Michael McDowell triumphed for the second time in his NASCAR Cup Series career and also secured a playoffs berth after winning the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday.
Michael McDowell outpaced all drivers on Sunday to win the Verizon 200 at Indy. A NASCAR victory at IMS is impressive despite the fact that it isn’t on the oval.
The Indy victory guaranteed McDowell a spot in the 2023 playoffs with only two races left in the regular season.
For McDowell, this is undoubtedly his best season to date. The choice Front Row Motorsports took to exercise their options on McDowell and Todd Gilliland for the upcoming season is further reinforced by this win. The 34-team performed exceptionally all afternoon on the Indy Road Course.
Haley slammed into the tyre barrier as he entered the Hulman straight after making contact with Logano on lap 2, bringing out the first caution of the race. That made it possible for William Byron to catch the rest of the field despite having to start at the rear and serve a drive-through penalty at the start of the race.
On the sixth lap of the Verizon 200, Michael McDowell overcame pole-sitter Daniel Suárez to take the lead, and he generally never looked back. From fourth on the starting grid, he moved up to second at the end of the first lap. He eventually overtook Suárez coming out of the last corner.
Suárez’s brave move earlier in the stage seemed to give McDowell the eventual race lead. When both drivers stopped on lap 17, Suárez overtook McDowell by around five car lengths thanks to an aggressive pit entry. After the first cycle of green-flag stops, that enabled him go off pit road ahead of McDowell and subsequently take the lead in the race.
The disappointing weekend for A.J. Allmendinger resumed on lap 30 when he and Ryan Blaney crashed coming out of the final turn, sending Allmendinger spinning.
To beat Michael McDowell and Daniel Suárez and win Stage 2, Denny Hamlin employed a daring pit strategy that is ‘not stopping’. Suárez and McDowell caught Hamlin and a similarly misguided Brad Keselowski in the final round of turns, when McDowell eventually overtook Suárez.
Chase Elliott launched an impressive charge to the finish line, but McDowell held on to the lead. McDowell took use of his track position and some deft driving to win the 85-lap race with only a single caution, which came on lap 2.
McDowell dominated the 82-lap race taking the lead for 54 of the laps.
Chase Elliott finished second, Daniel Suarez was third, Tyler Reddick fourth, and Alex Bowman rounded out the top five.
Chase Briscoe came in sixth place in the race on Sunday. Martin Truex Jr. came in seventh, Kyle Larson came in eighth, and Christopher Bell came in ninth. Shane van Gisbergen placed 10th in his second Cup Series start of his career after winning in his series debut last month on the Chicago street track.
