NASCAR Indianapolis 2023 Recap

Indianapolis, Indiana was very busy this weekend as the NTT IndyCar Series and NASCAR shared the weekend at the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Friday night action over at the nearby short-track, Indianapolis Raceway Park.

The opening race of the 2023 Craftsman Truck Series playoffs at IRP started off Friday night with the TSport 200. This race featured ten of the 32 drivers in the field chasing a win to advance to the next round of the playoffs, as well as the oval debut of Shane van Gisbergen. SVG, the Cup Series winner at the Chicago Street Race, drove the No. 41 for Neice Motorsports.

However, a driver in the playoffs with a tremendous short-track background took the win. That driver was Ty Majeski of Thorsport Racing. Majeski led 179 of the 200 laps in the race and swept both stages, holding off pole winner Christian Eckes.

For Majeski, the timing to catch fire is almost perfect.

“I’m proud of the effort, but this is just the start of our playoff run,” said Majeski after the race.

Layne Riggs, who debuted in the truck series in this race a year ago, placed in third, while Carson Hocevar finished fourth and defending champion Zane Smith finished fifth. William Sawalich had a career-best finish in just his fourth start in the Truck Series, finishing sixth. Rajah Caruth, Corey Heim, Matt Crafton, and Matt DiBenedetto completed the top ten.

Shane van Gisbergen got all of the seat time he needed in his first oval race, staying out of trouble, finishing in 19th, and most importantly having fun.

“It was awesome,” said van Gisbergen after the race. “With 10 to go, I finally dropped off the lead lap. “I had a ball. It was awesome racing with people, a lot of fun… I’m living the dream, it was really cool, and everyone was respectful. It was awesome.”

Corey Heim holds the points lead by three points over Majeski. The Truck Series will make a return appearance to the Milwaukee Mile on August 27th.

Down the road at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday was the NASCAR Xfinity Series Pennzoil 150, as the race was delayed to lightning early one and ended during sunset. As the dust cleared, it was defending Xfinity Series Champion Ty Gibbs, distancing himself from the field and scoring his first victory of 2023. Behind Gibbs was Sam Mayer, who passed third-place AJ Allmendinger towards the end of the race.

“I raced go-karts down the street with a bunch of kids… it’s really special.” Gibbs reflected on how special this win was.

Sam Mayer, who recently earned his first career win in the Xfinity Series at Road America, felt great after finishing second at IMS.

“That was all I had right there to catch the 10 (AJ Allmendinger) and get us some more points,” said Mayer after the race. “I’m really proud of our guys here today. Our Chevrolet was really fast. But a lot of positivity going into the next couple of weeks because we are clicking off top fives like it’s easy.”

“These road courses have been good to us the last couple of weeks-and the ovals are just as good. I’m looking forward to what we have going into Watkins Glen next week and then a bunch of ovals after that.”

Austin Hill and Justin Allgaier finished fourth and fifth. Cole Custer, Parker Kligerman, Sheldon Creed, Kaz Grala, and Brett Moffitt rounded out the top ten.

After the weather delay, AJ Allmendinger took a gamble, pitting for slick tires while everyone else stayed out on rain tires. Allmendinger gained a massive lead until the caution came out on lap 27 when Brad Perez’s car came to a stop.

“We were never fast enough to win the race,” Allmendinger said. “I thought Ty was the class of the field. We got in a good rhythm there, maybe if it would’ve stayed green. We just needed a 52-lap green run there to win today.”

The Xfinity Series heads next to Watkins Glen on August 19th at 3:30 PM EST.

Michael McDowell has had a long journey to get to this point in his career. Starting out as a rookie in 2008, walking away from a scary crash in qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway and struggling. However, the former open-wheel driver never gave up. Over the next 15 years, he drove for small teams, pushing the equipment he had, then finally hitting the big time by winning the Daytona 500. Suddenly, McDowell has a surge going on as he and his Front Row Motorsports team continued to get better. By 2023, McDowell was now one of the few drivers on the bubble of making the playoffs. He went into Indy and took full advantage of his specialty, not just winning his second career win, but also in a dominating fashion, something never seen before from Front Row Motorsports.

McDowell led 54 of the 82 laps in the Verizon 200 that only featured one caution early on in the race.

“My family comes to the races we think we can win,” said McDowell, who shared a wholesome moment with his wife and children after his celebrations. “We thought we could win this one.”

McDowell got around Daniel Suarez on the restart on lap six, holding it until green flag pit stops around lap 17. Despite Chase Elliott gunning down McDowell in the closing laps, McDowell showed the racing world that he earned that win and worked for it.

“I was really trying to pace myself,” McDowell said. “I figured there would be a late-race caution, and I didn’t want to burn my stuff up. I was just trying to maintain that gap.”

McDowell’s two wins now come at two of the most historic and iconic race tracks in the world, Daytona and Indianapolis. This win however was more special, with McDowell being able to celebrate with his family.

“Winning the Daytona 500 was one of the coolest moments you could ever have,” said McDowell.. “But going to Victory Lane without your family, that was tough.

If Chase Elliott had a couple of more laps, he might’ve taken the lead from McDowell and secure himself a spot in the playoffs. Elliott, who missed several races due to an injury earlier this season, has been trying to find that first win of 2023.

“Just really appreciate the effort, man. Our Napa Chevy was really good, really good. Just needed just a little bit more and came up a bit short,” Elliott said. “But congrats to Michael, man. He did a good job. Ran a great race and stayed mistake-free, and that’s what you’ve got to do to win.”

Pole-winner Daniel Suarez finished third, who has been on the bubble of making the playoffs, with Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman finishing fourth and fifth.

“We win, and we lose as a team, and that’s all I can say,” said Suárez, who got his first career win last season at Sonoma. “The guys brought a very fast race car. I felt that maybe we were one adjustment behind in the first run with the back of the car, but then we made it a little bit better.”

Chase Briscoe, Martin Truex Jr, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, and Chicago winner Shane van Gisbergen rounded out the top ten.

The Cup Series will head next to Watkins Glen in the second to last race of the regular season on August 20th at 3 PM EST.