Roger Penske is determined to get the crowds back to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and last weekend’s crossover IndyCar/NASCAR weekend saw an increase in attendance from recent Brickyard 400 weekends.
Some of the NASCAR drivers felt that running on the road course lacked the prestige of the big oval, but it was a much more entertaining show than the usual lackluster racing we’ve seen there.
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It had the makings of a Penske sweep, with Will Power easily winning the IndyCar race on Saturday (his sixth victory at Indy). Austin Cindric won the NASCAR Xfinity portion, making the Penske organization two for two on Saturday.
On Sunday things weren’t quite so good for the Captain’s crew and turned ugly for a lot of other teams late in the race. The steel curb at turn six developed an appetite for splitters, causing a red flag to remove a splitter and oil pan from under it. Then on lap 78 the curb came apart, ending the race for five drivers and causing serious damage to several others.
After a 19-minute red flag to remove the curb, the race went into overtime with Denny Hamlin poised to take his first win of the season. But Chase Briscoe dumped Hamlin and A.J. Allmendinger took advantage and surged to the lead, taking the win in his fourth Cup start this season.
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But the carnage on lap 78 should not have happened. There was a lot of debris in turn six the previous lap, and race control should have reacted with a caution. And it wasn’t the first race control error of the season.
The rain squall that ended Kyle Busch’s race in New Hampshire, the deluge at Circuit of the Americas that should have caused a race stoppage, and the mud bog truck race on dirt at Bristol are all indications that there are some serious issues in NASCAR race control. I’ve seen more professionally run race control at local bullrings. NASCAR needs to address the issue sooner than later.
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Hamlin finished the race 23rd, dropping him 22 points behind Kyle Larson in the race for the regular season championship which carries with it 15 playoff points. The silver lining is that Allmendinger’s win locked him into the playoffs on points since A.J. isn’t eligible for Cup points.
The second-last regular season race is Sunday at Michigan, where Larson won three times in a row in 2016-17. Kevin Harvick has won five times there, including the last three and four of the last five races. Joey Logano’s 2019 win was the only break in Harvick’s streak.
Larson is odds-on favorite at 3-1 with teammate Chase Elliott at 7-1. They both start in the front row, as if they needed that advantage. Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, and Martin Truex Jr. are all at 8-1 odds, Hamlin at 9-1, and all three Penske drivers and William Byron are 14-1. The Cup race airs at noon and Saturday’s Xfinity race is at 12:30 p.m., both on NBCSN.
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The NTT IndyCar series is also back in action this weekend on the 1.25 mile oval at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Since the series returned to the venue in 2017, Penske racing has dominated, winning three of the five races there. Josef Newgarden won in 2017 and 2020, with Will Power winning in 2018. Scott Dixon won for Ganassi in the other half of the 2020 doubleheader, and Takuma Sato took the 2019 round. The race airs Saturday at 5:40 p.m. PDT on NBCSN.
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Finally, it was announced last week that the Formula1 Japanese GP has been canceled due to COVID issues in that country.
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