AJ Allmendinger Wins Chaotic Road-Course Race at The Brickyard

LAP 1: Hendrick Motorsports driver, William Byron, won the pole in qualifying earlier in the day and started on the front row beside the #14 of Chase Briscoe. Byron’s #24 Chevrolet got a great launch when the green-flag dropped and was able to secure the top spot in Turn 1.

LAP 2: Chase Briscoe was able to get by William Byron when the #24 went wide in Turn 8, which allowed Briscoe to get the perferred line and make the pass.

LAP 12: One lap before pit road closed, the leaders of Briscoe, Byron, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, and numerous others came to make their stop early. This put Michael McDowell and Tyler Reddick in a tight battle for the lead, which Reddick eventually won.

STAGE 1 END – LAP 15: Reddick hung on to win the stage and pick up an extremely valuable playoff point. Behind him, McDowell, Austin Dillon, Eric Jones, and Ryan Preece completed the top 5 at the end of the segment. While those drivers pitted during the break, Chase Elliott cycled through to the lead, with Larson in P2.

LAP 32: Similar to Stage 1, the leaders of Larson, Elliott, and others pitted early – opting to go for the win rather than stage points. Once again, it was Tyler Reddick who picked up the lead.

STAGE 2 END – LAP 35: Reddick won the second stage with his teammate, Austin Dillon, in second place. Ryan Preece, Chris Buescher, and Matt DiBenedetto also finished in the top 5 and collected points. When they pitted at the break, Kyle Larson in the #5 picked up the lead and held onto the position after the restart.

CAUTION – LAP 42: The first caution of the day came out for debris in Turn 6 after the #47 of Ricky Stenhouse Jr and the #10 Aric Almirola made contact and spun. On the restart, Larson continued to lead with Chase Elliott in a close second.

CAUTION – LAP 74: The #3 of Austin Dillon collided with the curb on the apex of Turn 6. The entire splitter of the #3 chevrolet was ripped off the car and lodged under the curb, which brought out the caution for debris.

CAUTION – LAP 79: While the splitter from the previous caution was removed, damage to the curb went unnoticed. As a result, when the field hurried through Turn 6 on the restart, a massive accident took place. The #24 of William Byron was the first to hit the curb, which sent him spinning into the run-off area. Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, Ross Chastain, Daniel Suarez, Joey Logano, and several others were involved. The race was red-flagged while track-crews removed the curb from the racing surface. This pushed the race into overtime.

CAUTION – LAP 90: On the first attempt at the overtime restart, another major accident occured once again in Turn 6. This time, several cars hit the much steeper curb that sat to the right of the curb that was removed. Those involved included Austin Dillon, Tyler Reddick, Martin Truex Jr, Michael McDowell, Alex Bowman, and others.

LAP 94: The restart saw Briscoe and Hamlin side-by-side heading into Turn 1. However, Matt Dibenedetto bumped the back of Briscoe and caused him to overshoot the corner, cutting the majority of the turn. Briscoe went through the grass and rejoined the track ahead of Hamlin, which resulted in a stop-and-go penalty. Before Briscoe could serve the penalty, he collided with the rear of Hamlin’s #11 Toyota and sent Hamlin spinning off the track, thus taking him out of contention. The #16  of AJ Allmendinger emerged through the chaos to take the lead.

CHECKERED FLAG – LAP 95: AJ Allmendinger crossed the line to win his 2nd career victory in the Cup Series. However, because he is not a regular driver running a full season, his win does not affect the playoff standings.

RESULTS:

1. A.J. Allmendinger
2. Ryan Blaney
3. Kyle Larson
4. Chase Elliott
5. Matt DiBenedetto
6. Kurt Busch
7. Erik Jones
8. Justin Haley
9. Austin Cindric
10. Ryan Newman
11. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
12. Chris Buescher
13. Bubba Wallace
14. Kevin Harvick
15. Martin Truex Jr
16. Corey LaJoie
17. Alex Bowman
18. Josh Bilicki
19. Aric Almirola
20. Kyle Busch
21. Tyler Reddick
22. Quin Houff
23. Denny Hamlin
24. Brad Keselowski
25. Cole Custer
26. Chase Briscoe
27. Timmy Hill
28. Garrett Smithley
29. Ross Chastain
30. Michael McDowell
31. Austin Dillon
32. James Davison
33. William Byron
34. Joey Logano
35. Ryan Preece
36. Christopher Bell
37. Daniel Suarez
38. Anthony Alfredo
39. Andy Lally
40. Cody Ware