See where your favorite driver is pitting for Sunday’s race at the Brickyard (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
RELATED: Bowman named to No. 88
Many names surfaced as possible replacements in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet when Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced he would retire from full-time driving following the 2017 season.
There was but one name, though, that team owner Rick Hendrick kept coming back to.
“We had Alex (Bowman) in the back of our mind for whatever opportunity we had. It wasn’t much of a decision at all,” Hendrick said Sunday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Bowman, 24, was one of two drivers who filled in for Earnhardt Jr. last fall while the popular NASCAR competitor was recovering from a concussion that kept him out of the final 18 races of the season. Earnhardt has since returned, but announced earlier this year that he will no longer compete in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series after the 2017 season.
“We didn’t know what was going to happen,” team owner Rick Hendrick said of going forward after Earnhardt was sidelined in 2016. “We were very, very careful not to guarantee (Bowman) anything other than if opportunities arose then he would have a shot.
“I can’t make all the decisions; the sponsors have to be involved. But in my mind Alex was going to get the next (ride).”
MORE: Get to know Alex Bowman
Since his time last year on the track, Bowman has stuck with Hendrick Motorsports. He gets in the simulator nearly daily and reports on his findings, and he also is at Wheel Force testing in a Chevrolet.
“I think about Alex like a Jimmie Johnson or a Jeff Gordon,” Hendrick said, referring to two Hall of Fame-caliber drivers he signed at the beginning of their careers. “The thing that really impressed me was how committed he was to the team. He deserves the opportunity.”
— Kenny Bruce contributed to this story
RELATED: Key players in NASCAR Silly Season
SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Does Kyle Larson have inside information on future plans for the No. 77 Furniture Row Racing Toyota?
With Erik Jones moving from Furniture Row Racing to Joe Gibbs Racing next season, the No. 77 currently is without a driver. And team owner Barney Visser has said the fate of the No. 77 is still to be determined, pending funding.
When discussing up-and-coming drivers on Saturday, Larson had a strong recommendation for the empty ride.
MORE: Erik Jones tabbed for No. 20
“I definitely think you have to have Christopher Bell at the top of that list (of young, talented drivers),” Larson said. “I got to see his potential a couple years before he ever made it to truck (NASCAR Camping World Truck Series).
“Seeing how good he is, I don’t know what the Furniture Row situation is, but I hope Bell gets to go in the No. 77. There are so many kids in dirt racing that deserve an opportunity to make it.”
Bell currently is in his second full season with Kyle Busch Motorsports in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series after advancing to the championship race in 2016. He is also scheduled to run eight NASCAR XFINITY Series events this season.
RELATED: Starting lineup for today’s race
Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson, a four-time winner at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, will start Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race from the rear of the field.
Johnson had qualified fourth on Saturday evening at the famed 2.5-mile oval, but his No. 48 team had to change a rear gear post-qualifying. That adjustment will send him to the back when the green flag drops today (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App).
Well… we will have an awesome pit pick this week and next but… heading to the back. We found a problem with the rear gear. 😡
— Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) July 23, 2017
The No. 72 team of Cole Whitt also changed a rear gear and will join Johnson in the back. Joey Gase also will start from the rear after an engine swap in his No. 15 Toyota.
Johnson has three wins this season, tied for top in the series with Martin Truex Jr. He is exceptional at the Brickyard, his four wins here the second-most in NASCAR history behind Jeff Gordon. He has finished in the top 15 in all of his past five Indy starts, which includes a win, a runner-up and a third-place finish during that stretch.
RELATED: XFINITY drivers take rules package for a spin
SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race had a race-record 16 lead changes, a race-record eight leaders and a down-to-the-wire battle that saw William Byron eke out a narrow .108-second win over Paul Menard.
So was the new rules package built specifically for the series at Indianapolis Motor Speedway a success?
“When you look at the metrics, it’s the most leaders we’ve had, most lead changes, closest finish. So certainly on the quick recap, some really great metrics,” Steve O’Donnell, Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer for NASCAR, said afterward.
“But, you know, as we said before, there’s a lot for us to digest, to go back, talk to the teams. … We’ve got to do the same thing with drivers, crew chiefs, and see where we’re at and kind of evaluate and go from there.”
The rules package included a taller rear spoiler, use of a restrictor plate and aero ducts (openings in the lower front ends of the cars) to promote passing and negate the aero advantage usually enjoyed by the race leader on the 2.5-mile IMS track.
The restrictor plates didn’t provide the pack racing typically seen at Daytona or Talladega, the only other tracks where plates have been used by the series on a regular basis, but did slow the cars by 15 mph or so.
“We never thought this would be Daytona or Talladega,” O’Donnell said. “You know, the first objective to us was could you close that gap from first to second? And we certainly saw that … with the leader really not getting out that far today all day long.”
Previous races for NASCAR here have been lacking in the number of passes and close proximity of the cars. Lower downforce rules packages have helped somewhat at other venues, but Indy has been one of the tougher nuts to crack.
For the XFINITY Series, Saturday’s package might not be the answer, but it seemed to be a good starting point with plenty of data provided.
“The package was really interesting,” Joey Logano (Team Penske Ford) said. “You had to race really smart.”
Race winner William Byron (JR Motorsports) said the package “allowed us to pass on the straightaway but you have to drive it. You can’t just coast around out there.”
While O’Donnell and other drivers were pleased, at least one driver was nonplussed.
“Whether or not the race was more exciting? Probably,” said Kyle Busch, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver who had won the last two XFINITY Series races here and three of the last four. He added the plates “took the driver out” of the equation.
Busch finished 12th in the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.
While the package is for Indy only, O’Donnell said officials will evaluate the data and determine if there are other tracks that might benefit from a similar setup. Nothing at this point is on the books.
RELATED: Race results
SPEEDWAY, Ind. – The distance from the penthouse to the outhouse was a matter of inches for Justin Allgaier on Saturday, as an errant pit stop took the JR Motorsports driver from the lead to the garage during the Lilly Diabetes 250.
“I screwed myself there by getting over the line,” Allgaier said after finishing a disappointing 35th in the NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “These (pit) boxes are super narrow side to side; they’re great front to back and I had no idea that I was going to be in that spot. Tried to fix the first mistake and made a second one that ultimately cost us a good day.”
After leading laps 53-56, Allgaier gave up the top spot to hit pit road under green before the end of the second segment of the 100-lap race.
But when he pulled into his pit stall, located toward the Turn 1 end of pit road, the right front tire of his No. 7 Chevrolet was on the outside line. According to NASCAR, the front tires of a car must be inside the box before work can be done to the car.
Fuel was already being dispensed and the right rear tire had been changed as the front tire changer hurriedly motioned for the driver to back up. After doing so, Allgaier sped out of the box, running over the air hose and dragging the air gun down pit road.
A bigger issue was the right front tire, which was barely on the hub as Allgaier was quickly told to stop. Had the wheel come off, crew chief Jason Burdett, as well as the front tire changer and tire carrier, would have been suspended for four races.
“I was actually going to try to drive around … the rule is the tire can’t come off and I wanted to make sure that it didn’t come off,” Allgaier said. “I think we probably could have made it but on the flip side, if I do and it comes off, then it’s not good for anybody.”
Allgaier’s car was towed to the garage where the team made repairs and sent its driver back out onto the track — 14 laps down.
Following the race, NASCAR officials said in their view the wheel did not come off the car so there will be no penalty.
The incident wasn’t the only pit-road problem for Allgaier. Under caution for the first stage break, Allgaier hit his jack man, Kyle Tudor, as he was coming in to his pit box.
RELATED: Allgaier slides into jackman
“I was already on the brakes and the guy behind me was still pushing me,” Allgaier said. “Anybody that says pit crew members aren’t incredible athletes, that right there was a testament to these guys. (Tudor) had to sit one pit stop out because we had to wait until the doctor got down here. … Just an unfortunate end to the day.”
In spite of the 35th-place finish, Allgaier is still third in points. He won earlier this season, at Phoenix, but has finished 30th or worse in three of his last four starts.
RELATED: Starting lineup | See every car in Sunday’s field
SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Kyle Busch’s quest for an unprecedented third straight Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway couldn’t have gotten off to a better start on Saturday evening.
Streaking around the 2.5-mile track in 48.051 seconds (187.301 mph), Busch won the pole position for Sunday’s Brantley Gilbert Big Machine Brickyard 400 (on NBC at 2:30 p.m. ET) by .250 seconds over Kevin Harvick (186.332 mph).
The Coors Light Pole Award was Busch’s second at the Brickyard, his fourth of the season (all within the last eight races) and the 23rd of his career. And it gives the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, who won from the pole last year, a leg up on a record third straight Indianapolis victory.
Busch and Jimmie Johnson, who won at the Brickyard during his 2008 and 2009 championship seasons, are the only two Cup series drivers to have won consecutive races at the track.
“We’ve obviously had a really fast Skittles Camry here this weekend,” said Busch, who also hopes to break a 35-race winless streak. “We only focused on race trim in those two abbreviated practices (on Saturday), and the guys did a great job. We were just trying to work on the handle for what the race is going to be like (on Sunday), and I wasn’t sure about anything for qualifying.
“So obviously the guys did a great job listening to what our teammates had and what setup they had and what they were able to do. So they put that in our car, and it was pretty fast.”
A slight bobble in Turn 1 cost Harvick a chance at the pole.
“I got a little bit sideways coming off of (Turn) 1, and I couldn’t put the throttle down like I needed to,” Harvick said. “And then I was probably just a little over-cautious on the entry to 2, because I didn’t want to miss that corner and keep stacking time up.
“Our goal was to run the same speed every time out, and we accomplished that.”
Jamie McMurray qualified third as the top Chevrolet driver. Denny Hamlin will start fifth, followed by Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano and Ryan Newman.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. failed to advance to the final round by .021 seconds and will start 13th in his last race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver.
“The car is a little bit better than that,” Earnhardt said. “I got tight into (Turn) 1 and thought, ‘Man, I’d better back (Turn) 2 up, but I didn’t need to back 2 up. So I under drove the second corner and that probably cost us down the back straightaway, or we would have made it into that next round if I had driven the car right.
“But we’ve had good speed all day, and hopefully that’s going to carry on into the race. So we’ll see how it works out.”
RELATED: Race results | Series standings | Detailed breakdown
SPEEDWAY, Ind. – With a new competition package that produced a race-record 16 lead changes and the closest NASCAR XFINITY Series finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, William Byron threw more blocks than an NFL fullback in holding off charging Paul Menard to win Saturday’s Lilly Diabetes 250.
Byron made the decisive pass for the lead on Lap 85, surging past JR Motorsports teammate Elliott Sadler into the top spot. Menard gained two spots, from fourth to second over a six-circuit stretch from Laps 90 to 96 but couldn’t overtake Byron, who blocked each of Menard’s attempts to make a winning pass.
“It’s so cool — this is awesome,” said Byron, who won in his first visit to the vaunted Brickyard. “I’d never been to a Brickyard 400 or an Indy 500, but I watched it as a kid. It takes a lot to win these races, and to win here is so special.”
Joey Logano followed Byron past Sadler on Lap 85 and finished third, after losing the second position to Menard on Lap 96.
The leader in the NASCAR XFINITY Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings, Byron won for the third time this season. Fighting a vibration he thought might have been the result of a tire issue, he finished .108 seconds ahead of Menard.
“He’s done an awesome job,” team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “I’m excited for his future and the rest of the season.”
Menard thought he might have been able to get to Byron’s bumper in the closing laps but thought better of trying to move him.
“He was better than me through Turn 1,” Menard said. “I just had to lift too much and play catch-up through Turns 2, 3 and 4 back to the start/finish line. I made a pretty aggressive dive into (Turn) 1 that last lap, just to see if I could get him loose, but he made it stick…
“I maybe could have gotten to his bumper, but that would have definitely killed my momentum, too. All it probably would have done is chase both of us up the hill, and Joey might have won. I didn’t think that was in either of our best interest.”
Second in the standings, Byron now trails Sadler, the series leader, by 40 points. A disastrous pit stop cost JRM teammate Justin Allgaier dearly, dropping him to 35th at the finish and 133 points behind Sadler in the standings.
Allgaier pitted from the lead on Lap 57 of 100 and overshot his stall, starting a comedy of errors. The No. 7 crew began working on the car before pushing it back into the pit box. Allgaier took off early, snapping the air hose, which danced around the stall like a snake before coming to rest. The coup de grace was a right-front tire that hadn’t been secured.
The tire came off the hub and lodged at an angle inside the wheel well. With his car towed to the garage for repairs, Allgaier lost 13 laps.
That was the comic relief, however, in a race where the new rules package drew overwhelmingly positive reviews.
“Overall, we’re certainly pleased with what we saw on the race track,” said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer. “From an eye test, it definitely passed when you look at the metrics, right? Most leaders we’ve had (eight). Most lead changes. Closest finish. Certainly, on the quick recap, some really great metrics.
“But as we said before, there’s a lot for us to digest, go back, talk to the teams, drivers, crew chiefs, see where we’re at and go from there.”
Kyle Busch led six times for a race-high 44 laps, but dropped from contention with a pit stop on an alternate strategy with less than 20 laps left. He wound up 12th.
The series’ next race is scheduled for next Saturday at Iowa Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, NBC).
Contributing: Staff reports
RELATED: Full Indianapolis schedule
SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. defended his wife’s stance that he not compete in the 2018 Clash at Daytona International Speedway, saying that it was “probably my fault for throwing her under the bus like that.”
Earnhardt made the comments Saturday during a media gathering at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s Brantley Gilbert Big Machine Brickyard 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, IMS Radio Network, SiriusXM NASCAR).
Earnhardt, 42, is retiring from Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition as the end of the 2017 season. He missed 18 races in ’16 due to a concussion and lingering effects, and missed two races earlier in his career for a similar issue.
By winning the pole earlier this month at Daytona, Earnhardt qualified for next year’s Clash, the non-points event held each February as the kick-off race of the new season.
Asked if he would consider returning to run in the race, he said “I will talk to my boss (team owner Rick Hendrick) and see what he has got in the shed.”
He later said Hendrick would have to convince his wife, Amy, if there was any consideration around competing in The Clash.
Earlier this week, Amy Earnhardt posted a Tweet stating the following: “I’ve received many comments on Dale Jr running the 2018 Clash, based on whether or not I give my blessing. Considering his struggles last fall with his injury, we are very blessed that he is now healthy, happy and able to enjoy his final season … and hopefully many years beyond racing. So my answer is simple. It’s not worth the risk of his health.”
Amy Earnhardt attended her husband’s doctor appointments and rehab sessions and worked with him every day to overcome vision and balance issues caused by the injury.
After her Twitter post, some fans took issue with her seemingly making the decision instead of her husband.
“You know, she had to put something out because she felt like she needed to say something,” Earnhardt said Saturday. “I put her in that position …
“But she’s been there for everything and a lot of folks that may have a different opinion about it weren’t there through the whole process. And so, if anyone knows how difficult it was … it would be her. It wasn’t a lot of fun for her.”
Earnhardt noted that The Clash, a short, 75-lap race made up of the previous year’s pole winners, previous Clash race winners and former Daytona race winners who competed full-time the previous year, often had a high number of crashes.
“I feel much more in control of my own fate in the remainder of this season and anything I do beyond that,” he said, “than I do being out there in The Clash.
“If you just look at the past history, at least my history, it’s been feast or famine. You either usually run really good or you end up tearing it up. It’s just probably not even worth it. But if it’s something she feels strongly about, we have to sit down and I have to hear her out.
“But, yeah, I kind of threw her under the bus there and probably should have never even mentioned it, but it put her in a tough spot and she felt like she had to voice some sort of a statement about it and I thought she handled it well. For no more characters than she used, I thought she got her point across.”
——–
TEAM CO-OWNER Richard Petty said Saturday that his organization has not had extensive talks with Darrell Wallace Jr. about fielding a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series entry for the former XFINITY Series driver.
“If we had a chance, then definitely we would be more than interested in having him drive the cars,” Petty said. “Right now it’s up to somebody else. If somebody decides to be involved with us (from a sponsor standpoint), then we’ll work it out from there.”
Wallace was one of three drivers who filled in for the injured Aric Almirola earlier this year in the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Ford. After finishing 26th in his Cup debut at Pocono, Wallace showed steady improvement in his next four starts, just missing a top-10 finish in his final start at Kentucky.
His results prompted some reports that Petty was considering adding a second team with Wallace as the driver if funding could be found.
Wallace started the 2017 season competing in the XFINITY Series for Roush Fenway Racing. He made 12 starts in the organization’s No. 6 Ford before the team was shut down due to a lack of sponsorship. Wallace was fourth in points at that time.
——–
KURT BUSCH will be trying to accomplish something only three other Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers have accomplished here Sunday – win the Daytona 500 and the Brantley Gilbert Brickyard 400 in the same season.
Dale Jarrett was the first to manage the feat in 1996, the third year NASCAR teams traveled to Indy. Jimmie Johnson did it a decade later (’06) and Jamie McMurray won both in 2010.
Busch, driver of the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Ford, has five top-10 finishes at Indy, but admits the 2.5-mile track “has been tough on me over the years.”
“I don’t know what it is about it,” Busch said. “The diamond-cut surface, the way the asphalt is very fresh when we first get there and then how it glazes over and gets slick at the end – I’ve struggled with that over the years.”
Busch’s best NASCAR result was fifth in his debut here in 2001.
He competed in the Indy 500 in 2014, doubling up to run the open-wheel event as well as the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte the same day. He finished sixth at Indianapolis to claim top rookie honors.
Take a look at the stats from drivers who attempted a run of 10 consecutive laps in practices this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
RELATED: Practice 1 results
| Pos | Car | Driver | From Lap | To Lap | Avg Speed |
| 1 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | 1 | 10 | 182.792 |
| 2 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | 12 | 21 | 180.857 |
RELATED: Final practice results
| Pos | Car | Driver | From Lap | To Lap | Avg Speed |
| 1 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | 3 | 12 | 180.951 |
| 2 | 18 | Kyle Busch | 1 | 10 | 180.864 |
| 3 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | 1 | 10 | 180.823 |
| 4 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | 1 | 10 | 180.677 |
| 5 | 20 | Matt Kenseth | 1 | 10 | 180.628 |
| 6 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | 1 | 10 | 180.624 |
| 7 | 42 | Kyle Larson | 1 | 10 | 180.605 |
| 8 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | 1 | 10 | 180.074 |
| 9 | 22 | Joey Logano | 1 | 10 | 179.808 |
| 10 | 41 | Kurt Busch | 1 | 10 | 179.282 |
| 11 | 19 | Daniel Suarez | 1 | 10 | 179.156 |
| 12 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | 5 | 14 | 178.835 |
* Car must run 10 consecutive laps on the track to be included in the above chart.
* Required to qualify on time, (i) Ineligible for driver points in this series