4 days agoAfter falling out of the projected playoff grid during a slump from Talladega to Pocono when he only led seven laps and had three crash DNFs, Bubba Wallace reentered the playoff race with one of his best runs of the season in yesterday's Brickyard 400. Although he wasn't as fast as his teammate, Tyler Reddick, Wallace finished fifth, giving him both his best finish and best driver rating since Martinsville. He also had his first stage win this season in Stage 2 and his highest laps led total with 26. After Chris Buescher's flat tire, Ross Chastain's questionable strategy, and Ty Gibbs's engine failure, Wallace now sits only 42 points behind Gibbs, 17 behind Buescher, and seven behind Chastain for the last three playoff spots unless a driver outside the playoffs wins. Wallace's chances to advance to the playoffs look vastly better than they did a few weeks ago.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
4 days agoIn his final Brickyard 400 start before retiring from full-time competition in the NASCAR Cup Series, Martin Truex Jr looked to win his first race at Indianapolis but his perpetual bad luck both this year and at Indianapolis reared its ugly head again. Truex was forced to serve a drive-through penalty at the start of the race due to unapproved adjustments. Although he failed to lose a lap, there were no cautions during Stage 1 so he couldn't begin to advance through the field until Stage 2. Nonetheless, Truex made an impressive charge to eighth in Stage 2. While battling Kyle Larson for sixth on the subsequent restart, Larson cut Truex's tire, sending him into the wall, which resulted in a 27th-place finish. Nonetheless, despite his bad luck and lack of wins this year, he remains far above the cutline and it's hard to imagine him missing the playoffs.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
4 days agoDaniel Suarez weaved his way through the carnage in yesterday's Brickyard 400 to collect an eighth-place finish and was one of the biggest benefactors when several faster cars crashed out. However, despite the finish, his run wasn't very impressive, as the Trackhouse Racing cars were very slow with Ross Chastain ranking 24th in speed and Suarez ranking a miserable 29th. Suarez only had an average running position of 21st and his driver rating was pretty average for him in 2024, a year that has been relatively subpar except for his win at Atlanta. Suarez's speed percentile fell to 37.60 for the season as he remains about 30 percentage points behind Chastain, which does not bode well for the playoffs--although it's now very possible that Suarez could be the only Trackhouse driver to make the postseason. Until he can get his speed numbers up, expectations for Suarez should remain muted.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
4 days agoAfter previously winning on the Indianapolis road course in 2022, Tyler Reddick looked to become the first NASCAR driver to win on both Indianapolis layouts in yesterday's Brickyard 400 and nearly did so before ultimately finishing second to Kyle Larson. In addition to winning the pole, Reddick led the most laps and also led in average running position, average speed, and driver rating. Despite John Hunter Nemechek surprisingly passing him on a Stage 2 restart, Reddick made a furious charge through the field in Stage 3 and was the highest-ranking driver on the winning pit strategy for much of the final stint. However, Larson moved through the field more quickly to win, while Reddick had yet another near-miss. Nonetheless, while Reddick hasn't been as clutch this year, he has been markedly more consistent to compensate and remains only 15 points behind Larson for the regular season points lead.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
4 days agoDespite finishing in the top 10 in seven of his eight previous Penske races on the Indianapolis, it seemed unlikely that Joey Logano would contend in yesterday's race since he has run significantly worse in 2024 than he did in previous years. However, he worked his way into the top five on the Stage 1 caution after staying out of the pits and remained in the top 10 until pitting shortly before the Stage 2 break. He was working his way back towards the top ten early in Stage 3 when Carson Hocevar attempted to poke his nose between Austin Dillon and Logano's teammate, Ryan Blaney. Although Blaney avoided spinning out, a domino effect ensued, which sent Jimmie Johnson into Logano and took them both out of the race. Logano is locked into the playoffs and didn't have winning speed, so the ramifications from the crash were relatively minor.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
4
days
agoDenny
Hamlin
ended
the
Brickyard
400
at
Indianapolis
Motor
Speedway
in
the
31st
position
on
Sunday.
Starting
from
the
second
position,
Hamlin
was
one
of
the
top
drivers
in
the
early
portions
of
the
race.
In
the
first
stage,
Hamlin
ran
in
the
Top
5
until
he
took
read more...
4
days
agoIn
the
Brickyard
400
at
Indianapolis
Motor
Speedway,
Austin
Cindric
finished
seventh
despite
not
being
much
of
a
factor
for
the
win
for
most
of
the
race.
Starting
38th
at
the
rear
after
obtaining
damage
in
practice,
Cindric
struggled
to
make
moves
through
the
field
early.
The
No.
read more...
4
days
agoTeam
Penske
driver
Ryan
Blaney
finished
third
in
Sunday's
Brickyard
400
after
being
in
position
to
take
the
victory
late.
Starting
from
the
seventh
position,
Blaney
looked
strong
early
on
in
the
first
stage
and
ran
in
the
Top
10
for
most
of
the
stage.
After
taking
his
read more...
4
days
agoIn
Sunday's
Brickyard
400
at
Indianapolis
Motor
Speedway,
Stewart-Haas
Racing
driver
Josh
Berry
finished
35th
after
wrecking
at
the
beginning
of
the
third
stage.
Berry
was
set
for
a
difficult
day,
starting
from
the
37th
position
after
a
horrible
qualifying
run.
In
the
first
stage,
the
No.
4
read more...
4 days agoChase Elliott finished 10th in the Brickyard 400 from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Despite being a fairly eventful race, it was a pretty underwhelming day for Elliott. While finishing with his 11th top-10 of the season is certainly something to celebrate, the performance itself was lackluster. With a DraftKings score of just 31.30, the Hendrick Motorsports star did not even come close to returning value on his $9,700 salary. Although he was just the 15th highest owned driver in the site's featured contest (16.42%), his ownership was higher than Ryan Blaney (15.84%), Justin Haley (15.65%), Todd Gilliland (7.67%) Daniel Suarez (5.54%), Noah Gragson (5.11%), Zane Smith (3.96%), Corey Lajoie (2.12%), and Cody Ware (1.89%), all of which finished with a higher score than the No. 9 did. Up next for the Cup Series, following a three week break to allow for NBC's Olympic coverage, is a trip to Richmond Raceway a track that Elliott finished fifth at earlier this season.
--Adam Erhardt - RotoBallerSource: Jayski.com
4
days
agoWilliam
Byron
finished
38th
in
Sunday's
Brickyard
400
from
Indianapolis
Motor
Speedway.
Despite
qualifying
fourth
for
Sunday's
race,
Byron
never
looked
like
a
legit
threat
to
kiss
the
bricks
on
Sunday
afternoon
as
he
struggled
to
maintain
track
position
throughout
the
day.
After
dropping
out
of
the
top-10,
read more...
4 days agoChristopher Bell finished fourth in Sunday's Brickyard 400 from historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Although it was just his second Cup start on the oval configuration at Indy, Bell looked poised and experienced throughout Sunday's race. Despite only leading two laps, the 29-year old recorded six fastest laps and moved up 14 spots in the field, earning 57.20 DraftKings points and a spot in the site's winning lineup for his efforts. Sunday's performance was much needed for the Joe Gibbs Racing star as he had gone three consecutive races without finishing in the top-10 heading into this contest. With a strong outing in the Hoosier State, Bell gets to enter the Olympic break with renewed momentum, something that could very well carry him to another appearance in the Championship Four.
--Adam Erhardt - RotoBallerSource: Jayski
5 days agoRicky Stenhouse Jr. kept finding himself pretty close to the contending pack on Sunday afternoon. The JTG Daugherty Racing driver accumulated a total of six stage points. He was ninth after Stage 1 and seventh after Stage 2. Stenhouse Jr. began the race in ninth and never did lead a lap in the race. He does have four Top 11 results over the past six races. The problem for Stenhouse Jr. is the crashes. He is a driver who seems to be in the middle of contact situations and does have four DNF's on the season. It is partially why he ranks 25th overall in points.
--Chris Wassel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
5 days agoCarson Hocevar proved on Sunday that it is not where you start, it is where you finish. Hocevar and his Spire Motorsports Chevy began the Brickyard 400 from the 30th position. After 160 laps and seven laps of overtime, he finished 12th. That +18 place differential turned some heads. He survived most of the carnage err cautions pretty well. After Stage 1, Hocevar was in 22nd. He improved five more spots after Stage 2. If there had been another overtime, the driver may have sneaked into the Top 10. Hocevar carried Top 10 late-run speed by the end of the race.
--Chris Wassel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
5 days ago23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace will start 17th in this week's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This will be the third time that Wallace will start in the Top 20 at the site in his Cup career. In three starts at Indy, while driving for Richard Petty Motorsports, Wallace nabbed two top-10 finishes, including a best finish of third back in 2019. In 21 races completed this year, Wallace has 11 top-15 finishes, including each of the past three Cup events, and finished 10th in last week's race at Pocono. In practice, Wallace ranked ninth in five consecutive lap averages and 10th in overall lap averages. Due to his equipment, practice speeds, and great track history, expect Wallace to obtain positive PD and compete for a top-10 finish, making him a worth consideration for any DFS lineup.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: racing-reference.info
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