Posted on by Zack Albert

SPEEDWAY, Ind. – As far as top rookie performances go, it’s hard to top Austin Cindric’s rousing victory in the season-opening Daytona 500. But Sunday marked a meaningful day for all three Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidates with top-five finishes all around at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.

Cindric led the way in second place in the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard, followed by Harrison Burton in third and Todd Gilliland in fourth. The results for Burton and Gilliland marked career-bests and their first top-five finishes in the NASCAR Cup Series. It also was the first time three rookies finished in the top five since July 1994 at Pocono Raceway when Ward Burton, Jeff Burton and Joe Nemechek accomplished the feat.

RELATED: Official results | Reddick prevails at Indy

The three Ford drivers celebrated their collective outcome with handshakes and high-fives on Indy’s pit road. To mark the occasion, here’s a rookie roundup of each driver’s day in the sun.

Austin Cindric, second place

Cindric’s special family connection to the Indianapolis track added another chapter after starting second and finishing there, coming across the start-finish line 1.065 seconds back of race winner Tyler Reddick at the checkered flag. Cindric’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford was one of few cars to steer clear of the Turn 1 mayhem that scrambled the order in the lone overtime restart.

Cindric’s car was actually the third across the line, but apparent second finisher Ross Chastain was penalized for an escape-route detour, moving him and the rest of the rookies up a spot in the official rundown.

“It’s easy on paper, right?” said Cindric, who won in the Xfinity Series race on the IMS road layout last season and finished ninth in the Cup Series event the following day. “Oh, my gosh, I feel like we probably deserved 10th at best today. There were a few things I was good at, but I needed the whole track to do it and I kind of struggled a bit, probably a little lower than my expectations were today, but those restarts, survival, holy crap. All I can say is ‘wow.’ There’s no other sport, no other form of racing other than NASCAR that you’re going to get that.”

Harrison Burton, third place

Not many drivers came away from Sunday’s start unscathed, and Burton was no different. His No. 21 Wood Brother Racing Mustang came around in the first turn during Stage 2, collecting Cole Custer’s No. 41 entry in the mishap.

Burton recovered and followed Cindric’s path through the OT restart chaos, eventually escaping the bumps and bruises that cost others.

“Yeah, we’ll take it. Wouldn’t have picked this weekend to get my best career finish so far,” Burton said. “Just a lot of aggression on the last restarts and putting myself in good positions. At the end of the day, it was — honestly we weren’t doing our job at the start of the race. We kind of didn’t execute well. I made a mistake, spun out, got into Custer there. Was kind of pretty upset midway through the race, and then just got our heads down, came in, got tires and started picking guys off and restarted in a good spot to kind of go get some more. It’s just exciting.”

Todd Gilliland, fourth place

Gilliland celebrated some other firsts Sunday at Indianapolis, marking his best starting spot – ninth – and also chalking up his first laps led in the Cup Series. An alternate pit strategy shuffled his No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford to the front for four laps.

In overtime, Gilliland squirted by a spinning Ryan Blaney, bouncing off the side of Burton’s No. 21 before righting his car for the rest of the way.

“It’s just really exciting,” said Gilliland, whose previous best Cup Series finish was 15th at Darlington Raceway in May. “This rookie season has been really tough. The Cup Series is hard. I’ve learned that. It’s easy to give up and that’s one thing, too. You have confidence when you come to the Cup Series, but you get beat down quick. Even just having a ninth-place qualifying effort and just to run up front the first stage. We stayed out and got stage points and kind of had to come from the back again, but that’s what me and my crew chief was talking about.

“That’s really our best weekend start to finish by far, so hopefully that’s just something to build on. For me, that’s a lot of confidence. Road course racing is tough, too. I’ve always loved it, but it hasn’t really loved me so much this year, especially the first time here at Indianapolis. That’s really cool.”

Posted on by Zack Albert

SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Chase Elliott entered Sunday with a brilliant streak of five consecutive races with top-two results. It all tallied up to a pristine 1.4 average finish, dotted by three wins in that span.

The stellar streak ended with a not-so-sweet 16th after an eventful Sunday for the NASCAR Cup Series points leader on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. The 2.439-mile mixing bowl of a circuit gave the 38 cars fits, and Elliott – streak and all – was not immune.

RELATED: Official results | Reddick rolls at Indy

Elliott recovered from an early spin and a mid-race pit mix-up to put the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in a position to challenge Tyler Reddick for the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard win – nearly reprising their 1-on-1 battle from earlier this month at Road America. But bedlam on the next-to-last restart with three laps left in regulation sent the No. 9 Chevy looping in Turn 1, knocking him from contention and sending the race to overtime.

“I just … I crashed,” Elliott told NASCAR.com as he exited the historic track. “Don’t know why.”

Part of the reason was the calamity that hovered on Turn 1 most of the day, especially on restarts. A Stage 1 spin with lesser harm claimed Elliott in that same right-hander, but the late-race repeat carried harsh consequences.

Elliott started second alongside Reddick when the green flag flew on Lap 80 of a scheduled 82, inching ahead before Reddick took control in the preferred inside line. Behind him, a thicket of cars was bearing down on his No. 9, and contact from the No. 24 of teammate William Byron and the No. 12 Ford of close friend Ryan Blaney ate up the remaining real estate.

Elliott took the worst of it, collecting Byron’s car in his wake. He continued at the back of the pack and drove back to pit road.

“Green-white-checkered,” spotter Eddie D’Hondt said over the No. 9 team communications, signaling the overtime restart.

“Good, I need about 10 more here,” Elliott quipped.

At the end, 28 cars finished on the lead lap, and Elliott wound up near the middle of those. Crew chief Alan Gustafson talked about what could have been.

“Just sloppy. A sloppy day. I didn’t do a very good job, and we made too many mistakes and just too far behind the whole day,” Gustafson told NASCAR.com. “Certainly, I was happy with the improvements we made to the car all weekend, so that was a positive. We got the car better but it was just behind the 8 ball all day long. Certainly, we’re not happy with that.”

The remarkable recent run of consistency still has Elliott a whopping 125 points clear of second-place Blaney atop the Cup Series standings. As for the top-two streak’s demise, that ended without fanfare.

“Doesn’t matter,” Gustafson said. “It’s about today.”

Posted on by Tadd Haislop

The story of Ryan Blaney’s 26th-place finish in the Verizon 200 at The Brickyard exemplifies the fragility of a strong run in the NASCAR Cup Series.

The No. 12 Team Penske group did everything right, and in the closing laps on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, Blaney was in position to race for a win.

Until he wasn’t.

A spin in Turn 2 following the one and only overtime restart Sunday took Blaney out of contention. Asked after the event what happened, and still fuming with frustration, the 28-year-old claimed he had “no idea.”

MORE: Full race results | Reddick scores overtime victory

Nobody can blame Blaney for his bewilderment. These things happen quickly. In one moment, he was fighting for a top-three position, and in the next, he was staring at the grass on the inside of Turn 2 with A.J. Allmendinger’s front bumper pounding against his driver’s side door.

Entering Turn 1, Daniel Suárez dove low on Blaney’s right side. But when Suarez was shoved from behind, he slid into Blaney, who at that point found himself three-wide between Suárez and Allmendinger. Blaney ultimately ran out of space and spun off Allmendinger’s right front.

Overcome with indignation, Blaney’s crew members in the immediate aftermath of the incident prepared for a potential pit stop. It never came. The crew’s final action of the day was their stop on Lap 53, when crew chief Jonathan Hassler made what would have been the call of the race had the late spin not occurred.

With Blaney running third, more than six seconds behind the leader Reddick, Hassler gambled. He decided not to add four fresh Goodyear tires to Blaney’s Ford Mustang, only providing fuel. In theory, this would allow Blaney to gain valuable track position on Reddick and potentially race for the win.

Hessler had to imagine luck was on his side, because Reddick and second-place driver Christopher Bell pitted on Lap 51. A caution between those stops and Blaney’s would have ruined Hessler’s plan, and despite a Brad Keselowski spin, the yellow never flew.

Save for a stall when Blaney pulled out of his pit box, the plan worked to perfection. Blaney re-entered the track in second place with a far greater chance to contend with Reddick.

In explaining his call, Hassler noted the team learned in practice there was a possibility tires on the Indy road course would not be as crucial as expected, but their limited pre-race laps left some doubt. Still, the team was prepared.

“We showed early on in the race that the tires didn’t mean a ton,” Hassler explained. “We were in a position where we could wait for [Reddick] to pit, and if he took four, then we’d have a chance to jump him with fuel only. So we gambled and did that.

“Didn’t work out quite like we wanted, but we were in position there late in the race.”

Blaney said his older tires were not a factor in the closing laps of the race thanks to multiple restarts; three cautions interrupted the race over the final 22 laps.

So with track position on his side and no notable disadvantages in the condition of his car, all Blaney needed was the same luck that helped get him to such a favorable position.

He received the opposite.

That rapid moment was the difference between what could have been Blaney’s eighth top-five finish of the season and what it became — his fourth finish outside the top 10 in the last five races.

Blaney actually gained a spot in the Cup Series standings with his run at Indy; he jumped Ross Chastain for second place. That’s the silver lining to an otherwise crushing road-course result.

The No. 12’s performance proved once again that a team and driver can do seemingly everything right, only for everything to go wrong.

Posted on by Staff Report

Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon each were assessed 30-second penalties for short-cutting the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in the closing laps of Sunday’s race.

A trio of late restarts saw multiple front-runners spin while battling for position in treacherous Turn 1. On the final restart of the race, both Chastain and Dillon zoomed down an access road to avoid the incidents happening in front of them, then drove back onto the track.

Chastain appeared to take the lead from Tyler Reddick with a slick pass in the esses, but Reddick eventually re-took control and powered on for his second win of the season.

MORE: Reddick claims Indy | Official results

Chastain’s Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet initially came home in second place before NASCAR officials issued the penalty, which then dropped the No. 1 to a 27th-place finish. Dillon was already a lap down and slipped a couple of spots in the final order to 30th.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

SPEEDWAY, Ind. – The NASCAR Cup Series has a new road course conqueror.

Tyler Reddick survived a wild overtime battle against Ross Chastain — who, as it turned out, was under penalty for finagling the first corner — to win Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard.

Reddick’s NASCAR Cup Series victory at the 2.439-mile, 14-turn Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course was his second this month, the second of his career and his second at a road course.

MORE: Official results | At-track photos

There was one fundamental difference between Reddick’s win at the Brickyard and his victory on July 3 at Road America. Between the two triumphs, Reddick announced he would leave Richard Childress Racing for 23XI Racing after the 2023 season.

But Reddick proved on Sunday that lame ducks can still go fast.

“Well, we just know what we’re capable of, and we did that at Road America,” said Reddick, who led a race-high 38 laps on Sunday. “Certainly, (the announcement) was a little bump in the road, but we went out and won a race fair and square a couple weeks ago, and if we change nothing, we keep working really, really hard, we find a way back to Victory Lane.

“Just really glad to be able to do it here in Indianapolis. This is one really special place to race, and really excited to kiss the bricks here in a little bit and really excited we got (sponsor) 3CHI their win in their hometown.”

After a multicar melee in Turn 1 sent the race to overtime and dashed the hopes of Chase Elliott, who had restarted second beside Reddick on Lap 80, Reddick lined up beside AJ Allmendinger for the overtime restart.

Lining up fifth on Lap 85, Chastain steered wide on the restart and opted for the access road beyond the corner. He returned to the track after swapping the lead with Reddick throughout the first lap of overtime.

Reddick was shocked to see Chastain’s unorthodox strategy.

“I was like, ‘Uh-oh,’” Reddick said. “But that was a scenario that had been talked about. If you get bottled up, what do you do? Take the access road. I couldn’t believe he got ahead of me. I was kind of waiting to see if he was going to have a penalty, because I didn’t want to move him out of the way and make his race worse than what it was.

“Yeah, I was really surprised by that, but, hey, we made it work. Hats off to Ross for trying to do that, but really glad it didn’t end up working out, because I’d have been pretty pissed off.”

NASCAR frowned on Chastain’s artifice and assessed a 30-second penalty that dropped him to 27th at the finish, elevating Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric to the runner-up spot.

“Just trying not to be in the chaos there in Turn 1,” Chastain said. “I thought we were four-wide, and couldn’t go any farther right, and decided to take the NASCAR access lane out there.

“Just pure reaction there, for our Worldwide Express Chevy. I took it in practice on exit, overshooting Turn 1. … Yeah, just wanted to not get hit, and merged back on where I merged.”

Harrison Burton came home third, followed by Todd Gilliland and Bubba Wallace. The results were career bests for Burton and Gilliland, and with Cindric, it marked the first time since 1994 at Pocono that three rookies have finished in the top five in a Cup race.

(The three rookies at Pocono were Joe Nemechek and Jeff Burton and Ward Burton, Harrison Burton’s father and uncle respectively.)

Despite a multitude of early spins, the first caution for an accident in Sunday’s race didn’t come until Lap 62, and it set the stage for the chaos that followed.

After green-flag pit stops, Reddick had built a lead of more than three seconds over Christopher Bell when Kyle Larson’s Chevrolet hurtled out of control into Turn 1 and blindsided the Chevy of Ty Dillon with a bone-jarring impact.

The resulting caution tightened the field and set up a restart on Lap 65 with Reddick in the lead and Bell beside him in the outside lane and Ryan Blaney trailing in third.

The outside lane on that restart and the two that followed proved to be anathema for the drivers running second. Bell was shuffled back on the Lap 65 restart and ultimately caused the fourth caution with a blown right front tire that spread debris on the track.

Elliott, who was tracking Reddick before that yellow, spun in a three-wide sandwich in Turn 1 with Blaney and William Byron on the Lap 80 restart. And defending race winner AJ Allmendinger, who had driven his No. 16 Chevrolet to second despite a malfunctioning cool suit, was forced wide on the overtime restart and dropped to seventh at the finish.

Blaney also was a victim of the final restart, spinning in Turn 1 and finishing 26th after spending the majority of the afternoon in the top five and leading 17 laps, tied for second most with Bell. That mishap cost Blaney a chance to put more distance in the standings between himself and Martin Truex Jr.

Blaney and Truex are 15th and 16th, respectively, in the Playoff standings with four races left in the regular season. After Sunday’s race, Blaney leads Truex by 25 points.

NOTE: Post-race inspection is complete with no issues, confirming Tyler Reddick as the winner of Sunday’s race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.

Posted on by Staff Report

Which channels have NASCAR programming this week? We answer that and give the weekly NASCAR television listings here in the NASCAR TV schedule.

Note: All times are ET.

MORE: How to find USA Network | How to find FS1 | Get FOX Sports App | Watch on USA Network | Get the NBC Sports App | Watch on Peacock | FloRacing

Monday, August 1
12:30 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: TSport 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park (re-air), FS1
2:30 a.m., ARCA Menards Series: Reese’s 200 (re-air), FS1
7:30 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: TSport 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park (re-air), FS2
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
6 p.m., NASCAR America Motormouths, Peacock
7 p.m., NASCAR Auto Racing Classics: 1994 Brickyard 400, FS1

Tuesday, August 2
4 a.m., ARCA Menards Series: Reese’s 200 (re-air), FS2
10 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: TSport 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park (re-air), FS2
Noon, NASCAR Presents Beyond the Wheel, FS2
1 p.m., The NASCARcade, FS2
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
7 p.m., Refuse to Lose: Jeff Gordon and the 1997 Daytona 500, FS1

Wednesday, August 3
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
6 p.m., NASCAR America Motormouths, Peacock
7 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub Best of Radioactive: 2022 Season, FS1

Thursday, August 4
1:30 a.m., ARCA Menards Series: Reese’s 200 (re-air), FS2
3:30 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: TSport 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park (re-air), FS2
5:30 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
6 p.m., Dale Jr. Download, Peacock
9:31 p.m., Austin Dillon’s Life in the Fast Lane: Plenty of Pit Stops, USA Network

Friday, August 5
12:33 a.m., Austin Dillon’s Life in the Fast Lane: Plenty of Pit Stops (re-air), USA Network
1 p.m., NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour: Clash at Claremont 150, USA Network
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
7 p.m., NASCAR Race Classic: 1998 Daytona 500, FS1
9:30 p.m., NASCAR Race Classic: 1994 Brickyard 400, FS2

Saturday, August 6
9 a.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Qualifying at Michigan International Speedway, NBC Sports App
12:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Qualifying at Michigan International Speedway, NBC Sports App
3 p.m., Countdown to Green: NXS, USA Network
3:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: New Holland 250 from Michigan, USA Network, NBC Sports App
6 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series post-race show, USA Network

On MRN:
12:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Pole Qualifying
3:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: New Holland 250
6:30 p.m., ARCA Menards Series: Henry Ford Health 200

Sunday, August 7
9:15 a.m., IMSA Auto Racing , Peacock
Noon, IMSA Auto Racing, USA Network
12:30 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay, FS1
2:30 p.m., Countdown to Green, USA Network
2:50 p.m., IMSA Auto Racing, Peacock
3 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers 400 from Michigan, USA Network, NBC Sports App (UNDERWAY AFTER DELAY)
6 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series post-race show, USA Network

On MRN Radio:
3 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers 400

Posted on by Nick Giffen

The Action Network specializes in providing sports betting insights/analytics and is a content partner with NASCAR. Check out more NASCAR betting analysis here.

The NASCAR Cup Series heads to the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC).

This is the fourth road course race of the 2022 Cup Series season, meaning we have plenty of data to use from similar tracks.

Practice and qualifying give us extra insight into driver speed this weekend.

Finally, we should consider strategy, as it has been a key element of road course races so far this year.

Throwing all that into the mixer, I’ve arrived at two bets I like for today’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard.

RELATED: Updated race-day odds | Practice and qualifying report

NASCAR at Indianapolis Pick

*Odds as of Sunday morning

Kevin Harvick Top Ford (+2000)

Harvick has finished inside the top 11 in all three road-course races this year.

While that 8.3 average finish only places him fourth among the Ford drivers, that puts him just 1.7 places behind the leader in that statistic: Austin Cindric.

There’s plenty of reason to believe Cindric, as well as Chase Briscoe, may points race to help secure their spots in the playoffs.

With Kurt Busch missing today’s race due to lingering concussion symptoms, Briscoe and Cindric have a chance to put a solid gap over the 23XI driver in the point standings.

At Road America, both Cindric and Briscoe stayed out during Stage 1. By finishing first and second, respectively, in that stage, Cindric and Briscoe ended up with stellar results in the points.

Cindric scored the second most points among all drivers despite finishing seventh. Meanwhile, Briscoe scored the sixth-most points despite fishing only 14th.

Harvick, meanwhile, is on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. That means his sole focus is to win.

Harvick posted the eighth-fastest time over five consecutive laps in practice, and crew chief Rodney Childers tweeted that they had a fast car on Saturday (and a fast driver).

Harvick has finished third, third and fourth among the Ford drivers at road courses this year. He was even in contention for the win at Sonoma before a slow final pit stop.

This 20-1 price at DraftKings is simply too long for the wily veteran driver, given the current circumstances.

The Bet: Harvick Top Ford +2000 | Bet to: +1200

Martin Truex Jr. (+300) Over Chase Briscoe

Should Briscoe be favored here? Absolutely.

Should he be favored by this much? Doubtful.

First, let’s just start with the basic fact that road course racing produces a decent amount of randomness. Truex, despite being slower than Briscoe at both Circuit of The Americas and Road America, finished ahead of the second-year driver in both races.

Next, let’s look at practice. Truex, while not blazingly quick, posted the seventh-best time over five consecutive laps in practice. Additionally, his best single-lap speed was only 0.12 seconds behind Briscoe’s best practice lap.

That certainly doesn’t seem like enough of a gap to be a 3-1 underdog.

Now, add in the aforementioned point-standings circumstances for Briscoe, and it’s pretty hard to say Briscoe should be a massive favorite here.

My model says Briscoe is about a 2-1 favorite, and that’s not even counting the playoff situation, which is almost impossible to factor into a statistical model.

That means there’s value in betting Truex at +300 at DraftKings.

The Bet: Martin Truex, Jr. over Chase Briscoe +300 | Bet to: +225

Posted on by Dustin Albino

With three road-course races in the books this season, we’ve begun to see trends on such tracks. Some of those include first-time winners, Chase Elliott remaining fast and Toyotas continuing to struggle. And wouldn’t you know, after practice and qualifying for Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, all of those remained evident, highlighted by Tyler Reddick’s pole-winning run.

Dustin Albino’s race-day lineup:
Starter 1: Chase Elliott
Starter 2: Austin Cindric
Starter 3: Tyler Reddick
Starter 4: Chase Briscoe
Starter 5: AJ Allmendinger
Garage pick: Daniel Suárez

NEXT IN LINE: Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Michael McDowell.

To the rear (as reported by NASCAR): No. 51 (Unapproved Adjustments), No. 10 (Engine Change).

RELATED: Indianapolis odds | Practice/qualifying report

RISING: While neither Joey Logano nor Kyle Busch made my lineup — or even my next four in line — it should be noted that both drivers had strong Saturdays. In the Next Gen era, Logano has a best finish of 17th in three road-course events. Meanwhile, Busch has an average result of 19th. Both made the final round of qualifying and will start fifth and 10th, respectively.

Quietly, Ryan Blaney is an underrated road-course driver, despite being in the right place at the right time in the inaugural event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. The No. 12 Ford was third quickest in practice and will take the green flag from sixth. And after a dismal finish last week at Pocono, Blaney needs points.

FALLING: While Elliott will start eighth, the rest of the Hendrick Motorsports brigade was nearly nonexistent in qualifying. Kyle Larson was the next best in show at 22nd, with William Byron in 23rd. Alex Bowman’s two months of struggles continued, and he will line up 28th.

For years, Martin Truex Jr. was almost guaranteed to earn a top-five finish when going to a road course. However, the Next Gen car hasn’t been kind to the No. 19 team when turning left and right — just one top 10. Saturday at Indy wasn’t much better, with Truex turning the 19th-best lap in practice and lining up 25th.

FEATURED MATCHUPS:

Denny Hamlin vs. Ross Chastain
What a lovely pairing this week; these two are good friends. Ha! Given Chastain is one of three drivers in the Cup field to have top 10s in all three road-course races this season, he’s the easy choice. Sure, the No. 1 car had a lackluster qualifying run of 21st, but he was still fourth fastest in practice.

Chase Elliott vs. Kyle Larson
Even going to the Next Gen car, Elliott and Larson have remained near equal on road courses, finishing second and third, respectively, last time out at Road America. However, Elliott’s road-course prowess and overall success should not get overlooked. Plus, he has a 14-position buffer on Larson to start the race.

Martin Truex Jr. vs. Chase Briscoe
If Briscoe can keep all four tires on the course and not cut the racing surface — easier said than done, as multiple drivers missed corners in practice — he will be the layup choice this weekend. In fact, it shouldn’t surprise anyone if the No. 14 goes back to Victory Lane and parks on The Yard of Bricks.

Tyler Reddick vs. Ryan Blaney
Since moving to the Cup Series, Reddick has improved greatly on road courses, and is the most recent winner on one at Road America in early July. The No. 8 Chevrolet also won the pole by two-and-a-half tenths of a second. While Blaney is expected to be competitive, Reddick could win.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

SPEEDWAY, Ind. – The NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff is still six races away, but AJ Allmendinger has already clinched one title.

With his victory in Saturday’s Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard, the driver of the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet is the undisputed King of the Road.

Allmendinger was an irresistible force at the 2.439-mile, 14-turn Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. He led 42 of the 62 laps and overcame a fraught 25-second pit stop that dropped him from the lead to 13th for a restart on Lap 19.

The victory was Allmendinger’s third of the season — all on road courses — and his fourth win in the last five Xfinity Series races on circuits that turn right as well as left, dating to his triumph in last year’s fall event at the Charlotte Roval.

Allmendinger passed runner-up Alex Bowman for the lead after a restart on Lap 45, staying alongside Bowman’s No. 17 Chevrolet through Turn 1 and pulling clear through Turn 2. Allmendinger crossed the finish line 2.084 seconds ahead of the Hendrick Motorsports driver.

MORE: Race results | At-track photos

“God, I love this place,” exclaimed Allmendinger, who won last year’s NASCAR Cup Series race at the vaunted Brickyard and will defend that victory in Sunday’s Verizon 200 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, IMS Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“I knew Bowman was really good at the long runs, and so I tried to gap him as much as I could. God, I love Indy!”

Allmendinger lost track position on the Lap 16 pit stop when his crew had difficulty changing the right rear tire. But the 40-year-old driver from Los Gatos, Calif., fought through traffic and advanced to third for a restart on Lap 29.

He went three-wide to the inside on that restart and had the lead as he exited Turn 1.

“We gave up stage points a little bit there as well, to the guys we’re fighting for points,” Allmendinger said. “But you know what? Points don’t mean a damn thing — we’re kissing the bricks. Hell, yeah!”

Bowman began to cut into Allmendinger’s lead late in the final 18-lap run green-flag run but ran out of time.

“I probably was a little too nice on that last restart,” said Bowman, who was running his first Xfinity Series race since 2018. “I knew he was going to be better than us firing off … At the end, we were definitely running him down — just not enough laps.”

Justin Allgaier passed Ross Chastain on the final lap to secure third place, with Chastain holding fourth. Chase Briscoe came home fifth, followed by Riley Herbst, Sam Mayer, Ty Gibbs, Austin Hill and Noah Gragson.

Gragson won the first stage of the race and fellow JR Motorsports driver Josh Berry claimed victory in Stage 2.

NOTE: Inspection is complete in the Xfinity Series garage with no issues, confirming AJ Allmendinger as the race winner.

Posted on by Zack Albert

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Michael McDowell said Saturday that his team is pushing forward after the heavy penalty that sent his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports outfit tumbling down the NASCAR Cup Series standings.

The fallout from the L2-grade violations — found in a thorough post-race inspection at the NASCAR Research & Development Center — are under appeal by the Bob Jenkins-owned organization. But no matter the outcome of that process, McDowell said the No. 34 team’s plan of attack remains unchanged.

RELATED: Indy weekend schedule | No. 34 FRM team penalized

“I think we’ll just see what happens,” McDowell said Saturday after Busch Light Pole Qualifying at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. “They’re gonna go through that process. I don’t know all the details, never been in this kind of situation, but you know the deal. The fact of the matter is: Last week, we needed to win a race to get in the playoffs, and now we still need to win a race to get in the playoffs. So we’re just going to focus on winning this race.”

McDowell is set to start a solid seventh in Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, IMS Radio, SiriusXM) at the 2.439-mile circuit. He enters the race 26th in the Cup Series points — six spots lower than he initially was pegged after last weekend’s event at Pocono Raceway.

The penalty concerned the modification of a single-source supplied part in the body or vehicle assembly. The punishment meant a 100-point penalty in both the driver and team owner standings, plus a four-race suspension and $100,000 fine for crew chief Blake Harris. Harris is with the team this weekend at IMS, working with the No. 34 team while the appeal date is pending.

The severe infraction takes a bit of the glow off a steady recent run of finishes for McDowell, who has posted top-10 results in three of the last six races. The 37-year-old driver is already at a career-best in top 10s, recording eight already through 21 starts this season.

“I think that, obviously, it lights a fire, but I think we’ve been on fire already,” McDowell said. “I mean, we’ve been crushing it here lately.”