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Tag: Lilly Diabetes 250

  • Allgaier Wins Fifth Race Of XFINITY Season At Indianapolis

    Allgaier Wins Fifth Race Of XFINITY Season At Indianapolis

    Justin Allgaier took the checkered flag Monday in the rain-delayed NASCAR XFINITY Series event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, his fifth win of 2018. Allgaier took the checkered 0.092 seconds ahead of Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney, with Chase Elliott in fourth and Daniel Hemric in fifth. Sixth through 10th was Matt Tifft, Christopher Bell, Austin Dillon, Chase Briscoe, and Brandon Jones.

    The race saw 14 lead changes between nine drivers, with Allgaier leading the most laps at 41. The race also saw seven cautions with the last turning into a red flag when contact from John Hunter Nemechek sent Ryan Preece into a tire barrier with hard contact. The race was stopped for 10 minutes while the barrier was repaired. Preece was otherwise uninjured.

    Allgaier was emotional in his frontstretch interview, dedicating the win to his family.

    “I used to come here and stand in the grandstands and watch the Indy 500 and the Brickyard 400 up in turn one, which is why I decided to do a burnout right there,” said Allgaier. “[My Dad] used to drive me up here to Brickyard Crossing every Wednesday night to help me become the best driver I could be in and out of the car…this is awesome.”

    The race’s biggest incident happened on a lap-23 restart when Ty Dillon was turned, taking out Elliott Sadler, Austin Cindric, and Spencer Boyd, while Ryan Reed and Christopher Bell were also involved.

    With one race left in the regular season Allgaier leads the win total with five wins to Bell’s four. Meanwhile Reddick earned his best finish since his win at Daytona in February, while Briscoe’s ninth-place finish was his career-best result.

    The next race will be the DC Solar 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway at 5 p.m. ET on Saturday on NBCSN.

     

    NASCAR Xfinity Series
    Unofficial Race Results for the 7Th Annual Lilly Diabetes 250 – Saturday,  September 8, 2018
    Indianapolis Motor Speedway

    1       7       Justin Allgaier
    2      9       Tyler Reddick
    3       22      Ryan Blaney(i)
    4       23      Chase Elliott(i)
    5       21      Daniel Hemric
    6       2       Matt Tifft
    7       20      Christopher Bell
    8       10      Austin Dillon(i)
    9       60      Chase Briscoe
    10      19      Brandon Jones
    11      16      Ryan Reed
    12      4       Ross Chastain
    13      39      Ryan Sieg
    14      51      Jeremy Clements
    15      35      Joey Gase
    16      15      BJ McLeod
    17      01      Vinnie Miller
    18      52      David Starr
    19      36      Alex Labbe
    20      0       Garrett Smithley
    21      40      Chad Finchum
    22     11      Ryan Truex
    23      8       Caesar Bacarella
    24      90      Josh Williams
    25      42      John Hunter Nemechek
    26      74      Mike Harmon
    27      78      Tommy Joe Martins
    28      18      Ryan Preece
    29      00      Cole Custer
    30      38      JJ Yeley
    31      5       Michael Annett
    32      89      Morgan Shepherd
    33      3       Ty Dillon(i)
    34      12      Austin Cindric
    35      1       Elliott Sadler
    36      76      Spencer Boyd
    37     66      Brandon Hightower
    38      45      Josh Bilicki
    39      55      Bayley Currey(i)
    40      93      Jeff Green
  • The White Zone: NASCAR May Have Validated its Presence at Indianapolis

    The White Zone: NASCAR May Have Validated its Presence at Indianapolis

    When NASCAR announced they would be implementing a new convoluted package at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this year, a package that included restrictor plates and aero ducts near the grille area, I was incredibly skeptical that it would work. And honestly, why shouldn’t I be? I’ve heard this story from NASCAR before, that what they’re trying will “enhance” the racing, only for it to royally bomb. This came across as just another attempt by the sanctioning body to save a race weekend at a track that never was and never will be suited for stock car racing.

    But then race day arrived, we saw the results firsthand and Saturday’s XFINITY Series Lilly Diabetes 250 was phenomenally serviceable.

    While in the past, the lead car had a greater aero advantage and could simply pull away from the cars behind, the trailing cars this time around could reel in the lead cars.

    Well, that’s all fine and dandy for cars down through the running order, but what about getting to the lead car? I won’t say the leader didn’t still have an aero advantage, but it was much more negated than in any previous race at the Brickyard, be it XFINITY or the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

    The numbers show that there were 16 lead changes, a new track record in the XFINITY Series (it was previously nine lead changes). However, those numbers don’t tell you that 10 of those took place during pit cycles (green and/or yellow). So we’re left with six that occurred on-track during green flag racing, which, proportionally, is on the lower end of what I’d expect for a XFINITY Series race not held at Daytona or Talladega.

    Hence, this is why I say this race was “phenomenally serviceable.” It was better than anything I’ve seen previously at the Brickyard, but this package could still use some work, especially on long runs. If you didn’t get a great restart, passing was, while not impossible or even difficult, a little harder.

    That’s not just my view, that’s also the view of No. 22 Team Penske Ford driver Joey Logano.

    “The package was really interesting. You had to race really smart,” he said in his post-race press conference. “For us, we may not have had the fastest Discount Tire Ford, so I had good restart early in the race and was able to get some track position. Then our pit crew and everyone did a great job of maintaining that track position. You just had to be smart on restarts and knowing when to race guys and when to just keep momentum because if you started losing momentum you lost five or six spots. Being smart inside the car was key. I just wanted a faster car. That would have been key to do that to go up there and race with those guys.”

    Teammate Brad Keselowski was also asked if this package is the way to go for at Indianapolis.

    “Not the restrictor plate, but the air ducts are the way to go, for sure,” he said. “That was a huge gain and something I’ve been pushing on NASCAR for a while, so it’s good to see them do it and give it a shot over there.”

    Bottom line, this package could use some work, but it’s the direction in which to go for Indianapolis. While I still believe the XFINITY Series belongs at Indianapolis Raceway Park (or Lucas Oil Raceway or whatever name the track goes by now), at least the race it was replaced with is no longer an absolute joke. Also, whoever at NASCAR concocted this deserves a raise and/or promotion.

    That’s my view for what it’s worth.