AJ Allmendinger took an unlikely victory in Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard, with the road course ace capitalizing on late-race drama to hand his Kaulig Racing team its first-ever win in NASCAR Cup Series competition.
Allmendinger led just two laps en route to the win, inheriting the lead in overtime after Chase Briscoe accidentally wrecked Denny Hamlin out of first. Briscoe was then handed a drive-through penalty for failing to re-enter the course properly after running wide into the grass moments earlier, making Allmendinger the effective leader. The 39-year old then held off Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson for one more tour of the 2.5-mile infield road course before crossing the finish line and taking his first Cup Series win since 2014.
While Allmendinger used his road course experience to put the No. 16 Chevy Camaro ZL1 in contention for the win, it’s safe to say he wouldn’t have wound up in victory lane if it weren’t for the late-race drama that played out with just five laps to go. As the field raced through the turn 5-6 chicane, the inside curbing came loose, causing a multi-car pileup that collected several front runners including William Byron and Joey Logano. Course workers then removed the faulty curbing before the green flag back out for a two-lap overtime shootout.
With the curbing now gone from the inside of the Turns 5-6 complex, several competitors, including Michael McDowell, mistakenly hit the tall sausage curb on the inside of the corner causing a similar multi-car wreck and setting up the final two-lap overtime sprint.
“I mean, it was survival of the fittest,” Allmendinger said of the calamitous event. “We probably had like an eighth, 10th-place car, sped on pit road. I thought we were going to finish 12th to 15th and then those restarts were just insane.”
Blaney followed Allmendinger across the finish line to take second, followed by Larson in third, Chase Elliott in fourth and Matt DiBenedetto in fifth. Check out the video embedded below for complete highlights from the Verizon 200. NASCAR heads to Michigan next for the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday, August 22nd.
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Comments
I’m just glad Chevy won and no some Ford or Toyota. I’m just a GM fan so does that make me Racist or Woke… LOL
AJ has come a long way since his suspension years ago. Was rooting for him at the end. Race was stupid with track issues. Almost as stupid as COTA and rain issues.
We had tickets to the Brickyard 400 from 1994 thru 2020 and enjoyed every race, some more than others. No fans were allowed at the 2020 race, though. But, I do not like the racing on the IMS road course, so did not renew tickets for the new Verizon 200 replacement race. We had a lot of good times at the Brickyard 400 and I miss that race.