By Roy J. Akers – www.skyviewsports.net
Indianapolis — The Brickyard is back at the famed 2.5 mile oval for the second straight year and Kyle Larson won the return event last year, but he has several drivers looking to take home this year’s victory. Indiana’s Chase Briscoe is on the pole this year and believes this race is more important than the Daytona 500. Yesterday, he clarified his comments and said that The Brickyard is his most desired victory, but winning a NASCAR championship is his top goal. Denny Hamlin crashed in practice and is 39th on the starting grid. Chase Elliott qualified 30th.
Stage One – 50 Laps 1st Stage Top Drivers
Briscoe brings the field to green and quickly jumps to a .03 lead over Bubba Wallace and Eric Jones. Hamlin is already up nine spots by lap 5 from 39th to 30th after his practice wreck on Saturday. Tyler Reddick goes around Wallace for second on lap 8. Reddick is closing the gap by lap 14 trailing by .0339. Reddick is closing fast on the race leader when Ross Chastain goes into the wall in turn four after losing traction in turn four.
When the race is restarted on lap 23, Cindric and Logano bring the field to green. Cindric breaks out from Logano with Reddick third. Michael McDowell experiences a setback as his car begins smoking in Turn 1 due to a flat right front tire while running in 37th position. Simultaneously, Noah Gragson, running in 23rd, reports a flat tire and heads to the pits for repairs. By lap 34, Cindric leads Logano by 2.45 seconds with Chase Briscoe third. Drivers are spread out single file with 36 of 39 being on the lead lap. Cindric pits under green on lap 42 and surrenders the lead to Briscoe. The leaders continue to trickle in.
Stage Two – 50 Laps Top 8 Stage 2
As drivers cycle through the pits, most lead lap cars pit, with notable exceptions including Ryan Preece, Alex Bowman, Justin Haley, Austin Cindric, Josh Berry, Joey Logano, and Erik Jones. Carson Hocevar gains an advantage by taking only two tires, emerging as the first off pit road, followed by Chase Briscoe and William Byron. Ryan Preece leads William Bowman to the line and beats him clean to take the race lead. Preece continues to lead until pitting on lap 64 with Bowman inheriting the lead until pitting himself and Cindric is once again the race leader on lap 68. Ryan Preece’s extended pit stop of over 16 seconds results in him falling off the lead lap.
It’s Cindrick, Byron and Hocevar by lap 76. Austin Cindric has led 30 laps so far today, the most laps for a Team Penske entry at the Brickyard 400 since Rusty Wallace in 2000. Hamlin, who started 39th after the practice crash, is now 10th. Hocevar green-flag pits from third position on lap 80 (Halfway of race). Cindric blows his right rear tire and rides the rim but the race continues. It’s Bubba Wallace, Chase Briscoe and Erik Jones third. Hamlin is now 5th and charging. Hamlin promptly pits, and several other leaders join him on laps 87-88. Jones goes into the wall on lap 90 and destroys his axle.
Briscoe, Blaney, Reddick, and Bell are now 1-4 as the race is under caution. At lap 95 of 160, Ryan Blaney leads under caution. The race has seen eight lead changes among six drivers, with three cautions for 13 laps. Blaney, who started 24th, has led three laps and holds a 1.095-second advantage over Brad Keselowski. Blaney takes the stage. Larson and Hamlin are 2-3.
Lap 102- Stage Break- Pit Stop Strategy- Under caution, Brad Keselowski, Ty Gibbs, Alex Bowman, Todd Gilliland, and Katherine Legge make strategic pit stops. This decision could impact their track position and tire strategy for the upcoming green flag run.
Final Stage – 160 and OT
Larson, Hamlin, and Byron are now your top three as the green flag is thrown and a cycling of drivers is circulating through pit road. The race resumes on lap 106 with Larson out front and Hamlin second. Larson and Hamlin pit on lap 121. Justin Haley, Brad Keselowski, and Todd Gilliland are 1-2-3 but have yet to pit with 33 to go. Logano’s right rear goes flat with 26 to go, and the race continues under the green flag. Logano’s car has no power, and his crew chases him down.
His third career NASCAR Cup victory delivered Wallace’s first victory in the series’ four crown jewel events, the others being the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600 and Southern 500. It also snapped a 100-race winless streak that dated to 2022 at Kansas and locked up a playoff spot. His only other win came at Talladega in 2021.
The final gap was 0.222 seconds, but that was no measure of the consternation he faced.
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Larson cut a 5.057-second deficit with 14 laps to go to about three seconds with six laps left as the yellow flag came out for the rain. The cars then rolled to a stop on pit lane with four laps remaining, forcing Wallace to think and rethink his restart strategy.
“The whole time I’m thinking are we going? Are we not?” he said. “I will say I leaned more towards ‘I know we’re going to go back racing. Be ready. Don’t get complacent here.”
Wallace made sure of it.
He beat Larson through the second turn on the first restart only to have a crash behind him force a second overtime, forcing his crew to recalculate whether they had enough fuel to finish the race or whether he needed to surrender the lead and refuel.
In Wallace’s mind, there was no choice.
“The first thing that went through my mind was, ‘Here we go again,’” he said. “But then I said, `I want to win this straight up. I want to go back racing.’ Here we are.”
He beat Larson off the restart again and pulled away, preventing Larson from becoming the race’s fourth back-to-back winner.
The victory also alleviated the frustration Wallace felt Saturday when he spent most of the qualifying session on the provisional pole only to see Chase Briscoe claim the No. 1 starting spot with one of the last runs in the session.
On Sunday, he made sure there was no repeat, providing an added boost to the 23XI Racing team co-owned by basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan and last week’s race winner, Denny Hamlin, as it continues to battle NASCAR in court over its charter status.
“Those last 20 laps there were ups and downs and I was telling myself ‘You won’t be able to do it,’” Wallace said. “Once I’d seen it was Larson, I knew he won here last year and he’s arguably the best in the field. So to beat the best, we had to be the best today.”
The other big race — the In-Season Challenge — went to Ty Gibbs, who had a better car than Ty Dillon in qualifying and on race day. Gibbs finished 21st o win the inaugural March Madness-like single-elimination tournament and collect the $1 million prize.
The Checkered Flag
Wallace wins the Brickyard leading 30 of the 168 laps run.
You had a smile on your face when you and I chatted this morning, but what were the nerves like before that second overtime because there was a real debate over whether you needed to pit or not?
BUBBA WALLACE: I’m wore out. I thought about every which way to Sunday besides driving a race car, having that red flag. Oh, my gosh, man. Just so proud of this team.
That adrenaline rush is crazy because I’m coming off that right now, and I’m wore out.
I just want to thank everybody behind me right here, all these guys, all these men and women at Airspeed for making this possible.
I don’t see my wife and my kid, but welcome to Victory Lane, Becks. It’s pretty cool — officially. Daytona was Daytona, but to overcome so much and to put these people here in Victory Lane, that’s what it’s about. It’s about these people that continue to push at me, believe in me. Man, just so proud, and I appreciate all you guys.
They Said It…
ERIK JONES, No. 43 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB –Finishing Position: 35th
Any warning there before the incident? “Yeah, no warning other than just slow on the right front (on the pit stop). I saw them struggling there for a second, but figured we got it on. (As) soon as I turned into (turn) three, I knew we were going to crash, and I felt it come off. Yeah, it looked bad but honestly didn’t feel as bad in the car as others I’ve had. I feel good and fortunate, happy for that. But, sad for the Dollar Tree Toyota team. Fast car and things weren’t working out the best today, but I just wanted to have a shot at the end.”
Fantasy
After the Hamlin crash and his start in 39th place for the Brickyard, he is out and Gibbs is in. Reddick is my pick to win the race and he will start on the bench as I will see how my starting five do. Erik Jones and Bubba Wallace were under consideration, but I will most likely not use them until Daytona in August.
Factoids that may interest only me
Austin Cindric has led 30 laps so far today, the most laps for a Team Penske entry at the Brickyard 400 since Rusty Wallace in 2000.
Bubba Wallace is the first African American to win at Indy. Not sure it needs to be mentioned these days. Congrats Bubba.
Final Results
Roy J. Akers is a NASCAR reporter for www.skyviewsports.net
