Brickyard blowout bad for Goodyear

In the heyday of stock-car racing, when the cars looked like those you'd see on Route 66, the adage was, "Win on Sunday and sell on Monday."

For instance, if a NASCAR driver won in a Monte Carlo -- or at least a car with decals claiming it was a Monte Carlo -- then more models of that car would leave Chevy showrooms in the days soon after the visit to Victory Lane.

If that marketing philosophy were true today, it wouldn't carry over to sales of Goodyear tires after Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Jimmie Johnson's winning Chevy and all of the cars were racing on Goodyear Eagles. But don't expect long lines at Goodyear dealerships this week after the rubber didn't exactly meet the Indy road.

Eight of a race-record 11 caution periods were tire related, including six "competition yellows" to limit racing to no more than 13 consecutive green-flag laps to minimize the risk of tire blowouts during the 160-lap race at the Brickyard.

"This was the Tire de Farce. A fiasco. A joke. An embarrassment for NASCAR and for Goodyear," wrote Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star.

"Unfair to the fans, who paid good money to attend the Competition Yellow 400. And unsafe for the drivers who were screaming around the track on rubberized time bombs that couldn't last beyond 10 laps. ...

"Throughout the Speedway, the boos were audible and understandable. ...

"At one point, the fans even booed the poor schmoe driving the sweeper along a track that was littered with bits of rubber and dust."

It's unknown if the sweeper ran on Goodyears and had to pit for fresh tires every few minutes.

• RANKED REBELS -- Since the NCAA men's basketball tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, UNLV ranks No. 8 among the most prestigious programs, according to a formula used by ESPN.

Only Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona, UConn and UCLA ranked higher.

Back-to-back tournament appearances in 2007 and 2008 helped lift the Rebels into the top 10.

They might have cracked the top five were it not for the M&M disaster in 1992 when then-UNLV president Robert Maxson fired Jerry Tarkanian and traded his 509-105 record for Rollie Massimino, who coached UNLV to a disappointing 36-21 record over two seasons.

• HONG KONG 'FLEW' -- Two dead birds were discovered at an Olympic equestrian venue in Hong Kong, and authorities were performing tests to determine whether they were infected with bird flu.

The Aug. 9-21 Olympic equestrian events were moved from Beijing to the former British colony because of a rash of equine diseases and substandard quarantine procedures on the mainland.

Bird flu doesn't pose a threat to horses, but can be lethal to humans.

Obviously, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals will not be too concerned.

COMPILED BY JEFF WOLF REVIEW-JOURNAL