INDIANAPOLIS -- The anticipation and expectation coming into Sunday's Brickyard 400 gave off the feeling of a definite home-court advantage, so to speak. All week long, talk among fans continued to grow about what the home-state boys might do.

With five drivers from the Hoosier State in the field for the 10th annual renewal of the 400, and particularly with the highly-publicized personal emphasis that reigning Winston Cup champ Tony Stewart had placed upon this race, it appeared that Stewart (hails from Rushville and Noblesville, Ind.), Ryan Newman (South Bend), John Andretti (Indianapolis), Tony Raines (LaPorte) and Jeff Gordon (Pittsboro) would all be gleefully and heartily singing "Back Home Again In Indiana" all day.

In the end, things didn't exactly turn out the way the Hoosiers had hoped, with not even one of the five coming close to taking the checkered flag.

The bad day began even before the race started. One Indiana native had to forget about Saturday's strong 11th-place qualifying effort even before the race began when his team was forced to change motors Sunday morning, forcing him to start the race in 42nd-place (Andretti).

And it only got worst from there: another native (Raines) knocked out another (Andretti) in a crash on lap 47, another challenged for the lead and looked to be the odds-on favorite to win until he got caught in late race traffic and finished a disappointing 12th (Stewart), one ran out of gas midway through the race (Newman) and only one had a good day, winding up with a top-five finish (Gordon, who finished fourth).

The biggest disappointment of the day arguably had to be for Stewart. He came in to Sunday's race bound and determined to capture what has quickly become the second-biggest race in his home state behind the legendary Indianapolis 500.

Stewart led all drivers with 60 laps, but through bad pit sequences under caution, as well as getting caught in late-race traffic, he finished a disappointing 12th. That showing apparently upset Stewart so much that he left the race track without talking to reporters, leaving crew chief Greg Zipadelli and team owner Joe Gibbs to pinch-hit.

"If there's one race track that Tony really wants to win at, it's here," Gibbs said. "I thought we had a great chance today, and I think he did, too. The best way to describe it is that it's a complete heartbreak."

When asked to describe Stewart's post-race demeanor, Gibbs replied, "Tony's good. Right now it's just severe disappointment in all of us. We came here with a great race can and finished 12th. We felt like we had to do the things we did and it just didn't work out for us. Everyone fought their guts out and it just didn't work out for us."

Added Zipadelli, "It's disappointing. It's frustrating. I can't imagine anybody that had any part of it that wasn't disappointed or doesn't feel it was tough. It's just a tough year, a trying year, but we'll just keep digging."

Newman, who finished 11th, had one of the fastest cars on Sunday, including leading the race twice for two laps. However, a fuel miscalculation on the team's first pit stop caused Newman to run out of gas on lap 81, forcing him to coast into the pits. From that point on, any chances of rallying to win were pretty much gone

"Running out of fuel obviously hurt us pretty big," Newman said. "We had a real fast race car. It wasn't what Stewart had. He had a rocket, but it was a good effort. ... We no doubt had a top-five car today. If we had been out front at the end, we could have won. It's just one of those things."

	"	If there's one racetrack that Tony really wants to win at, it's here. I thought we had a great chance today, and I think he did, too. The best way to describe it is that it's a complete heartbreak. "
		— Joe Gibbs

Ironically, it was the guy who had the worst pre-race weekend of all heading into Sunday's main event that wound up having the best overall finish, as Jeff Gordon wound up fourth, his eighth top-six finish in all 10 Brickyard starts. Even he seemed to be slightly taken aback that his team rallied to finish as well as it did.

"I told the team before the race started that we were going to fight until the checkered flag fell," said Gordon, who qualified a disappointing 19th. "We were digging all day long. I'm so proud of them. It was a miserable weekend for us until we got that fourth-place finish. It was a great birthday for me (turns 32 on Monday). I know we didn't get many points, but that's championship form as far as I'm concerned for this race team."

Gordon. who is actually from California but spent time growing up in Indiana, is the only Indiana native to have won a Winston Cup race at the fabled Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with three Brickyard 400 triumphs to his credit. But he fell just a bit short on Sunday.

"We struggled so much this weekend and we were 40th in practice Saturday," Gordon said. "They changed everything in that race car and came back with basically a new race car today. It just drove to the front. It was awesome. I'm worn out. That was a hard-fought day from where we came."

Yet another heartbreaking chapter to the day was written when Raines rear-ended Andretti, sending him into the wall and relegating him to a last place finish. Racing at Indianapolis was particularly important for Andretti, not just because he's a native, but because he was driving in a special one-off appearance for Dale Earnhardt Inc. After qualifying 11th, he was hoping a strong finish might help put him back on the road to a full-time ride in Winston Cup, having been fired from Petty Enterprises in June.

"The car was really good, really fast, but unfortunately, a lot of cars started checking up in front of me," Andretti said, describing his day-ending crash. "I knew if I took out my teammate (Michael Waltrip), that would be the end of me; they'd come back here and kill me. I just locked it down. Whoever hit me (Raines), it doesn't matter because they didn't have anything they could have done differently. They couldn't see what was going on."

For his part, Raines, who continued on after the wreck to finish 25th, was highly apologetic to his fellow Hoosier.

"I felt really, really bad because I know John's situation," Raines said. "That was a one-race deal. I was on the end of that chain reaction, and when we come in there (into the corner), everybody was whoa-ing and I was going back to the gas. I jumped on the brakes so quick and so hard that my foot hit the brake pedal and went over the top of it. I got slowed down, but I hit him. It was an honest accident. I can't think of anyone less that I'd want to hit because John is trying to get back into this sport or get a full-time ride. I just hated it. It was a pure accident. It's happened to me before, but either way, it's no good."

And "no good" pretty much sums up this year's Brickyard for the five native Hoosiers, with the exception of Gordon. For a day that dawned with so much promise and anticipation, it ended up leaving the home state fans -- and drivers -- wanting much more than what they all ultimately wound up with.

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at Motorsportwriter@Yahoo.com