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| Indianapolis Motor Speedway |
AJ Allmendinger for Kaulig Racing has won the NASCAR Cup Series “Verizon 200 at the Brickyard” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, scoring only his second NASCAR Cup Series victory, nearly a decade later. Now there is a lot we have a lot to unpack here.
After taking a moment to process the ending of yesterday’s “Verizon 200 at the Brickyard”, I’ve come to the realization that through all the cautions, self destructing curbs, and chaos, this race is extremely memorable, and will not soon be forgotten. With that being said, I completely understand that this race had its flaws, and many of them. Comparatively to the the former “Brickyard” 400 (which uses the oval configuration) the Road Course has far more passing zones, which consequently leaves room for more wrecks. Depending on how viewers like you perceived the race, those passing zones are what made or broke this season’s race at Indy.
With all the controversy aside, this race saw new faces experiencing success. One driver that falls into that category is Stewart-Haas Racing’s newest addition, Chase Briscoe. While Stewart-Haas Racing has arguably had a disappointing season (at best), Briscoe drove his heart out yesterday at what is his home track. After qualifying 2nd the Indiana boy used his prior experience at this track to his advantage, and Briscoe was in contention for the win all day, which was likely one of Stewart-Haas Racing’s best runs of the season. Chase Briscoe was within inches of scoring his first victory when on the final restart of the race in attempt to pass the leader (Denny Hamlin), a hard charging AJ Allmendinger took the No. 11 and the No. 14 three wide into turn one. A nervous Hamlin gave a nudge to Briscoe, and sent the No. 14 car through the grass, which Chase Briscoe continued to drive through until he got back on track. Here’s where the controversy returns. When Chase Briscoe returned to the track he was once again side by side with Denny Hamlin, but this time Hamlin was actually able to get in front of Briscoe. We may never truly know why, but while the No. 14 struggled to keep up with Hamlin as Chase Briscoe it exited the grass, as soon as Chase Briscoe got behind the No. 11 Camry of Denny Hamlin he had immense speed. Denny Hamlin who was hoping to finally win this season blocked hard, which left the No. 14 beating and banging behind him. After a few turns of bumping from Briscoe, the No. 11 of Denny Hamlin was dumped, lost control, and was spun into the grass. Briscoe who should have been in the lead was penalized for driving off course, and then further penalized for dumping Denny Hamlin after he had just been penalized. This is what intimately gave Allmendinger, who had previously been running 3rd the victory.
This confrontation between these veteran and rookie drivers respectively will likely live on much further than this season. Much like many NASCAR feuds throughout history, these drivers might race very clean with one another for a good while.
Now that we got the final two laps out of the way let’s rewind to roughly 10 laps to go when the race miraculously went ajar. In turns 5 and 6 near the back straight away of the course, there was a curb placed to prevent drivers from running off course in what is a very tight corner (especially for stock cars). Throughout a majority of the race drivers had run over that curb while passing through, without any issues whatsoever. As the race began wind down the field went through turns 5 and 6 but this time when driver Martin Truex Jr. hit the curb his car was sent sideways and shrapnel was launched from the car. Interestingly race control thought nothing of it, and because Truex had wreck on his own they didn’t even consider that possibly the curb was malfunctioning. When the field piled through turns 5 and 6 the next lap William Byron’s car hit the curb and below him the curb tore up before sending his car sideways and into the wall, several other cars followed suit, hitting the curb and being launched every which way. Drivers like William Byron, Joey Logano, Daniel Suárez, Christopher Bell, and Ryan Preece would all see their days end in that one incident. The red flag was brought out, and after a lengthy wait, the old curb had been removed and racing was to continue. No less than one lap later turns 5 and 6 brought on more trouble. Without a main curb in place to stop drivers from going off course, a fairly harsh curb (that had already been causing trouble all weekend) was now exposed. Coming through these turns after the restart drivers like Michael McDowell and Bubba Wallace were launched airborne over the curb and sending smoke and speedy dry compound into the air. Drivers like Austin Dillion, Tyler Reddick, and Ross Chastain saw their cars either heavily damaged, or completely destroyed after that incident. It’s safe to say turns 5 and 6 which brought issues in Indy Car, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and the NASCAR Cup Series has a fatal flaw that needs to be reassessed before the return to the road course next season.
This article is clearly a long one, and much different from Stock Car Media’s regular “Race Results” articles, but there is so much that has to be said here it simply cannot be ignored. With that I will add one more talking point, Tyler Reddick. Reddick, who is in his sophomore year in the Cup Series qualified 11th yesterday, which is fairly decent for the Richard Childress Racing driver. The biggest surprise of Reddick’s performance though came with him winning both stages in yesterday’s race, and had he not experienced severe damage in one of the “Big Wrecks” yesterday, he very well could have been a contender for the win. This season is proving to be a good one for Tyler Reddick, and proving of his raw racing talent. At Indianapolis that talent shined clear, even if he did receive a 21st place finish.
The following the complete race results (Click to enlarge):
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| NASCAR (Click to enlarge) |
RETWEET TO CONGRATULATE AJ ALLMENDINGER ON HIS NASCAR CUP SERIES WIN AT INDIANAPOLIS! 🤯 Wow.@AJDinger | @KauligRacing pic.twitter.com/xFsfVqcV3w
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) August 15, 2021
BIG TROUBLE at @IMS!
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 15, 2021
The curb comes up, debris goes everywhere, and multiple cars are collected - with Joey Logano going into the tire barrier. #NASCAR
📺 NBC
💻 https://t.co/K0jeN99Gw2
📱NBC Sports App pic.twitter.com/prU3CY957I
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