Michael McDowell wins at Indy Road Course, actually he dominated.

 

STEWART-HAAS RACING Verizon 200 at the Brickyard

Date:  Aug. 13, 2023 Event:  Verizon 200 at the Brickyard (Round 24 of 36) Series:  NASCAR Cup Series Location:  Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2.439-mile, 14-turn road course) Format:  82 laps, broken into three stages (15 laps/20 laps/47 laps)   Race Winner:  Michael McDowell of Front Row Motorsports (Ford) Stage 1 Winner:  Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota) Stage 2 Winner:  Michael McDowell of Front Row Motorsports (Ford)   SHR Race Finish:             ●  Chase Briscoe (Started 13th, Finished 6th / Running, completed 82 of 82 laps)   ●  Kevin Harvick (Started 38th, Finished 23rd / Running, completed 81 of 82 laps) ●  Ryan Preece (Started 30th, Finished 31st / Running, completed 81 of 82 laps) ●  Aric Almirola (Started 33rd, Finished 39th / Running, completed 79 of 82 laps)   SHR Points: ●  Kevin Harvick (6th with 677 points, 153 out of first) ●  Aric Almirola (24th with 406 points, 424 out of first) ●  Ryan Preece (25th with 409 points, 427 out of first) ●  Chase Briscoe (31st with 322 points, 508 out of first)   SHR Notes:         ●  Briscoe earned his sixth top-10 of the season and his first top-10 in three career NASCAR Cup Series starts on the road course at Indianapolis. ●  Briscoe’s sixth-place result bettered his previous best finish on the road course at Indianapolis – 23rd, earned in last year’s race. ●  Briscoe finished ninth in Stage 2 to earn two bonus points.     Race Notes:        ●  Michael McDowell won the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard to score his second career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his first on the road course at Indianapolis. His margin over second-place Chase Elliott was .937 of a second. ●  McDowell was the 14th different winner in the 24 NASCAR Cup Series races run this season. ●  This was Ford’s 725th all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory, its fourth of the season and its third straight. Chris Buescher drove his Ford to the win July 30 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway and last Monday at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn. ●  This was Ford’s first NASCAR Cup Series victory on the road course at Indianapolis. ●  There was one caution period for a total of three laps. ●  Only 22 of the 39 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap. ●  Martin Truex Jr., remains the championship leader after Indianapolis with a 60-point advantage over second-place Denny Hamlin.   Sound Bites: “Today was a solid day. From a speed standpoint, we had a top-three car. We just could never get the track position when it goes green like that. There are just no opportunities. I feel like we did everything right from a strategy standpoint, trying to play our cards right. Just a difference from starting 13th versus starting in the first two rows. I felt like that’s what cost us there. I knew yesterday when I didn’t make the final round that it was going to be very hard to win. It proved itself today. Just kicking myself knowing I had a great shot at it. But overall, I’m proud of our team. We really needed a good run like this. I feel like we really learned something.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang   Next Up: The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Go Bowling at The Glen on Sunday, Aug. 20 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. The race begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Micah Roberts' Top-10 Finish Prediction: 2023 Verizon 200 at Indy

Read my full Indy write-up at Sportsline.com

1 #9 Chase Elliott (15/2) - He’s averaged an eighth-place finish in 27 road starts in the Cup Series with seven wins and 16 top-fives. But the new car has been kryptonite for the road course Superman. He’s gone 11 straight road races without a win after winning seven of 11 road races. The new car hasn’t stopped him from running well – he was third at Chicago – but the new car brought him back to the pack. And with that, I get some decent odds on him. This is it. He needs to win to get into the playoffs and I’m betting he will as my top bet.

2 #5 Kyle Larson (11/1) - He’s been 29th or worse in seven races this season but he also leads the Cup Series with 10 top-fives. He grabbed his first road course win in 2021 and he notched three wins. That was with the old car. He’s had one win on the roads in his last nine starts with the new car. He was third at Indy in 2021 and 35th last season. I’ll have a bet on him to win.

3 #91 Shane Van Gisbergen (6/1) - The road course ringer shook the NASCAR world with a win on the Chicago streets. Boris Said couldn’t do it, Ron Fellows couldn’t do it, and every other ringer dating back to the great Dan Gurney couldn’t do it. SVG had the skills to win, but his car was amazing. It’s a Trackhouse Racing car that was fast off the hauler and stayed fast all race at Chicago. He showed all the roundy-rounders in NASCAR how to do it. Now let’s see him do it again.

4 #45 Tyler Reddick (6/1) - He’s had some trouble on the courses his last two at Sonoma and Chicago but he’s won three of the last seven on road courses. And he’s led lots of laps in five of his last seven road races, He won at Indy last season leading 38 of the 86 laps. I think he’ll be back to normal this week running in the top-five most of the race.

5 #19 Martin Truex Jr. (9/2) - In 47 road course starts he has five wins and 14 top-fives and he added to his win total at Sonoma in June in a dominating performance leading 51 laps. It’s as if all the JGR Toyotas got road course fast at the same time. Truex is one of the best on the roads, but now he’s the favorite so I’ve left him out of my betting portfolio this week.

6 #8 Kyle Busch (11/1) - He has four road course wins over his career but the reason you bet him this week is that he’s knocking on the door of a win each time out with his 2023 car, the one Reddick used to drive to wins. He’s been runner-up twice in it at COTA and Sonoma and then was fifth with it at Chicago. I’ll be looking for better odds, but I’ll have something on him to win.

7 #11 Denny Hamlin (16/1) - He hasn’t been as good as his past in his last nine road course events but I think his car is better now than in those previous attempts. He won at Watkins Glen in 2016 and has 13 top-fives on the roads. He’s also been on the pole in the last two road races at Chicago and at Sonoma. He’ll have a good run this week.

8 #17 Chris Buescher (20/1) - You drop $5 on him only because he’s won the last two races on the schedule and the road course is his thing. It’s what got him discovered in NASCAR. You also bet him because he’s had eight straight top-10s on road courses (Chicago included). RFK Racing is putting fast cars out there every week. They’re getting stronger and they were already strong on the roads with Buescher. Yes, he’s worth a bet to win this week. Shop around.

9 #99 Daniel Suarez (22/1) - He hasn’t been able to achieve the same success he had last season this season, but you know he’s still the same driver that likes road racing. He won his first career race at Sonoma last season and was fifth at both Road America and Watkins Glen. The problem with betting on him this week is that he’s desperate for solid points. He’s only 5-points behind the 16th and final playoff spot. If he drives for the win, he puts himself in a more volatile situation.

10 #2 Austin Cindric (28/1) - This is the driver I recommend throwing $5 on because he’s in NASCAR due to his road skills and he’s desperate to make the playoffs with three races in the regular season remaining. He’s 53 points from the transfer position, or he could just go win the race and get the auto-qualifier. In 12 road races in Cup, he has seven top-10s. He was sixth at COTA and also sixth at Chicago. You’ll waste $5 on far worse things this weekend.

William Byron is 16/1 to win Verizon 200 at indy

 

24 WILLIAM BYRON   Age: 25 (Nov. 29, 1997)   Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina   Resides: Charlotte, North Carolina   Crew Chief: Rudy Fugle   Standings: 3rd

No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet Camaro ZL1   THREE TO GO: With three races left in the regular season, William Byron is third in the NASCAR Cup Series driver points standings, 96 markers behind the leader. While the Charlotte, North Carolina, native is hoping to secure his first Cup Series regular-season championship, he’s still having a career-best season. To this point, Byron leads the series in wins (four), average starting position (9.65), stage wins (seven) and laps run in the top five (2,688). He also has led a single-season career-best 810 laps (second-most). The 25-year-old driver’s eight top-five finishes and 11 top-10s are both tied for the third-most in the sport’s top division. In addition, Byron ranks third in average running position (10.203) and laps run in the top 10 (3,617), respectively. HISTORY MAKER: While this is only the third time that the Cup Series has competed on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Byron has made history at the famed venue. In 2017, Byron made his first trip to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. While battling for a championship, Byron became the youngest driver to win a major race at the historic 2.5-mile oval at 19 years, seven months and 23 days.  WHAT’S IN A NUMBER?: Byron would love to kiss the bricks again this weekend, and if he does, he will add to the already lengthy legacy the No. 24 has at Indianapolis. Dating back to 1994, Jeff Gordon won the inaugural Brickyard 400 before going on to win the crown-jewel event four more times in the No. 24 – the most by a car number at the famed track. A victory would also bring the iconic number closer to the total win mark set by a car number in the Cup Series, currently tied for fourth at 101 wins with the No. 3. The No. 24 is behind the No. 2 with 102 wins, the No. 43 with 200 wins and the No. 11 with 230 wins on the all-time list. FUGLE FILES: Crew chief Rudy Fugle is set to make his third start on top of the pit box at the Indianapolis Road Course this Sunday. In his two previous starts, Fugle and the No. 24 team captured the pole in the inaugural race in 2021 and have been in contention to win in both showings. In fact, the team has the fourth-best average running position (10.33) in the two races on the road course layout. However, misfortunate has struck the team late, once due to the curbing of the track coming up and the second due to an on-track incident in the closing laps. All told, Fugle has 25 national series starts on road courses (15 in the Cup Series, three in the Xfinity Series and seven in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series). He earned a road course win in the truck ranks in 2015. One of those seven truck starts was also with Byron where the duo raced to a 10th-place finish at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in 2016. PIT ROAD PROWESS: After 23 races in the 2023 season, the No. 24 pit crew remains in the top spot with the fastest average four-tire pit stop time of 10.991 seconds. The No. 24 pit crew consists of Spencer Bishop (jackman), Jeff Cordero (front-tire changer), Orane Ossowski (rear-tire changer), Ryan Patton (tire carrier) and Landon Walker (fueler). BACK HOME AGAIN IN INDIANA: Traveling to Indianapolis, Indiana for this Sunday’s Cup Series race, one crew member of the No. 24 team calls this their home track. Joining the team for the 2022 season, engineer Ryan Kelly hails from Avon, Indiana, just over 10 miles away from the track. An engineering graduate of Purdue University of Indianapolis, Kelly interned at Andretti Autosport, collecting two Indy 500 wins, before transitioning to his role in NASCAR. AT IT AGAIN WITH AXALTA: For the fourth time in the 2023 season, Axalta will be back onboard Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. This is Axalta’s 31st year of partnership with Hendrick Motorsports. The company has been a primary partner for two of Byron’s wins this year – the May victory at Darlington Raceway and the July triumph at Atlanta Motor Speedway. William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on his thoughts for Indianapolis: “I think road course races are somewhere we can improve on this season. We’ve been working hard to do that and I think we’ve made improvements with each one. This weekend is a little bit different since it’s not a traditional road course. It has tight corners and straightaways, which makes for more contact between cars. With that, you can expect the aggression level to increase later in the race and for more people to get into each other to get every position they can. We’ve experienced that before, but hopefully this weekend we put ourselves in the right positions, are able to run the race we want and stay out of harms way to get a good finish." Rudy Fugle, crew chief of the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on the mentality of the team this week: “We’ve had a trying couple of races these last few weeks but there’s no quit in this team. We keep bringing fast race cars and doing what we can to get good results, some things just happen though. Indy (Road Course) is another track where we’ve ran well and circumstances at the end have taken us out of contention. We’ll go to the track this weekend, do our normal processes and give it everything we have. Last week is behind us and we’re focused on the three in front of us now."

Chase Briscoe is 65/1 to win Verizon 200 at Indy

 

CHASE BRISCOE Indianapolis Advance No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

●  Event:  Verizon 200 at the Brickyard (Round 24 of 36) ●  Time/Date:  2:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 13 ●  Location:  Indianapolis Motor Speedway ●  Layout:  2.439-mile, 14-turn road course ●  Laps/Miles:  82 laps / 200 miles ●  Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 15 laps / Stage 2: 20 laps / Final Stage: 47 laps ●  TV/Radio:  NBC / IMS Radio Network / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Race week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway means the return of HighPoint.com to Chase Briscoe’s Ford Mustang. It’s a partnership that began in 2020 after a chance meeting in Las Vegas. After signing on to sponsor Briscoe’s NASCAR Xfinity Series efforts in 2020, HighPoint has appeared on his Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) car every year since, including for Briscoe’s 2020 win at the Brickyard.   ● As a child growing up in Mitchell, Indiana, Briscoe dreamed of going from the dirt track to the Indy oval, just like his hero and Indiana native Tony Stewart. Though the 2020 win didn’t come on the iconic 2.-5-mile oval, it was one for the record books as Briscoe became the first driver to win a NASCAR race on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn Indy road course. He had watched Stewart pilot his NASCAR Cup Series car on Sundays before he headed back to the bullrings to compete in his dirt car. Stewart, the Brickyard 400 winner in 2005 and 2007, ran several races against his father Kevin, giving the youngest Briscoe plenty of time to learn how best to emulate his hero. When Stewart won at Indy, he climbed the fence, so Chase Briscoe climbed it, too, in 2020. He kneeled in front of the Yard of Bricks in his HighPoint.com firesuit and finally took his turn to kiss the bricks as he had dreamed of doing as a kid growing up in Mitchell. The 2020 season continued with a playoff berth that carried all the way to the championship race in Phoenix. Briscoe didn’t earn the title that year, but the support from HighPoint.com allowed Briscoe to continue chasing his dream as the next driver of the No. 14 Ford Mustang in the Cup Series.   ● Briscoe’s first visit to Indy in 2021 as the driver of the No. 14 first piloted by his idol Stewart was nearly a win for the SHR team. He qualified second, his best qualifying effort of the year, took the lead on lap two of the race, and finished the first stage ninth. Briscoe struggled late in the race, but a series of restarts during the closing laps put Briscoe back in contention. Restarting third for the second attempt at a green-white-checkered finish in overtime, Briscoe was shoved off track going into turn one. He returned to the track and made a move on leader Denny Hamlin to take the top spot, but Briscoe wasn’t aware he was under penalty for not following protocol in his return to the track. He made contact with the leader and was parked for the final lap of the race. He had come so close to returning to victory lane at Indy, but his move had angered Hamlin, who felt Briscoe had been too aggressive. Briscoe stood his ground while Stewart watched on with pride.   ● In the 2022 edition of the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard, Briscoe started third and won the first stage. After pitting, the HighPoint.com team struggled to make its way back to the front and the result was a 23rd-place finish.   ● Prior to making his third Cup Series start at Indy on Sunday, Briscoe will make the two-hour drive to Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, to compete in the Superstar Racing Experience’s Thursday Night Thunder. He’s competed at the Eldora half-mile dirt oval four times – three in the NASCAR Truck Series, earning heat race wins in 2018 and 2019, and earning the golden shovel as the feature winner in 2018. Last year, he competed in Stewart’s Eldora Million Late Model race. What sets this visit apart from the others is that, for the first time in his career, Briscoe will compete against his childhood hero.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What are your earliest memories of racing at Indy, as a fan or driver? “One of my first racing memories is going to get my first firesuit. It was across from the tunnel in turns one and two at Indy. The guy’s name was Jim Bob Luger and he would do embroidery on uniforms. I remember going there, getting my first uniform, driving up to the end to get our first Quarter Midget and racing in Indy, for my first-ever race. So, I just felt like every time you were going to Indy, it meant you’re going to get something racing-related. As a kid, I didn’t really go to Indy outside of that, so it was always about racing. The first time I ever saw the speedway, I remember just being blown away by how big it was.”   A lot of your childhood was spent sitting at the back of a dirt hauler watching your father (Kevin Briscoe) and grandfather (Richard Briscoe) work on Sprint Cars. How does it feel to be reliving that in your own way now with your son Brooks traveling with you to dirt races and Cup Series races? “I don’t remember those moments from when I was that little, but I’ve obviously seen the pictures and it’s cool to look back on that and see me being around the track with guys that are legends in the dirt world. I remember probably around when I was four or five, maybe six years old, always going to the racetrack and playing. It was just normal to be there, so these are memories that Brooks won’t necessarily remember. But I’ll definitely remember this, similar to how my mom and dad do. Getting to see him in all of these different scenarios and experiences and how into racing that he is right now has been a lot of fun for me. He is very aware of what is happening at the racetrack and pays attention to every little thing, so these are times that I’m enjoying now and can’t wait to tell him about when he’s older.”   When you won at Indy in 2020, Richard (Boswell) wasn’t at the track due to a suspension. You two are working together again and HighPoint.com is once again on the car. All these pieces are realigning, so what would it mean to win at Indy with him now in the crew chief role on the No. 14 HighPoint.com Mustang? “When Boswell came over to the No. 14, I felt like there was a new confidence there just from the success that we’ve had in the past. He knows how significant Indy weekend is for me and the pressure I put on myself. When you add the scenario we’re in now from a points standpoint, there’s pressure every weekend. But I do think this team understands what this weekend means to me, and I feel like even they try to find that extra one- or two-percent effort to put into the car that weekend. There’s definitely confidence going there, and we’ve been good at Indy, we just haven’t been able to put it together. I’d love to do that with this team, with Richard and with HighPoint. I don’t think I’d have a career without HighPoint.com, and everyone knows how they came in at the last second to make sure I was in the No. 98 in 2020. Mike and the entire Mendiburu family mean a lot to me, and it would be awesome to get them in victory lane. We’ve won a lot of races with HighPoint.com on the car, but they’ve never been at track for them, including at Indy in 2020, so I’d like to be able to do that for all of us.”   Before we get to Indy, you’re heading to Eldora for the SRX race. Why was this week’s race the one you wanted to participate in? “Eldora, in general, is special to me. Growing up as a kid in dirt racing, Eldora was kind of my version of Daytona. If you got to race at Eldora, that meant that you’re a hard-core dirt guy, especially if you could win there. So, for me just getting to run Eldora is special, but the biggest draw for me to run SRX was just the fact that I’ve never been able to race against Tony (Stewart). I felt like this would be my only opportunity to ever do that in my career and that’s why I pushed so hard to keep wearing them out about doing it. I knew that opportunity was getting smaller and smaller and I just wanted to be able to say I’d done it at some point in my career.”   If it comes down to you and Tony at the end, what can we expect? “I’ll try not to do what I did at Bristol Dirt the first year. I would rather not get punched by Tony. But obviously, I feel like I need to go beat him just from a job security standpoint. If there’s going to be anybody I race with more respect than anybody else, it’s going to be him. It’ll be fun just to get out there and finally share the racetrack with him. It’s crazy to think how many times when I was growing up that I pictured driving his car and that I was him. Now, to finally share the racetrack with him is going to be really special for me. Hopefully I can go and beat him. But regardless, it’s going to be a really cool moment for me. I’m sure it doesn’t mean absolutely anything to him, but for me it will mean a lot.”

Alex Bowman is 65/1 to win at Indy road course

 

48 Alex Bowman   Age: 30 (April 25, 1993)   Hometown: Tucson, Arizona   Resides: Concord, North Carolina   Crew Chief: Blake Harris   Standings: 20th

No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1   PUSH TO THE PLAYOFFS: With just three races left in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series regular season, Alex Bowman is currently ranked 20th in the driver points standings. He is 44 markers behind the provisional playoff cutoff line. As it stands now, Bowman needs to gain an average of 15 points per race on the cutline to point his way into the postseason. Despite a 60-point penalty in April and missing three points-paying races in the spring with an injury, Bowman still can make the top 16 for the playoffs. The 30-year-old driver has three top-five finishes, six top-10s and the DAYTONA 500 pole award in 20 starts this season. ROAD TESTED: Bowman has two runner-up finishes on road courses in his time at Hendrick Motorsports -- at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL in 2019 and Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in 2022. The Tucson, Arizona, native is one of two drivers with multiple second-place showings without a win on this track type. Earlier this year, he finished third at COTA for his fourth career top-five result at a road course. INDY FLASHBACK: Last year, Bowman pulled double duty at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, running the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro for Hendrick Motorsports in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday before Sunday’s Cup Series race. He started the Xfinity race in fourth and finished the first stage in third en route to his runner-up result at the 2.439-mile road course. Bowman will run next weekend’s Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen International in the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevy. HARRIS IN INDY: No. 48 crew chief Blake Harris has one start atop the pit box at the serpentine layout of Indianapolis. The 36-year-old shot caller’s driver in 2022 started the event in seventh before finishing the 86-lap race in eighth. As a crew chief, Harris has one top-five finish and three top-10s in seven career road course starts.  SAVE THEM ALL: Bowman and primary partner Ally are teaming up this year to bring back the Best Friends Animal Society donation effort. This week, the duo will make charitable contributions to Medical Mutts Service Dogs, which serves the local community in Indianapolis. Bowman and Ally will donate $4,800 to Best Friends and Medical Mutts Service Dogs. Ally will increase its donation to $10,000 if the No. 48 team wins on Sunday. HOME SWEET HOME: No. 48 team car chief Ty Sipes hails from Bloomfield, Indiana, which is located approximately one hour and 45 minutes southwest of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Growing up on a small hobby farm, Sipes gained experience racing at local tracks. In 2010, he started working on a small sprint car team traveling in the USAC Series. He earned his mechanical engineering degree from Purdue University in 2012 and later got an opportunity to work with Kasey Kahne’s World of Outlaws sprint car team. He joined Hendrick Motorsports during the latter part of the 2014 season and got his first Cup Series win at his home state track in 2017 on the No. 5 team of Kahne. Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on the final three races in the 2023 regular season: "I think we have a shot each week to win at Hendrick Motorsports. The last few weeks we have run well and just had some bad luck. With the way this season has played out, to even be in the hunt for a spot speaks volumes about this team and how well our season started. We are all going to stay focused on the race we have each week and try to go maximize where we can." Blake Harris, crew chief of the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on his expectations for Indianapolis: "Alex (Bowman) has had really good road course races over in the Next Gen car. Looking back at COTA, he has run super strong there. While last year his day was ended early in the Cup car (at Indy), he had a great run in the Xfinity race, so we can build off of his success there and the notes Hendrick Motorsports has as an organization and go try to compete for a win. This team is plenty of capable knocking one down before the end of the season."