Chaos

 

August 18, 2021

Chaos

The NASCAR Cup race was the main event, at least in theory, of the Indy Car/ NASCAR weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. For years the track has hosted the Brickyard 400, which has always been one of the premier events of the NASCAR season, but has fallen on hard times in recent years as crowds just haven’t shown up to attend. This is mostly because the race is generally pretty boring. The oval at IMS just isn’t conducive to a lot of close racing or passing in the series.

Speedway officials have seen dwindling crowds and TV ratings and while the drivers still appreciate the prestige of winning at the Brickyard, something needed to be done to shake things up. NASCAR ran the Infinity series on the road course to great effect last year and it was decided that the top tier series would join them this year as a replacement for the traditional Brickyard 400.

I am not a big NASCAR fan and was a little bit on the fence about even going, but decided that a day hanging out in the suite with my friends, even if it was during a NASCAR event was a decent option and I am glad that I went as the race itself was interesting to say the least and chaotic and crazy for sure. Before the race, I was able to stroll through the NASCAR pits, which was sort of fun.

I was able to meet Indiana Pacers player Justin Holiday who was pegged to drive the pace car for the race.  Holiday was behind the wheel of a 2021 Chevrolet Camaro SS 1LE and lead the NASCAR Cup Series field to the green flag in the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard. Holiday is an eight-year NBA veteran and just completed his second season with the Pacers, averaging 10.5 points and 3.6 rebounds per game.

William Byron won the pole for the race on the 14 turn road course, his seventh pole of his NASCAR Cup career. Chase Briscoe started second and Chase Elliott was in third followed by Kyle Larson and Daniel Suarez. The race got off to s decent enough start, but it became clear pretty early that the curbing that lined the inside of turn six would be problematic for the drivers.

If they hit the curbing it either launched them into the air or the cars bottomed out and parts of the under-carriage would be ripped out. It led to a chaotic, crash-filled mess of a race that had frequent cautions and led to two red-flag stoppages after multiple car crashes resulting from the curbing.

Several drivers spun out at turn six, but it didn't result in any significant delays until Lap 78, where roughly 10 cars crashed or spun in some form. The race went straight to overtime after the red-flag conditions were lifted, but the remaining drivers couldn't get one lap past the turn before more crashes ensued. That resulted in the second and final red flag of the day. Even IMS president Doug Boles was out sweeping up debris. Eventually the curbing was just dragged away so that the race could finish.

Heading into the second overtime attempt, the top four racers were Denny Hamlin, NASCAR Cup Series rookie Chase Briscoe, AJ Allmendinger and Matt DiBenedetto, none of whom had a win to their name this season. It looked as if Hamlin, who has been consistent all year, would finally get that elusive first win, but Briscoe, who had just been assessed a penalty for cutting through the track, spun him out on the penultimate lap.

Allmendinger, an Xfinity Series driver who only drives road courses in the Cup Series, took advantage of the opportunity and made his way to victory lane in just his fourth Cup race this year. Moreover, Hamlin lost his regular-season points lead as Kyle Larson finished 22 points ahead of him Sunday.