Who… should you be talking about after the race?
He’s a lame duck, they said. His team will give up on him, they said. But nobody gave up as Tyler Reddick wheeled his Richard Childress Racing machine around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Reddick led a race-high 38 laps on the day, taking the lead for good on lap 62 to win the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard. Reddick had to endure a pair of late restarts on which he had to hold off two of NASCAR’s best road racers, first Chase Elliott and then AJ Allmendinger as well as a charging Ross Chastain, but he navigated them with maturity and grit for his second career win and second road course win in a row.
Reddick will leave RCR after the 2023 season, and there’s certainly been plenty of speculation about his immediate future. But right now it’s in RCR’s best interest to give Reddick everything he needs to succeed as he’s currently the team’s only hope in the playoffs.
If Austin Dillon should win his way in in the next four weeks, Reddick could quickly find himself in a different situation with the team’s attention on Dillon, but for now, it would be foolish to throw away a chance at a championship because of a move that’s over a year away.
And don’t forget the rookies. Austin Cindric led the rookie charge on Sunday with his runner-up finish. Cindric has a road-racing background and is the Daytona 500 champion, so seeing him up front wasn’t a huge surprise.
Cindric didn’t lead that charge by much, though. Harrison Burton finished a career-best third, just one spot in front of Todd Gilliland, who led the first four laps of his Cup career and also scored his career-best result.
All three drivers show promise, perhaps Cindric the most because he’s in the most secure, well-funded ride of the three. The trend this year has shifted toward the younger generation of drivers, with the youngsters putting up plenty of wins. That certainly continued this week with this group.
What… is the buzz about?
Will NASCAR return to the storied Indianapolis oval anytime soon? It’s certainly possible. The NASCAR Cup Series will run the road course in 2023, but track owner Roger Penske says a return to the oval is possible in 2024 and that a scenario such as alternating years at the oval and road course is certainly a possibility.
Both races on the road course layout have produced chaotic finishes, with the second running featuring an improved track that did not cause the issues we saw…
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