While Travis Braden was busy driving off with a dominant Lucas Oil Raceway win, those among the field hoping to win the championship this fall were struggling through a torrid Circle City 100 affair.

Entering third in the championship standings, Dalton Armstrong made it just six laps before retiring in 16th. Seventh-place Brian Campbell faired no better – pulling off after 81 laps in 13th. Championship leader Josh Brock limped home in 12th, and second-place Hunter Jack finished seventh with a damaged left-front fender.

Only fourth-place John VanDoorn faired well among the Chase hopefuls, coming home in third. But with two wins and an automatic berth in the postseason the run was little more than a confidence booster.

Upon first glance it appeared almost as if the championship contingent had decided en-masse to ride around and essentially throw away the event, but as it turns out each was sidelined by separate issues.

For Brock the throwaway day was simply the result of a terrible car.

“After about 20 laps the car just completely went away from us,” Brock said. “We don’t know if we maybe had something go bad, or if the last time we raced we might’ve done something, but it just got crazy loose. That might’ve been one of the loosest cars I’ve ever drove, so I just had to get it here in one piece.”

After letting the car get away from him Brock was just thankful to keep his No. 17 out of the wall.

“The important thing is that I got the car home in one piece,” Brock said. “We can always fix handling. It’s a lot harder to fix bodies, clips and all that stuff. We’re still digging. I know we’ve had terribly luck. We might’ve lost some points today. I don’t know how we’ve held on to the points lead with luck this back, but we won’t give up.”

While Brock was struggling, second-place Jack seemed to have a car capable of contending for a top five. But his chance at a great run went sour shortly before the race’s halfway point when a broken part left his left-front fender hanging beside his window net.

“My left-front fender, the brace that was holding it on just popped off,” Jack said. “It slid up and was blocking my vision on the inside, so I was kind of blind there.”

From the moment of the issue Jack’s day turned to one of survival. To his credit he did just that, taking the checkered flag with a top-1o result.

“Earlier in practice and qualifying we just couldn’t get anything working,” Jack said. “It was loose, then it was tight. Finally we just left it a little snug for the race.

“When the race rolled around I started on the inside. We really got rolling on the bottom there, but then some of the faster guys got away and we never got a caution to get back up there and go for it. All in all, it was a good points day. I’ll take it.”

Campbell was among the favorites coming into the evening, but his No. 47 struggled. The veteran was nearly a lap down when a broken part brought him to pit road in the closing laps.

“I went down into Turn 3 and almost got into the wall,” Campbell said. “The brake pedal went to the floor. I was not going to stay out there during that. That’s not safe.

“Our day was not exactly great. The car was not that good to begin with and when we blew a left-front caliper there at the end we almost wrecked it. That’s not why we were junk. We were junk because the car was junk. That’s not to make excuses, but it was definitely the culmination of why we went into the pits.”

VanDoorn was the lone title contender to escape Brownsburg, Indiana with a smile on his face. But as he was quick to note, with two wins a top five before the Chase is good for little more than a shot of confidence.

“It’s a good day, but with the points I’m not really worried because of the Chase,” VanDoorn said. “We’ve already won so I’m fine there. It’s just good for our confidence.”

Friday night’s run at LOR won’t be one noted for its storylines in the championship battle. With 100 caution-free laps and the struggles for each of the tour’s top drivers it will likely be remembered as little more than a footnote on the season.

After the evenings they had, the majority of the championship contenders will be happy to keep it that way.