Posted on by Staff Report

This week’s race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course has a wide-open feel to it. Not only are there several international stars like Chicago Street Race winner Shane van Gisbergen participating, but there are also seven drivers who sit below the playoff elimination line who have strong road-course resumés.

FANTASY LIVE: Set your roster | Weekend schedule

Those drivers include Chase Elliott, who is a seven-time road-course winner; AJ Allmendinger, who won in 2021 at the Indy Road Course; and Michael McDowell, who leads all drivers in points earned on road courses since NASCAR switched to the Next Gen car.

Add to those Daniel Suárez, who ranks fifth in laps run in the top five on road courses this year; Alex Bowman, a two-time road-course runner-up; Austin Cindric, one of two drivers to finish in the top 10 in both Indy Road Course races; and Justin Haley, a runner-up at Chicago.

This could be the week where the playoff picture truly gets a facelift.

So be sure to tune in to Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) and see if chaos ensues with just three regular-season races left in 2023.

OTHERS TO WATCH

TYLER REDDICK: If the team can improve on pit road, Reddick will be in the running for the checkered flag. He won at Circuit of The Americas earlier this season and has the highest total of fastest laps run on road courses in 2023 (only green-flag laps).

CHRIS BUESCHER:  The recent back-to-back winner has the longest active streak with eight straight top 10s in road-course races. Could he make it three wins in a row?

KYLE BUSCH: After a last-place finish at Michigan, Busch can look forward to the fact he has finished in the top five in the last four road-course races.

MARTIN TRUEX JR.: He leads the standings by 57 points over the next closest competitor (Denny Hamlin), and he has the second-most laps run in the top five at road courses this year with 135.

KYLE LARSON: He has four career road-course wins, which is among the active leaders.

Projections as of Sunday, Aug. 13.

RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE VERIZON 200 AT THE BRICKYARD

Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula includes current track, current track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to arrive at a projected winner and full race results.

FinishCar NumberDriver
145Tyler Reddick
25Kyle Larson
317Chris Buescher
416AJ Allmendinger
59Chase Elliott
691Shane van Gisbergen
78Kyle Busch
834Michael McDowell
919Martin Truex Jr.
1020Christopher Bell
1124William Byron
1222Joey Logano
1311Denny Hamlin
142Austin Cindric
1599Daniel Suárez
1654Ty Gibbs
174Kevin Harvick
181Ross Chastain
1912Ryan Blaney
2048Alex Bowman
2131Justin Haley
226Brad Keselowski
2314Chase Briscoe
2443Erik Jones
2523Bubba Wallace
263Austin Dillon
2738Todd Gilliland
2847Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
297Corey LaJoie
3041Ryan Preece
3121Harrison Burton
3210Aric Almirola
3315Jenson Button
3477Ty Dillon
3578Josh Bilicki
3642Mike Rockenfeller
3751Andy Lally
3833Brodie Kostecki
3967Kamui Kobayashi

Posted on by Zack Albert

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Dueling rallies Saturday evening at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course netted out to a break-even sort of day on the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoff bubble.

Parker Kligerman gained a single point in his bid to overtake Sheldon Creed for the final provisional spot in the 12-driver postseason field as both drivers emerged with top-10 finishes in Saturday’s Pennzoil 150 presented by Advance Auto Parts. Both overcame their own dose of adversity to virtually hold serve with four regular-season races remaining.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Indy

Kligerman started 12th and raced to take fourth in the opening stage to collect valuable stage points. But an unplanned stop after contact knocked out a valve stem on a left-side tire on his Big Machine Racing No. 48 Chevrolet slowed his efforts in Stage 2. He made it all the way back to seventh by the time darkness and the checkered flag fell.

“Obviously, the flat tire was just unfortunate,” said Kligerman, who is now 18 points below the elimination line. “Green-flag stop, it killed us. We lost all our track position, and we just had to motor our way on through. Big Machine Racing just buckled down on that run. I don’t know how many cars we passed. It had to be a lot. You know, we had speed. We keep doing that, we’ve just got to execute better.”

While Kligerman was mired further back, Creed matched his fourth-place finish in Stage 2 to offset his competitor’s stage-point gain. But Creed’s charge was upended when he pitted on Lap 44 out of 62, entering just after pit road had closed for the stalled No. 34 entry of Andre Castro. The penalty knocked his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevy back in the running, and his comeback put him eighth in the final order.

“Not fun. I hate racing for points,” Creed said of the spot he’s in. “But at the end of the day, we just need to go run — what do we have, four left? — we’re just gonna go run four good races. Today was honestly a really good race for us, other than coming in and pitting when the light came on. Other than that, I felt like we executed really well. Our car was really fast. I thought we were definitely a top-five car.”

MORE: What to Watch: Indianapolis

The Xfinity Series heads to Watkins Glen International next Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). Creed’s top-10 result was his first in eight races, but Kligerman has had a more pronounced rise, placing ninth, second, eighth and seventh in his last four starts.

“It’s funny, right? Like you get to this time of season, everyone buckles down, so all our competitors are doing the same thing,” Kligerman said. “We’re just all in the zone, clicking off finishes. … I mean, it’s great momentum. It keeps us in the fight, it keeps the pressure on, and I think every track ahead of us is a place we can go run top 10 or top five, so I’m confident we’re gonna make the playoffs.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — In Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, the fastest car met superior strategy.

In this case, the fastest car — Ty Gibbs’ No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota — decisively won the battle over the craftiness of AJ Allmendinger as the two full-time NASCAR Cup Series drivers stole the show — and potential playoff points — from Xfinity regulars in the Pennzoil 150 presented by Advance Auto Parts.

Allmendinger, the pole winner, parlayed pit strategy into a pair of stage wins, but Gibbs charged ahead after a restart with 16 of 62 laps left and beat Sam Mayer to the finish line by 7.959 seconds at the 2.439, 14-turn circuit. Mayer passed a disappointed Allmendinger for the runner-up spot on the penultimate lap.

The victory was the first of the season for Gibbs, who won last year’s Xfinity title before moving up to his full-time Cup ride. It was his first victory on the Indy road course and his 12th win in 58 starts in the series.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

“Awesome car—great car—thank you, (crew chief) Jason Ratcliff,” exulted Gibbs, who will try to hold onto the final Playoff-eligible position in Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard Cup Series race (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

“I raced go-karts down the street with a bunch of kids… it’s really special.”

His strategy for Sunday is uncomplicated.

“Just have a good car, set the car upright and go win,” Gibbs said.

Mayer, who won the first Xfinity Series race of his career on July 29 at Road America, was satisfied with second on Saturday.

“That was all I had right there to catch the 10 (Allmendinger) and get us some more points,” said Mayer, who scored his fourth straight top-five finish. “I’m really proud of our guys here today. Our Chevrolet was really fast. But a lot of positivity going into the next couple of weeks because we are clicking off top fives like it’s easy.

“These road courses have been good to us the last couple of weeks—and the ovals are just as good. I’m looking forward to what we have going into (Watkins) Glen next week and then a bunch of ovals after that.”

WATCH: Gibbs discusses Xfinity win at Indy: ‘Definitely about time’

Series leader Austin Hill finished fourth, followed by Justin Allgaier, Cole Custer and Parker Kligerman, Sheldon Creed, Kaz Grala and Brett Moffitt to complete the top 10. Allgaier clinched a spot in the Xfinity Series Playoffs.

Allmendinger started from the pole but surrendered the lead to Ty Gibbs on Lap 3. Gibbs remained out front until lightning in the area forced NASCAR to red-flag the race at 6:04 p.m. ET.

During the delay, rain soaked the track, but the skies began to clear before the cars restarted. A strategic call by Allmendinger put the driver of the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet back in the lead.

Before the field took the green flag after the resumption of the race, Allmendinger and Mayer pitted for slick tires while the vast majority of the field stayed on slower-treaded rain tires.

Allmendinger rapidly gained ground from the back of the field, and after Gibbs pitted for slicks on lap 14, Allmendinger held a lead of more than 16 seconds in the exchange. He lost just over one second of that advantage before Brad Perez’s Chevrolet stopped on the track on Lap 27 to cause the second caution of the afternoon.

“We were never fast enough to win the race,” Allmendinger said. “I thought Ty was the class of the field… We got in a good rhythm there, maybe if it would’ve stayed green. We just needed a 52-lap green run there to win today.”

In short order after a restart on Lap 31, Allmendinger regained the lead from Mayer, who had stayed out on older tires during the caution.

Gibbs restarted three positions deeper in the field than Allmendinger and began to close the gap to the leader. After Gibbs out-braked Mayer into Turn 7 and took the second spot on Lap 38, he trailed Allmendinger by 3.049 seconds.

MORE: Xfinity Series standings

When both Allmendinger and Gibbs pitted for tires and fuel on Lap 43, however, Gibbs won the race off pit road right before NASCAR called the third caution when Andre Castro stopped on the track.

On the subsequent restart on Lap 47, Gibbs, who led a race-high 28 laps, pulled out to an immediate advantage and expanded it the rest of the way.

The Xfinity Series will tackle another road course for the second consecutive weekend in a row, with the field racing in the Shriners Children’s 200 at Watkins Glen International on Aug. 19 (3:30 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

Note: Post-race inspection in the Xfinity Series garage concluded without issue, confirming Gibbs as the race winner.

Contributing: Staff Reports

Posted on by Zack Albert

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Indianapolis Motor Speedway has thrown William Byron plenty of curves ever since the road-course layout was introduced to NASCAR Cup Series competition. The latest hazard has the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver operating at a deficit before the green flag falls.

Byron will serve a pass-through penalty on Indy’s long pit road after the start of Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, IMS Radio, SiriusXM, NBC Sports App) after his car failed Friday’s pre-qualifying inspection three times. Byron was not permitted to qualify Saturday, and he’ll start last in the 39-car field — short his car chief and pit-stall selection.

The notification reached the 25-year-old driver as he was trying to satisfy his hunger.

“I was really excited to get here to the track and then got that message and had to regroup,” Byron said. “I was actually going to get some Jimmy John’s, so I was going through the drive-thru and wasn’t the happiest customer. But it is what it is. It’s life and things happen, and we move on.”

RELATED: Starting lineup | What to Watch: Indy

Byron was actually the pole winner for the Cup Series’ first race on the Indy road-course circuit back in 2021. Things have gone south since. His race results here the last two times out have been sub-30th finishes, both abbreviated by crashes, and last year’s race weekend had an ominous start with the No. 24 team’s hauler catching fire on load-in day, forcing the crew to scramble before practice and qualifying.

Byron found a slight silver lining with this year’s version of misfortune, noting how he’ll likely be running alone on the track, outside of the main pack after serving his penalty. “I think it’d be kind of peaceful, right? I mean, just feels like I’m in the lead, but I’m not,” he said with a laugh, adding that his team will do its best to adjust.

“It’s certainly not the circumstances that we wanted to have,” said Byron, who was ninth on Saturday’s practice speed chart. “We wanted to come in here, have a solid practice, qualifying, go into the race, but it is what’s happened and it’s unfortunate and we just have to try to be as efficient as we can to start the race, try to work our way through that, not make any mistakes on the on the pass-through, make sure we don’t speed on pit road or anything like that. Then I think the strategy and the overall pace of our car has been good, so we’ve just got to work the strategy to suit the pace of our car. … So, felt good about our car in practice. And like I said, it stinks the circumstances, but it’s what we got.”

MORE: Weekend schedule

The big-picture circumstances outside of the race weekend are more positive, as Byron continues to lead the Cup Series with four wins this season. It’s not the test of resilience that his team wanted, but Byron says he’s eager to see how the No. 24 group rebounds.

“I think our competitors look at us to see what we’re going to do in these situations. So I think it’s great. The spotlight’s on,” Byron said. “We’re going to go out there and try to overcome the adversity as best we can. I’m sure those guys, if we show up in the top five late, they’re probably going to be like, ‘How did they do that?’ “

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Everyone knows auto racing can be a dangerous sport, but in Kevin Harvick’s case, it was a staircase that did the damage. 

During NASCAR’s off week in June, Kevin Harvick accompanied his son Keelan to Italy, where Keelan, then 10 years old, was racing go-karts.

RELATED: Indy weekend schedule | Sunday’s starting lineup

“I fell down a flight of steps in Italy and had a stack of busted ribs for several weeks,” Harvick acknowledged Saturday to the surprise of the assembled media at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 

So Harvick was driving with cracked ribs at Nashville and Chicago without making the news public—a very Earnhardt-like thing to do. 

Now in his final season of NASCAR Cup racing, Harvick feels a special fondness for Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he won three times on the oval.  

“My last race on the oval I won, so I feel pretty good about that,” said Harvick, who won the Brickyard 400 in 2003, 2019 and 2020. “It just kind of ended up that way.”

Posted on by Zack Albert

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Daniel Suárez had a pragmatic outlook on his playoff pursuit Friday, shortly after his arrival for NASCAR’s race weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. The driver of Trackhouse Racing’s No. 99 Chevrolet enters Sunday’s race just five points outside of the postseason field with three regular-season events left, insisting he wasn’t stressing the points margin even if “it’s impossible not to look.”

A day later, Suárez’s pole-winning outcome in Saturday’s qualifying session changed his tune slightly and could shift the Cup Series Playoffs picture if the results follow suit. Keeping close tabs on his fellow postseason hopefuls during the course of Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, IMS Radio, SiriusXM, NBC Sports App) doesn’t appear to be part of his plan.

“I don’t care. They have to worry about the 99,” said Suárez, who enjoyed a 29-point rise in the playoff standings after last week’s race at Michigan. “I mean, I say I don’t care, but in reality, I care like 0.5%, so I care very little.”

RELATED: Weekend schedule | At-track photos: Indy

Suárez aims to sustain some of his momentum as the fight for the playoffs clicks down to its final three rounds. That path winds its way from Indianapolis to Watkins Glen and Daytona in the following weekends, presenting a closing stretch of two road courses and a superspeedway — venues where a driver’s good fortunes can turn sour in a snap.

Veterans Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski have the potential to clinch playoff berths on the basis of points this weekend. Their cushion remains steady, and those two should join the 12 regular-season winners as locks in the playoff field of 16.

That leaves two spots up for grabs, with Bubba Wallace leading the group of drivers in contention, ranking 58 points above the provisional elimination line. He joked Saturday that he’s also rooting for 23XI Racing teammate Tyler Reddick — a road-course pro — to win the next two weekends, which would prevent a new winner from muddying the playoff picture and hurting his cause.

Wallace admits road racing is not his strongest suit, but that his best efforts at the discipline have come at Indianapolis. He’s also made a conscious effort to block out any of the pressures that could accompany his bid for his first playoff appearance.

“When you don’t give a damn about things that makes things fun, right?” Wallace said. “You start thinking and overthinking and that dials yourself right out and it’s not fun. So I’m a damn good person at overthinking things, especially when it comes to road-course racing and taking the fun right out of it. You just gotta go out and get back to the basics.”

Just behind Wallace is a thicket of challengers, with four drivers separated by 24 points. Rookie Ty Gibbs is now the provisional last driver in, clinging to the 16th spot by three points over Michael McDowell. Further back are Suárez (minus-5) and AJ Allmendinger (minus-24).

MORE: Sunday’s starting lineup | What to Watch: Indy

McDowell nearly matched his best qualifying effort of the season, and his mild frustration with landing the fourth starting spot speaks to how well his Front Row Motorsports No. 34 Ford team has performed of late. He enters this pivotal three-race stretch with his contract status secured for 2024 — both he and teammate Todd Gilliland will be back with FRM — and a plan to maximize the team’s Indy output.

“I feel like we need to run top five in all the stages and finish in the top five to have some points, and we’ll need a couple of those guys not to have a great run,” McDowell said. “Obviously, with Daniel starting on the pole, they’ll have a good shot at a lot of points tomorrow in especially that first stage. So I don’t know. We’ll see how it all plays out. I mean, the good news is we have the speed. We’ve just got to execute, stay in the fight and see what happens.”

Allmendinger was downbeat Saturday after an uncharacteristically subpar qualifying effort. The road-racing ace was asked what he was combating in his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet and his answer was blunt: “Speed.” He’ll start 26th in Sunday’s 200-miler, and is a former winner at both Indy and Watkins Glen.

“Just fighting speed. I thought practice was a little bit better. We just completely missed the balance in qualifying there,” Allmendinger said. “With the field that we’ve got now, if you miss it a little bit, it’s not about making a top 10, top 12 out of it. You’re buried in the field.”

Posted on by Staff Report

See where your favorite driver will pit during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Verizon 200 at the Brickyard at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

RELATED: Starting lineup | Key story lines, news | At-track photos

 

Posted on by Zack Albert

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — NASCAR Cup Series regulars and their international guests in the field this weekend are bracing for each other. It’s still a relative novelty, but road-course weekends that have attracted standouts from far-flung places and other racing series across the globe are becoming a more regular occurrence.

There’s still something special, though, about the world-class feel of the build-up to Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. Drivers from seven countries with championship pedigrees from Formula 1, IMSA, Australian V8 Supercars and the World Endurance Championship (WEC) will be on the Brickyard grid, blending in with the range of talent from NASCAR’s top level.

“More eyeballs on Indianapolis this weekend,” said Cup Series points leader Martin Truex Jr., “so it’s good for all of us.”

RELATED: Weekend schedule | At-track photos: Indy

Chicago Street Race winner Shane van Gisbergen will be making a return trip to the stock-car scene one month after his stunning victorious debut. Garage 56 teammates Jenson Button and Mike Rockenfeller will be back on the Cup Series grid, and Brodie Kostecki and Kamui Kobayashi are set to make their series debut.

The Cup Series drivers who have convened at Indy this weekend as part of their season-long campaign have largely welcomed the additional competition and the extra attention from other parts of the world. But they’re also wary of their talent level, so the odds of SVG or another of his international peers contending shouldn’t come as a surprise. The new faces in the field should also keep the stock-car regulars on their toes.

“That’s the big thing. I’m gonna be asking probably, ‘Who’s in that thing?’ I’m gonna forget,” said Ryan Blaney, driver of Team Penske’s No. 12 Ford. “But no, I think it’s great. I think it’s fantastic that Shane’s back, Brodie’s racing, Kamui’s racing. I mean, that’s fantastic. I’ve been watching Kamui in F1 for a while, so that’s super cool, and Jenson’s back. So yeah, I don’t know if it necessarily feels bigger from my side. It’s cool to have a lot of different drivers from all different backgrounds and countries and stuff like that. That’s really, really cool for the sport. It brings a lot more, kind of different nations watching us, I think because maybe that’s your guy from where you’re from.”

Pole qualifying produced a mixed bag for the foreign dignitaries, with only van Gisbergen making the final round and clinching the eighth starting spot for his No. 91 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. Kostecki, a fellow Supercars competitor Down Under, qualified 11th but damaged his No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevy through Turns 11 and 12 during the session. Kobayashi (28th), Button (31st) and Rockenfeller (37th) will start further back.

While Cup Series regulars held their own in Saturday’s time trials, they still said to expect a challenge come Sunday. Van Gisbergen’s Chicago showing on a street layout that was new for everyone was remarkable, but the modest familiarity that NASCAR’s usual crowd has on Indy’s 2.439-mile road-race circuit may improve their footing.

“Just other drivers from other disciplines, jumping into these cars, and doing what they do is impressive, for sure,” said Tyler Reddick, who starts second Sunday in defense of last year’s Indy road course win. “What Shane did at Chicago certainly caught some by surprise, with his background, with the Australian V8 Supercars, and the street courses he’s run in his career, it was cool to see him come in there and show us how much learning we have to do when it comes to street-course racing. But when we go to Indy, it’s a track that we’ve raced at, and this will be our third time, so we have some experience for sure.”

MORE: Sunday’s starting lineup | What to Watch: Indy

That suggestion that the Cup Series field had catching-up to do after Chicago was a sentiment shared by former champ Kyle Larson post-race.

“I felt like we were pretty comfortable with Chicago, but obviously not to his level, so I still think he’s going to be super good here,” Larson said before qualifying sixth for Sunday’s race, a row up from SVG. “I would not be surprised if he’s even faster than all of us by more than it was in Chicago, just because it’s gonna be way easier for him to get around here than it probably was in Chicago, too. So yeah, he’s an extremely talented race car driver, so I’m glad that he’s able to come back because I think at the time, Chicago was the only one (he had) scheduled. Cool that they were able to get him back here in the field that’s got a lot of ringers in it this week. So that’s exciting, and I think all of us drivers enjoy racing with them, and I think the fans should enjoy having them as a part of the field as well.”

Part of their welcome will involve the close-quarters racing inherent to stock-car competition but also the full-contact effect of restarts — especially those that fall during the later laps. That’s what the international group is bracing for.

“Yeah, I was actually very scared after I found out I was doing this race,” Kostecki said. “I went back through the last two years and went to study pretty quickly how the race sort of played out and what it was like into Turn 1.”

New restart-zone procedures — implemented at the suggestion of the drivers — should help to mitigate some of the first-turn stacking that has thrown previous runnings of the event into disarray. But the nature of putting full-bodied cars through their paces on the tight course still has the newcomers’ defenses up.

“When I spoke to Jenson about NASCAR, he said these guys are fighting all of the way, and you have to be ready,” said Kobayashi. “… Still, I’m looking forward to this weekend, especially my first race in NASCAR. I’ve been definitely looking forward to it. I will do my best. It’s hard to say what that will be, but I think it will definitely be a challenging next two days.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Needing a strong performance on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course to bolster his playoff hopes, Daniel Suárez got off to the best possible start on Saturday.

Touring the 2.439-mile, 14-turn circuit in 87.968 seconds (99.814 mph) in his No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, Suárez earned the pole position for Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

Suárez beat defending race winner Tyler Reddick (99.649 mph) by a substantial margin — 0.145 seconds — to secure his first Busch Light Pole Award of the season, his first at the Indy Road Course and the third of his NASCAR Cup Series career.

RELATED: Qualifying results | Weekend schedule 

With three races left before the playoff field is set, Suárez is 18th in the Cup Series standings, five points behind Ty Gibbs in 16th, the last playoff-eligible position. Gibbs qualified 10th on Saturday, last among those who advanced to the final round.

“I think the mentality on the 99 team hasn’t changed the last couple of months,” Suárez said. “We have to continue to focus on one race at a time, try to maximize the potential of the race car and try to win a race if it’s possible.

“The energy has been great. The guys have been working very hard. I’ve been working very hard, and it shows.”

Chase Elliott, 55 points below the elimination line and realistically needing a victory to advance, qualified third at 99.399 mph.

“These things can go all sorts of different ways, but it is nice to have good track position, always,” Elliott said. “As time has gone on, it’s getting tougher and tougher to pass the leader, especially late in the race.”

MORE: Playoff Watch | Cup standings 

Michael McDowell, two points ahead of Suárez and 17th in the standings, will start fourth after a lap at 99.288 mph.

McDowell posted the fastest lap of the day at 99.881 mph in the first round.

“That’s what we needed to do — qualify in the top five and now race in the top five, score stage points and be there in the end to steal the win,” McDowell said. “Let’s see what happens. You don’t know until you get out there and get to race pace.

“Our long-run speed was good in practice — as long as you could run in 10 laps. But we’ll see what happens when we get into a 20-lap run, and we stack up. But I feel good where we are.”

Kyle Busch earned the fifth spot on the grid, followed by Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and Chicago Street Course winner Shane van Gisbergen of New Zealand. Alex Bowman will start ninth on Sunday with a time identical to that of Gibbs — 88.606 seconds.

Australian Brodie Kostecki claimed the 11th starting position for his Cup debut, but he slid into the outside wall and damaged his No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Ford during a second attempt at a lap in the first round.

Michael McDowell fastest during practice

Front Row Motorsports led the field during the practice portion, with the No. 34 of McDowell setting the pace ahead of Kyle Larson, FRM teammate Todd Gilliland, Ty Gibbs and Alex Bowman. Christopher Bell, Austin Cindric, Daniel Suárez, William Byron and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top 10.

MORE: Cup Series practice results

McDowell wheeled a best lap of 98.516 mph for a time of 89.127 seconds.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Reid Spencer

CLERMONT, Ind.—Ty Majeski’s timing was impeccable.

Winless this season before Friday night’s TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, Majseki put an old-fashioned beating on the rest of the field in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoff opener.

RELATED: Race results | See photos from weekend

The driver of the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford cemented a spot in the Round of 8 in dominating fashion, leading 179 of 200 laps, sweeping the first two stages of the race and beating pole winner and runner-up Christian Eckes to the finish line by 3.422 seconds.

That was the smallest margin Majeski held at the end of any stage. He held a 3.904-second advantage over eventual eighth-place finisher Corey Heim at the finish of Stage 1. He was up by six seconds over Heim before the second stage ended under caution for Chris Hacker’s spin on the backstretch.

Clearly, the short-track ace was in his element at the 0.686-mile speedway.

“I’m proud of the effort, but this is just the start of our playoff run,” said Majeski, who failed to win with the fastest truck two weekends ago at Richmond.

In that race, Majeski sped on pit road, and his team failed to cover a late green-flag pit stop by race winner Carson Hocevar. In contrast, the effort of the entire No. 98 team was impeccable on Friday night.

“Mistakes really cost us (at Richmond),” Majeski said. “We learned from those. Obviously, tonight we were in a really similar situation, and we were able to execute on all fronts. The pit crew was great, (crew chief) Joe (Shear Jr.) made great calls, and I felt like I executed pretty good on the restarts.

“We put it all together as a race team tonight, and I’m pretty proud of that.”

Hocevar came home fourth behind non-playoff driver Layne Riggs. Reigning series champion Zane Smith was fifth after starting from the rear of the field because of unapproved adjustments to his No. 38 Ford.

William Sawalich was a career-best sixth in his fourth Truck Series start, followed by fellow non-playoff driver Rajah Caruth. Heim, in eighth, was penalized for too many men over the wall late in the race. Three-time series champion Matt Crafton and Matt DiBenedetto completed the top 10.

The race also was a triumph for another driver who never led a lap and finished 19th in the first car one lap down. Shane van Gisbergen, who took the NASCAR world by storm by winning the Chicago Street Race in his only Cup start, avoided all trouble and got plenty of seat time in his first trip around an oval.

“It was awesome,” said the New Zealander. “With 10 to go, I finally dropped off the lead lap. “I had a ball. It was awesome racing with people, a lot of fun… I’m living the dream, it was really cool, and everyone was respectful. It was awesome.”

MORE: Truck Series standings

Heim, the regular-season champion, retained the series lead by three points over Majeski.

After the next two races—at the Milwaukee Mile (Aug. 27) and Kansas Speedway (Sept. 8)—the playoff field will be cut from 10 drivers to eight. The two drivers currently below the cut line are Crafton and DiBenedetto, who trail eighth-place Nick Sanchez by two points and three points, respectively.

Note: Post-race technical inspection concluded without issue in the Craftsman Truck Series garage, confirming Majeski as the winner.