliott crossed the finish line for the win in the 160-lap event, 93 of those led by the No. 9 Dodge. \n"It's a shining day for me. I really still can't believe this, what those guys have done for me," Evernham said.\nAfter a slow pit stop on lap 134, Elliott passed and diced his way to the front from fifth position. His crew got him out behind No. 6 Mark Martin, No. 20 Tony Stewart, No. 2 Rusty Wallace and No. 29 Kevin Harvick, but none were a match for the dominant car of Elliott.\nEven a late-race caution at lap 152 could not stop Elliott. Debris was found on the track, and the lead cars were bunched together again for the restart on lap 156, but it didn't seem to matter for the leader. \nElliott pulled away from Wallace in second and didn't look back to score his 43rd career Winston Cup victory and second in as many weeks. He won last week in the Pennsylvania 500 in Pocono and has now moved from ninth to sixth in the Winston Cup points standings.\n"He had four fresh tires versus my two, and I just couldn't hold him off," Wallace said. "Five laps to go ... I thought we had a shot to win that thing. I had a great run going on, but just no win."\nElliott and Stewart were the class of the field throughout much of the race, passing the lead back and forth and leading 136 of the 160 laps, but Stewart could not keep up with the No. 9 car in the final 17 laps. Elliott worked his way to the front while Stewart fell back from second, finally finishing in the 12th spot.\n"The (No.) 20 car was good early, and the (No.) 2 car was good at the end," Elliott said.\nEvernham said his team has been the among the top lately, though. \n"They've just put it together. For the past two weeks, they've put a great car out on the race track," he said.\nWallace agreed after Elliott beat him to the line by 1.269 seconds. \n"That's probably one of the number one teams out there," he said.\nRACE SUMMARY\nThe race began Sunday at 1:50 p.m. under hazy, humid skies, with the track temperature reaching 134 degrees.\nThe cars made a clean start through the first 12 laps until No. 11 Brett Bodine and No. 14 Mike Wallace crashed in the exit of Turn 2. Mike Wallace spun first after cutting a right front tire and collected Bodine into the wall.\nBodine said he saw Mike Wallace spinning in front but couldn't avoid him at the end of the turn.\n"He went straight into the wall coming off (Turn) 2, and I tried to get below him before he ricocheted, but he must have come real quick, and he caught me right on the passenger door," Bodine said.\nThe leaders then made a pit stop and No. 8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. beat Stewart, Elliott, No. 31 Robby Gordon and Martin out of the pits. On the exit of pit-road, No. 10 Johnny Benson and No. 19 Jeremy Mayfield made contact with each other, causing damage to the right front of Benson's car.\nThe field restarted on lap 16, and within 10 laps No. 24 Jeff Gordon began making a move toward the front, moving to seventh position after starting in 21st. The rest of the leaders were just too strong to catch, as Stewart and Elliott passed Earnhardt Jr. and took a commanding 6.5 second lead over the rest of the field.\nAfter a strong start beginning in the third position, Earnhardt Jr. began falling back into the field after the caution and never climbed back into the top 20.\nOn lap 36, however, Stewart and Elliott's lead disappeared when No. 41 Jimmy Spencer and No. 97 Kurt Busch got together and Busch was sent hard into the Turn 3 wall.\nBusch showed his disapproval of Spencer's move, waving his arms and yelling at Spencer when he drove by the next lap.\n"Just an unfortunate circumstance where we raced with an old, decrepit has-been, or I guess a never-was is the term we need to use for Jimmy Spencer," Busch said. "That's how he races, so there's nothing I can do, and we're not going to go back and race him like that."\nThe leaders pitted again and Elliott raced Stewart off of pit-road first, followed by No. 12 Ryan Newman, Robby Gordon and Harvick. \nThe race resumed on lap 43, but the green laps did not last long as No. 09 Geoffrey Bodine spun in Turn 1, hitting the outside wall and then sliding down into the inside wall hard.\nNine laps after the caution period, Elliott pulled out to a 3.496-second lead over the car of second-place No. 17 Matt Kenseth, showing his strength yet again. But on the 70th lap, the yellow flag came out again for debris in Turn 2, and Elliott's lead was diminished again.\nThe cars made another restart on lap 73, and Elliott's car was the class of the field, although he was mired back in fifth place. Elliott passed the four cars in front of him in the first five laps, and began to pull away from the rest of the field by a half-second before the caution came out again at the halfway point of the race for No. 19 Jeremy Mayfield, who lost an engine and spilled oil on the track.\nAfter most of the field pitted, racing resumed on lap 85 with Elliott and Stewart leading the pack.\nAt lap 98, No. 7 Casey Atwood hit the short-chute barrier in between turns one and two, bringing out the sixth caution of the day. \nThe leaders came into pit road for four tires and fuel, shuffling the restart order on lap 104 to Elliott, Jeff Gordon, and Martin in the first three spots.\nGordon's DuPont Chevrolet began losing spots within the next ten laps, giving No. 88 Dale Jarrett and Martin spots two and three behind Elliott, but neither could close the gap on Elliott, who led by 4.5 seconds at lap 122.\nAfter the yellow flag on lap 134, Rusty Wallace took the lead in the pits, but Elliott began his move to the front. Elliot took the lead from Wallace on lap 149 and never looked back.