NASCAR Weekend Preview: Indianapolis Motor Speedway & IRP

In-Season Challenge is only one aspect of drama in Brickyard 400

Ryan Blaney isn’t one to embrace the David vs. Goliath characterization of the final round of the NASCAR Cup Series In-Season Challenge, which will play out in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 presented by PPG at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET on TNT, IMS Radio Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“If they’re making it a David vs. Goliath story, that’s not good for me,” Blaney quipped. “I recall that David won that battle.”

Clearly, Blaney is the Goliath in the equation. The driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford is a two-time winner this season, most recently at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta) on July 12. Blaney and teammate Joey Logano have combined to win the last two races in the Cup Series.

Gilliland, on the other hand, has never won a NASCAR Cup Series race. In 165 starts, he has scored two top fives—one at the Indianapolis Grand Prix Course and one at Talladega Superspeedway.

Yet Gilliland has survived the first four rounds of the In-Season Challenge. In the semifinals last Sunday at North Wilkesboro Speedway, he finished eighth and took advantage of a mid-cycle caution to oust Chase Elliott.

“I definitely think we’ve had luck on our side, but if you get past four or five drivers at this point, it’s always going to take a little bit of luck,” Gilliland said. “I felt our speed was much better at North Wilkesboro, so I feel like we earned that one more.

“I’m excited about it. It’s been something fun for my team to focus on. They’re pushing super hard for Indianapolis, so it’s been cool to see those guys rise up to the occasion, and we’re hoping for one more really good week.”

The In-Season Challenge, of course, is far from the only drama at Indianapolis this weekend. Five races remain before the cutoff for the postseason Chase, and the race for the final spots gained a bit of clarity at North Wilkesboro.

Austin Cindric finished 14th to hold the 16th position in the standings, the last Chase-eligible spot, by 33 points over 17th-place Erik Jones. That’s the largest gap all season between drivers in those two positions.

Nevertheless, there’s the prospect for extreme volatility in the standings, as exemplified by series leader Denny Hamlin’s charge from 129 points behind Tyler Reddick to 68 points ahead over the course of nine races.

Even with Hamlin expanding his points lead, however, Blaney has gained on the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Over the last five races, Blaney, the third-place driver in the standings, has cut 78 points off Hamlin’s advantage—from 165 points behind to 87.

Defending Brickyard 400 winner Bubba Wallace is 13th in the standings with a relatively comfortable 69-point margin above the current cut line, but another strong showing at the iconic 2.5-mile oval would solidify his position even further.

“Just beginning to relive that and bring up those conversations has been fun,” Wallace said of his most recent Cup Series victory. “We’ve had a lot of speed every time we’ve shown up at Indy, so, yeah, looking forward to it.”

In 2024, the NASCAR Cup Series returned to the Indianapolis oval after a three-year absence, with Kyle Larson winning the race. Larson, who finished second last year, comes to the Brickyard this season in the throes of a 45-race winless streak.

Race for postseason spots intensifies for O’Reilly Series drivers

Drivers outside the top 12 in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series have three more chances to muscle their way into the postseason Chase, with the first opportunity coming in Saturday’s Pennzoil 250 presented by Take 5 Oil Change at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (4 p.m. ET on CW, IMS Radio Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Brent Crews and Taylor Gray currently occupy the 11th and 12th positions in the standings, but 13th-place Rajah Caruth is only 17 points behind Gray and 18 behind Crews with Indianapolis, Iowa Speedway and Daytona International Speedway left on the regular-season schedule.

Another Gibbs teammate, William Sawalich, trails Gray by just 21 points.

The race to the postseason aside, there’s one truism about the Indianapolis oval that has been consistent in each of the past 10 O’Reilly Series races there: speed in qualifying translates into performance in the event itself.

In 2012, Brad Keselowski won from the eighth starting position. Last year, Connor Zilisch won from seventh on the grid. In between, all eight winners have come from the top three starting positions, four from the pole.

Justin Allgaier is the only former Brickyard winner in the field for Saturday’s race, having triumphed at the track in 2018. With six victories this season, the driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet already has clinched the top seed in the Chase, but Indy remains a significant venue to the Riverton, Illinois driver.

“Indianapolis is such a special track,” said Allgaier, who had contemplated retirement after the current season but recently signed an extension with JRM. “With the history that comes with being here, it’s always been a place that we circle on the calendar.

“We came close here last year (leading 37 laps before a late crash), and there’s nothing I would love more than another opportunity to kiss the bricks come Saturday afternoon.”

Allgaier will have plenty of competition within his own team. Full-time NASCAR Cup Series drivers Ross Chastain and Chase Elliott both are driving JRM cars.

In 34 aggregate starts on the Indianapolis oval, beginning in 2012, JR Motorsports has recorded three wins, 11 top fives, 19 top 10s and an average finish of 14.1.

A single top 10 for JRM on Saturday would constitute a significant milestone. The organization has placed at least one car in the top 10 for 78 consecutive races, one short of the record set by RFK Racing from 2008-2010.

Battle for Chase spots in NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series takes to short tracks

The race for the final spot in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series’ postseason Chase couldn’t be tighter—literally.

Stewart Friesen and Tyler Ankrum are tied for the final berth, with Friesen holding the tiebreaker, but the determining factor over the next three races will be performance on tracks of one mile in length or shorter.

The Truck Series heads to Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park for Friday night’s TSport 200 presented by Warn Industries (8 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Recently, the 0.686-mile oval has been the province of series leader and defending winner Layne Riggs and two-time winner Ty Majeski (2023-2024).

But Friesen and Ankrum will stage their own show as they battle for a berth in the postseason. Ankrum lost ground with consecutive finishes of 31st on the Naval Base Coronado Street Course, 25th at Lime Rock Park and 19th last Saturday at North Wilkesboro.

“It has been tough the last couple weeks, to say the least, but we are not focusing on the negatives and only throwing forward the positives,” Ankrum said. “This No. 18 (McAnally Hilgemann Racing) team has put in so much work at the shop and at the track to give us what we need to stay in contention in these races, and I’m extremely confident our day will come soon.

“We’re in rough shape with just three races remaining before the Chase, but if we can just knock out a few solid points races here in the next month, we will be good to go.”

Riggs, on the other hand, is in excellent shape entering a race he won last year. His second-place run at North Wilkesboro bumped his lead in the standings over second-place Kaden Honeycutt to 59 points.

Majeski is sixth in the standings, 67 points behind fifth-place Gio Ruggiero, but the 2024 series champion will look to make a significant move over the next three races—on his three best oval tracks by average finish: IRP, 3.75 in four starts; Richmond Raceway, 2.0 in four starts; and New Hampshire Motor Speedway, fifth in his only start.

 

NASCAR Cup Series
Next Race: Brickyard 400 presented by PPG
The Place: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Track Length: 2.5 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Sunday, July 26
The Time: 2 p.m. ET
The Purse: $11,233,037
TV: TNT, 1 p.m. ET
Radio: IMS, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 400 miles (160 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 50),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 100), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 160)

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
Next Race: Pennzoil 250 presented by Take 5 Oil Change
The Place: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Track Length: 2.5 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Saturday, July 25
The Time: 4 p.m. ET
The Purse: $1,661,806
TV: CW, 3 p.m. ET
Radio: IMS, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 250 miles (100 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 30),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 60), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 100)

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series
Next Race: TSport 200 presented by Warn Industries
The Place: Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park
Track Length: 0.686 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Friday, July 24
The Time: 8 p.m. ET
The Purse: $789,700
TV: FS1, 8 p.m. ET
Radio: NRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 137.2 miles (200 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 60),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 120), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 200)

ARCA Menards Series
Next Race: LiUNA! 150 Presented by Ideal Garage Door
The Place: Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park
Track Length: 0.686 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Friday, July 24
The Time: 5:30 p.m. ET
TV: FS1, 5:30 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 102.9 miles (150 Laps)