ESPN Sprint Cup

INDIANAPOLIS -- Kevin Harvick was summoned to the NASCAR principal's office following the Allstate 400 to clarify post-race contact on the backstretch with race winner Tony Stewart.

Harvick said it was a standard congratulatory love tap, not retaliation for racing contact his team felt might have cost him the race. Thus he won't be penalized, NASCAR said.

Harvick and Stewart were racing for the lead with nine laps to go and made contact, caving in the left front fender of Harvick's Chevrolet and hurting the aerodynamics of the car. Harvick quickly dropped through the field and ultimately finished seventh.

"The car just won't go with 100 pounds of downforce knocked out of it," crew chief Todd Berrier said after the race.

Harvick was not happy.

"He's always the first one to whine about people not giving him enough room, and I gave him plenty of room all day to race, and he winds up knocking the left front fender off, and we wound up finishing seventh," Harvick said. "It is what it is. Just race them how they race you."

Stewart said he made a mistake.

"I didn't mean to get into Kevin," Stewart said. "Winning that way would have ruined winning the Brickyard 400."

-- Marty Smith

Another lost day for Kahne
Kasey Kahne's day at Indy ended with a wreck for the second straight year after a tussle with Tony Raines on Lap 40. Raines spun in Turn 1, and Kahne hit the right side of Raines.

According to Raines, the continued frustration of a disappointing season came out in a post-accident chat.

"I can tell you what Kasey said to me. I went by him so fast on the outside that it got him loose and made him mad. So he said, 'I figured if I was going, I'd take you with me,'" said Raines, who finished 41st for Hall of Fame Racing. "It's a frustrating sport, and neither one of us want to be racing in the race like this today. When you win six races last year and you can't get out of your own way this year, I can understand the struggles.

"We go through that a little more than he does. I just don't like being the guy he takes it out on."

-- John Schwarb

Pole-sitter ends day in fifth
Second-year driver Reed Sorenson took plenty of positives from a fifth-place day at the Brickyard, even though it started on the pole.

"It's not disappointing at all," the Ganassi driver said after posting his second top-five finish of the season. "Each race is the same as far as points and all that, but coming here to this place and being able to run good in front of all these people ... this place is historic and to run good here is awesome."

Sorenson led the first 16 laps, fell out of the top 10 midway through, but climbed back into the top five over the last 20 laps.

-- John Schwarb