Allmendinger wins in chaos
INDIANAPOLIS — AJ Allmendinger took advantage of two frightening multi-car crashes, the leader getting spun out and a penalty — all in the final five laps — to win the Brickyard 200 on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Making only his second NASCAR Cup start of the season, Allmendinger, 39, raced to his second career Cup victory and gave Kaulig Racing its first win in only the organization’s seventh series start.
But the 0.929-second victory over Ryan Blaney in the first Cup race on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course was marred by two huge pileups that brought out red flags.
The first came with five laps to go, starting when pole-winning driver William Byron went over the curbing in the fifth turn and was sent off the course. Eight more drivers quickly followed him, immediately bringing out a yellow and eventually a red flag.
“It was so weird, I’ve never had that experience before,” Byron said, saying he first noticed the problem when Kyle Larson went through the section just ahead of him. “I nailed something and tore it up.”
Track workers, who had been tending to the chicane throughout the race, eventually removed it and towed it away as fans cheered. Even Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Doug Boles walked onto the track in a suit and tie, grabbed a broom and helped clean the area.
When the engines restarted, nobody was sure what to expect or how to navigate the altered turn. A few moments later, seven more cars crashed in the
same spot and again the race was halted.
NASCAR officials didn’t immediately report any significant injuries.
Organizers made one modification to the track overnight — removing a “turtle” in the sixth turn that had caused some trouble during Saturday’s doubleheader. But it was the fifth turn that became problematic Sunday.
Some wondered whether fatigue from three days of practice, qualifying and racing on the same course could have led to the deterioration of the curbing.
It wasn’t just the crashes. Denny Hamlin had the lead with two laps to go and appeared headed toward victory when Chase Briscoe’s secondplace car went skittering through the grass between the first two turns. The two cars raced side-byside briefly before Hamlin pulled slightly ahead heading into the 10th turn.
That’s where Briscoe, who said he was unaware he had been penalized, spun out Hamlin.
“Just a lack of awareness,” Hamlin said. “I just wanted him to race me for a lap. I don’t think he did it maliciously. He’s not that kind of person.”
Even before the crashes, this race looked more like short-track event.
In the end, Allmendinger made his way to the front.
“It was just survival of the fittest,” he said. “We probably had an eighth to 15th place car. Those restarts were just insane.”
Allmendinger also won a road-course race at Watkins Glen in 2014.
Larson took the points lead from Hamlin by finishing third, one day after winning the Knoxville Nationals. Hamlin wound up 23rd.