NASCAR
Stratta’s Six: Who Will Shine Most in Star-Studded Indianapolis Road Course Field?
The world’s most famous racetrack plays host to NASCAR this weekend. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course will have Cup cars take on its technical layout for a third-straight year. With the Playoffs getting ever-so-closer, several stout road course drivers are right on the bubble. Who could put everything together Sunday to pull into Verizon 200 victory lane? Here are a few ones to watch out for at the Brickyard.
Chris Buescher
RFK Racing and Chris Buescher have stunned many with back-to-back wins; can they do the unthinkable with a threepeat? Buescher has become the most consistent road course driver in the series. Team 17 has an active streak of eight-straight road course top-10s. Last year on the Indianapolis track the 17 survived all carnage to finish 10th.
RFK is perhaps the hottest Ford team in the sport, just in time for the postseason. Expect Buescher to have another prime opportunity to extend his road course top-10 run, if not contend for another checkered flag. With the Playoffs less than a month away, Buescher is aiming for as many bonus points as possible.
Tyler Reddick
Defending Indy winner Tyler Reddick eyes a road course repeat. A season ago in the RCR No. 8 Chevrolet, Reddick dominated Indianapolis from the pole, taking his second career win. The past 13 months have seen Reddick take three road course wins, including COTA earlier this year.
Still only a one-time winner in 2023, Reddick eyes another victory to help Playoff seeding. Reddick and the 23XI Racing No. 45 crew hope to bounce back from last week’s costly pit stop error. Some of the shortest odds should have Reddick confident for a strong performance on Sunday.
AJ Allmendinger
Always a topic of conversation for any NASCAR road course race is AJ Allmendinger. The inaugural Indianapolis road course winner from two years ago, the 16 now faces a potential Playoff-clinching victory. Aside from 2021’s win, last season saw AJ take the Indy Xfinity race and finish seventh on Sunday. AJ hopes for another memorable weekend at the Brickyard.
“The last two years at Indy have been really special,” Allmendinger said. “To be able to kiss the bricks in the Xfinity Series and Cup Series has been a dream come true. Our road course stuff hasn’t quite been where we need it to be, but we are definitely working hard on it. We were close last year on the Cup side and if we get to Indy and unload well, we can have a shot to go win the race.”
Running double duty again at Indianapolis, AJ is a favorite for both days on the road course. Entering Indy, Allmendinger is only 24 points out of the top-16. Allmendinger must carefully balance going for Sunday’s victory and risking everything versus gaining ground on the cut line. A win would solve all problems for the Kaulig No. 16 team, but they must score maximum points if not grab the checkered flag.
Chase Elliott
The active road course wins leader, Chase Elliott could erase his Playoff doubts on Sunday. Until being spun on a late restart a year ago, Elliott’s No. 9 was second in a position to potentially kiss the bricks. While Elliott has not seen a road course win in the Next Gen car, he has been top-10 in six of the nine races. In short, Elliott hasn’t been superb as of late on the road courses, but he’s not been far off. The 9 could find Indianapolis victory lane, even with Elliott calling this course a head scratcher.
“For me personally, I feel like (Indianapolis) is one of the harder ones, if not the toughest for me,” Elliott said. “Most road courses that we go to have a little bit of character at some point, little bit of banking or a little bit of something. That place is just flat. Not really a lot of character to the road itself. Imperfections, bumps. Things like that. Just a very flat road course, which I find challenging because it’s hard to find ways to be different.”
After his blown tire crash early last week at Michigan, Elliott is facing a must-win Playoff scenario. All hope is not lost yet for the 9, with Elliott going for an eighth road course win. Should Chase win at Indianapolis, he would join Bill Elliott as the only father/son NASCAR duo to kiss the bricks.
Martin Truex Jr
Current Cup Series points leader Martin Truex Jr. eyes another winning chance at Indy. A five-time road course winner, MTJ is always a sleeper pick when going left and right. Like Elliott and others, Truex was lining up for a great result a year ago, before restart contact set him back. Truex thinks the newly moved restart zone will ideally lead to cleaner racing into turn one.
“I think they are going to move it back further down toward turn 13,” Truex said. “I think it will be better. Last year, we were like six or seven-wide and I got destroyed on the green-white-checkered restart there. I had a good run and finished who knows where because of it. Same thing at COTA this year, it’s just become a mess on those restarts at a few of these types of road courses. I think it will help a lot, so we’ll see if it really changes things when it’s put into action. We’ve run well at the Indy Road Course, just haven’t had the finishes to show for it. Hoping we can keep our momentum going and have another strong run with our Auto-Owners Insurance Camry at Indy.”
“We are excited. Every week we feel like we have a shot to win, that is all I can ask for. It’s exciting to come to the track every weekend knowing what these guys are going to bring me. Hopefully, we can keep it up. It would have been nice to get a win at Michigan, but we’ve been really consistent, lots of speed and laps led and that’s gotten us some good finishes. Those 15 bonus points are very important, so that’s what we’ll be focused on the next three weeks. That really helps you come playoff time. Just excited for what’s ahead with this team.”
Truex comes into race 24 with a 57-point regular season championship lead. Michigan a week ago was a close loss for the No. 19 Toyota, expect a peak chance at a victory lane bounce back on the bricks.
William Byron
The past four weeks have not been kind for William Byron. Since winning Atlanta in July, the 24 has a best result of 14th. The apparent best Chevrolet driver and team of 2023 has fallen to third in points, after briefly holding the top spot. Surprisingly still winless on road courses, Byron hopes to add onto the Hendrick 24’s immaculate Indianapolis legacy.
“I think road course races are somewhere we can improve on this season,” Byron said. “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.”
Had Byron not hit the curb at Indy in 2021, the 24 was in position to win that race. An early crash ended his day in the Hoosier State last year as well. Should Byron remain clean, the 24 may be facing down a series-leading fifth win of 2023.
The Indianapolis Road Course has been nothing short of chaotic in its brief Cup Series tenure. The Playoff bubble battle is as tight as its been all year long as well. A mere eight points separate the three drivers around the cut line. With all of this in mind, the Verizon 200 could be another unforgettable day at the Brickyard. The green flag will be Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, the IMS Radio Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. Along with added international driver intrigue, Sunday should be a late regular season highlight.
Written by Peter Stratta
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