'Dinger Survives Brickyard Curbs

(SPEEDWAY, IN – AUG 15, 2021 – RIS) AJ Allmendinger more than made up for his disappointment in Saturday's Xfinity Series race by leading the last two laps of a second overtime restart to take his second career NASCAR Cup victory.

The troublesome orange curbing from Turn Six got removed at the end of the Xfinity race Saturday but the lower curbing at the edge of the track proved just as problematic Sunday as one section of it had to be pried up to release a splitter/radiator pan on lap 42. Approaching four laps left, the same section of curbs, possibly damaged by the scores of impacts from cars running over it, started lifting snd triggered a nine (at least) car melee that ended with Joey Logano's car demolished, along with other front-runners sidelined.

An entire splitter/pan came off another car 30 laps later to cause a yellow for it to be removed from the track.

Just a couple of laps under green saw the next Turn Six incident, this the one that damaged cars and brought out a red flag lasting just over 19 minutes for the wreckage to be retrieved and the offending pieces of curb to be removed.

A few laps before the scheduled finish, Michael McDowell clipped the remaining blue 'turtle' curb on the right of Turn Six and spun in the middle of the track, collecting Austin Dillon and five more competitors in the incident that raised another red flag for further retrieval of wrecked cars.

The restart, with Denny Hamlin leading Kyle Larson, who just won the Knoxville Nationals sprint car race Saturday night, and Chase Briscoe to the green. Briscoe went wide in the first turn, bumped Hamlin and got called for a stop and go penalty for an incorrect track reentry. AJ Allmendinger drove up from his restart position to take the lead and hold off Ryan Blaney's challenge by just under a second over the final two laps.

" Oh, my gosh, I was so mad yesterday. I wanted to win so bad," said a very emotional Allmendinger. "I mean, this is unbelievable. In my wildest dreams I could never imagine the way that just played out.

"Matt Kaulig, I don't even know what he's doing right now. He can't -- he's almost in tears. Chris Rice, the Hyperice Chevy was so good. We had to fight hard. Robin Miller, I saw him this morning, this one is for you, baby. We love you, Robin, everything that you do. In memory of Bob Jenkins. Baby, I love you so much. Mom and Dad, all my friends and family, oh, my God. We just won at Indy.

"Hey, Shank [Michael Shank, winning owner at the Indianapolis 500] I just wanted to be like you, baby. I just wanted to be like you."

Allmendinger described the entire race as: "it was survival of the fittest. We probably had like an eighth-, tenth-place car, sped on pit road. I thought we were going to finish 12th to 15th, and then those restarts were just insane. It's great when you have a car owner that just says, Go get me trophies. He doesn't care if that thing is torn up."

Third place finisher Kyle Larson was asked if removing the curbing affected the racing: "I don't know, we didn't really get enough time. We were kind of all battling there, and the track was really dirty at that point, too."

Yeah, the curbs, I feel like we need the curb there, but I don't know if they can just make it out of concrete or something just because that leading edge of the lip seems to pull up and destroy race cars. I'm sure they'll figure it out for next time."

Second place finisher Ryan Blaney described his day:"That was a wild race, especially towards the end. I feel like we could have run 10th-12th all day and that is where we were. We just kind of got a couple good restarts and dodged some mess and we had a good shot to try to win the race. I just couldn’t put together a good enough lap and a half to get to A (Allmendinger) to try to pass…. The race got pretty crazy at the end. We almost made it a perfect weekend for Penske Racing, just missed it by one spot.”

Unofficial Results: 28th Annual Verizon 200 at the Brickyard, August 15, 2021, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course: 2.439 - Mile Paved

Fin, Str, Driver, Car, Laps, St1, St2, Tms Led, Laps Led, Playoff Pts, Pts, Status
1) 8, AJ Allmendinger(i), No. 16 Hyperice Chevrolet, 95, , 1, 2, , , 0, Running
2) 16, Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Menards/Knauf Ford, 95, , , , , , 35, Running
3) 4, Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, 95, , 2, 28, , 9, 36, Running
4) 3, Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hooters Chevrolet, 95, 10, 1, 14, , 10, 35, Running
5) 15, Matt DiBenedetto, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford, 95, , 1, 1, , 5, 38, Running
6) 20, Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet, 95, , , , , , 31, Running
7) 28, Erik Jones, No. 43 Petty's Garage Chevrolet, 95, 4, , , , , 37, Running
8) 29, Justin Haley(i), No. 77 Fraternal Order of Eagles Chevrolet, 95, 8, , , , 6, 0, Running
9) 13, Austin Cindric(i), No. 33 MoneyLion Ford, 95, , , , , , 0, Running
10) 32, Ryan Newman, No. 6 Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs Ford, 95, , , , , , 27, Running
11) 22, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hungry Jack Chevrolet, 95, 7, , , , 4, 37, Running
12) 19, Chris Buescher, No. 17 Castrol Ford, 95, , , , , , 25, Running
13) 27, Bubba Wallace, No. 23 McDonald's Toyota, 95, , , , , , 24, Running
14) 25, Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Unibet Ford, 95, , , , , , 23, Running
15) 6, Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance/MTJF Toyota, 95, , , , , , 22, Running
16) 26, Corey Lajoie, No. 7 Diamond Creek Water Chevrolet, 95, , , , , 7, 25, Running
17) 24, Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Chevrolet, 95, , , , , , 20, Running
18) 36, Josh Bilicki, No. 52 Saved By The King Ford, 95, , , , , , 19, Running
19) 18, Aric Almirola, No. 10 Mobil 1 Ford, 95, , , , , , 18, Running
20) 21, Kyle Busch, No. 18 M&M's Mix Toyota, 95, , , , , , 17, Running
21) 11, Tyler Reddick, No. 8 BetMGM Chevrolet, 95, 1, 2, 6, 2, 1, 36, Running
22) 38, Quin Houff, No. 00 Sherfick Companies Chevrolet, 95, , , , , , 15, Running
23) 14, Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota, 95, , 2, 27, , , 14, Running
24) 31, Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford, 95, 6, 1, 2, , , 18, Running
25) 10, Cole Custer, No. 41 Autodesk/HaasTooling.com Ford, 94, , , , , , 12, Running
26) 2, Chase Briscoe #, No. 14 HighPoint.com/Ford Perf. Racing School Ford, 94, 9, 1, 12, , , 13, Parked
27) 40, Timmy Hill(i), No. 66 AAW Luxury Cars/CrashClaims Toyota, 94, , , , , , 0, Running
28) 39, Garrett Smithley(i), No. 53 Jacob Companies Ford, 94, , , , , , 0, Running
29) 9, Ross Chastain, No. 42 Clover Chevrolet, 93, , , , , , 8, Running
30) 12, Michael McDowell, No. 34 CarParts.com Ford, 88, 2, 1, 1, , , 16, Accident
31) 23, Austin Dillon, No. 3 Dow MobilityScience Chevrolet, 88, 3, 1, 1, , 2, 23, Accident
32) 34, James Davison, No. 15 Tilson Chevrolet, 80, , , , , , 5, Accident
33) 1, William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet, 77, , 1, 1, , , 4, Accident
34) 7, Joey Logano, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, 77, , , , , , 3, Accident
35) 30, Ryan Preece, No. 37 Kroger Chevrolet, 77, 5, , , , 3, 16, Accident
36) 17, Christopher Bell, No. 20 STANLEY Toyota, 77, , , , , , 1, Accident
37) 5, Daniel Suarez, No. 99 CommScope Chevrolet, 77, , , , , , 1, Accident
38) 33, Anthony Alfredo #, No. 38 Elliott's Custom Motorcoaches Ford, 68, , , , , , 1, Suspension
39) 35, Andy Lally(i), No. 78 Blacktop Mojo Ford, 55, , , , , 8, 0, Rear Gear
40) 37, Cody Ware(i), No. 51 Nurtec ODT Chevrolet, 46, , , , , , 0, Accident
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (#) Rookie

Time: 3 Hrs, 20 Mins, 59 Secs.
Race Length: 95 Laps, 231.705 Miles
Average Speed: 69.171 MPH
Margin of Victory: 0.929 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 8, 34, 3, 43, 37, 2, 47, 77, 14, 9
Stage 2 Top 10: 8, 3, 37, 47, 21, 77, 7, 78, 5, 9

Comments: AJ Allmendinger won the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. His second career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Caution Flags: 6 for 25 laps;
Laps: 17-19 (Stage 1 Conclusion [38]);
37-39 (Stage 2 Conclusion [2]);
42-43 (Debris Turn 6 [2]);
74-76 (Debris Turn 6 [15]);
79-88 (No. 15, 18, 20, 22, 24, 37, 42, 77, 99 Incident Turn 6 [Red Flag: 00:19:14] [6]);
90-93 (No. 3, 7, 8, 19, 34, 41, 48 Incident Turn 6 [Red Flag: 00:04:08] [10]).

Lead Changes: 13 among 11 drivers;
W. Byron 1;
C. Briscoe # 2-13;
T. Reddick 14-16;
M. McDowell 17;
B. Keselowski 18-19;
C. Elliott 20-33;
T. Reddick 34-36;
A. Dillon 37;
K. Larson 38-54;
D. Hamlin 55-62;
M. DiBenedetto 63;
K. Larson 64-74;
D. Hamlin 75-93;
Allmendinger(i) 94-95.

Busch Pole Award:  William Byron, No. 24 100.044 mph
Sunoco Rookie 

John Davison

Long-time RIS staffer, beginning in the mid-80s. Charlotte, NC area local contact.

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Volume 2021, Issue 8, Posted 8:16 PM, 08.15.2021