AJ Allmendinger wins chaotic Indy road course race

After two red flags and two overtime restarts marred the end of Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard, the first NASCAR Cup Series race on Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, and extended the race from a scheduled 92-lap distance to 95 laps, A.J. Allmendinger scored the first series for a Kaulig Racing, a team that competes part-time in the Cup Series with an aim to compete in NASCAR’s top series full-time in 2022.

“Oh, my gosh, I was so mad yesterday [after the NASCAR Xfinity Series race]. I wanted to win so bad,” Allmendinger said. “I mean, this is unbelievable. In my wildest dreams I could never imagine the way that just played out. Matt Kaulig [car owner], I don’t even know what he’s doing right now. He can’t — he’s almost in tears. Chris Rice [Kaulig Racing President], 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, [Michael] Shank, I just wanted to be like you, baby. I just wanted to be like you.”

Denny Hamlin was the leader for the final restart, but after Hamlin spun and Chase Briscoe ran off course, Allmendinger took the white flag in the lead.

“There at the restart, everybody is trying to out-brake each other getting into one and we all kind of missed it to a certain extent,” Briscoe said after finishing 26th. “I was getting ran wide and had nowhere else to go. I knew I was going to go through the grass. It was just a matter of do you go through it slow or gas it wide-open and hope you get through it. I don’t know if there would have been a penalty if I had gone through it slow, but that was my only chance to win the race at that point. I went for that and stayed on him tight and knew the16 [Allmendinger] was right behind me. He was on newer tires. A lot of guys were getting lazy through that turn and would just swing it out wide and leave the bottom wide open. So I was kind of all over him [Hamlin] in the esses, and when I went to go underneath him, I just clipped him in the righ- rear. He was already trying to get back to the left, so it just turned him right around. It is unfortunate for them. They were probably going to win the race if the 16 didn’t get to him. For us we got a penalty and I don’t even know where we finished. It is frustrating to be that close. You can taste it and imagine what it would be like, and then, it gets taken away. I have a lot to be proud of. I feel like I showed that I belong here and I will get another chance next year.”

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Ryan Blaney finished second. Kyle Larson was third after being second but losing multiple positions on the penultimate restart. Chase Elliott and Matt DiBenedetto rounded out the top-five.

“Our car looks better than most,” Blaney said. “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. We survived all day and did a good job. The whole team did a good job sticking in there. The race got pretty crazy at the end. We almost made it a perfect weekend for Penske Racing, just missed it by one spot.”

The race was red-flagged for the first time after lap 78 when a portion of curbing in turn six came up as cars ran over it a lap after a restart. The end result was hard, head-on impact with a tire barrier for Joey Logano and the cars of William Byron, Kyle Busch, Ryan Preece, Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez, James Davison, Kevin Harvick and Justin Haley spinning and wrecking. Debris got stuck under the same curbing, bringing out a caution on lap 41. During the red flag, the curbing was removed and the tire barrier repaired. 

“ I am okay. Thank God those tire packs were there,” Logano said. “The hit wasn’t that hard at all. The tires absorbed a lot of it. I don’t believe in luck, but that time, I feel like it was just bad luck. Wrong place at the wrong time, and unfortunately, it ended our day. We had a decent run coming to us and maybe a top-five finish for our Shell Pennzoil Mustang, and the next thing I knew, I was airborne and headed to the wall. I had a lot of time to think about it. I was just along for the ride as a passenger, knowing what the end result was going to be. All the fans were cheering right there. They were happy to see me get out, which was good do see. It will be an exciting finish to watch on TV, I guess.”

The removal of the damaged curbing further exposed a higher curbing in the same area of the course. That higher curbing resulted in a wreck on the first overtime restart, involving Michael McDowell, Austin Dillon, Cole Custer, Reddick and Martin Truex Jr. bringing another red flag and overtime restart attempt.

Larson dominated the second half of the race after taking the lead for the restart for the third and final stage. He gave up that lead during a final cycle of green-flag pit stops on lap 55. After a lengthy cycle that included Hamlin and DiBenedetto staying out longer to lead laps, Larson retook the lead from DiBenedetto.

Hamlin took the lead, again, when he, Kurt Busch, Briscoe and DiBenedetto stayed out during a lap-73 caution for debris. Briscoe had recently made an unscheduled pif stop for a tire problem on lap 65.

Reddick claimed stage wins at lap 15 and lap 35, both times after frontrunners opted to pit under green late in the stage and stay out during the caution that followed the stage. Briscoe led most of the short opening round after taking the lead from pole sitter William Byron on lap two. Pit stops by the lead cars put McDowell and Reddick in the top-two positions of the running order for the final two laps of stage one. Reddick took the lead for his initial stage win just before the final lap of the stage.

Elliott led most of the 20-lap second stage. Brad Keselowski restarted or stage two with the lead, having yet to pit. But on lap 20, after restarting next to Keselowski on the front row, Elliott took a lead he maintained until pitting under green late in the stage.

Keselowski struggled after losing the lead, dropping several more positions before spinning into a retaining wall on lap 25.

Reddick was, once again, in the lead for the final two laps of stage two after Elliott and the frontrunners pitted before pit road closed late in the stage.

Kurt Busch finished sixth, Erik Jones was seventh, Justin Haley eighth, Austin Cindric ninth and Ryan Newman finished 10^th.