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NASCAR Cup Series

Verizon 200 at the Brickyard

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course

August 13th, 2023

Race #24 of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Season

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Laps Scheduled: 82
Miles Raced : 213.6
Time of Race : 02 Hours 09 minutes 59 seconds
Average Speed: 92.319 mph
Margin of Victory : 00.937 seconds
Cautions: 1
Caution Laps: 3
Lead Changes: 10

Daniel Suarez leads the field — Indianapolis, Indiana - August 13th, 2023: Daniel Suarez, driver of the #99 Freeway.com Chevrolet, leads the field to start the NASCAR Cup Series Verizon 200 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Photo by Sean Gardner | Getty Images

Driver	ST	50%	10%	FIN	HI	LW	AVG	PC D	Pass	Passed	PS D	Q PASS	Fast	%T15	TOT Led	Laps	Rating	TOT PTS
Michael McDowell	4	1	1	1	1	17	2.9	+3	48	46	+2	26	2	98.8%	54	82	141.1	59
Chase Elliott	3	2	2	2	1	15	3.7	+1	48	47	+1	27	8	100.0%	1	82	121.6	49
Daniel Suarez	1	3	3	3	1	16	3.7	-2	45	47	-2	27	9	100.0%	6	82	120.8	51
Tyler Reddick	2	5	4	4	2	24	6.1	-2	63	64	-1	25	5	92.7%	0	82	112.4	44
Alex Bowman	9	6	5	5	2	20	7.9	+4	65	60	+5	26	0	92.7%	0	82	104.5	38
Chase Briscoe	13	7	6	6	6	28	10.0	+7	86	80	+6	31	1	87.8%	0	82	98.7	33
Martin Truex Jr	12	9	7	7	3	21	9.6	+5	66	62	+4	32	1	95.1%	0	82	95.4	31
Kyle Larson	6	8	8	8	4	22	9.2	-2	64	67	-3	32	2	95.1%	0	82	96.3	36
Christopher Bell	7	10	9	9	1	17	8.4	-2	50	52	-2	27	2	98.8%	11	82	102.0	32
Shane van Gisbergen	8	11	10	10	1	21	10.3	-2	60	61	-1	28	4	92.7%	1	82	93.2	0
Chris Buescher	17	12	11	11	10	30	13.6	+6	74	69	+5	22	2	81.7%	0	82	88.1	26
Ty Gibbs	10	17	13	12	8	30	18.0	-2	70	74	-4	8	2	32.9%	0	82	83.4	25
Ryan Blaney	16	14	12	13	11	30	15.3	+3	76	73	+3	17	0	67.1%	0	82	78.7	24
William Byron	39	19	15	14	14	39	22.6	+25	79	57	+22	4	0	14.6%	0	82	72.8	23
Austin Cindric	20	13	14	15	12	32	16.2	+5	81	76	+5	12	0	65.9%	0	82	73.8	22
Austin Dillon	27	16	16	16	1	27	14.9	+11	87	79	+8	21	1	39.0%	1	82	79.1	21
Ross Chastain	21	18	17	17	7	27	19.6	+4	82	78	+4	7	1	3.7%	0	82	69.2	20
Bubba Wallace	19	15	18	18	1	23	15.6	+1	86	86	+0	25	0	35.4%	0	82	71.8	19
Denny Hamlin	25	27	21	19	1	28	14.9	+6	97	91	+6	24	2	41.5%	8	82	73.7	28
Brad Keselowski	22	26	22	20	2	33	16.7	+2	99	88	+11	23	1	39.0%	0	82	68.4	24
Harrison Burton	24	22	20	21	4	30	21.0	+3	82	81	+1	9	0	9.8%	0	82	60.8	16
Brodie Kostecki	11	20	23	22	11	37	24.0	-11	84	71	+13	0	6	0.0%	0	82	68.8	15
Kevin Harvick	38	24	24	23	23	38	27.5	+15	64	54	+10	0	0	0.0%	0	81	50.5	14
Mike Rockenfeller	37	35	29	24	20	38	32.5	+13	77	66	+11	0	0	0.0%	0	81	46.2	13
Ricky Stenhouse Jr	34	28	26	25	15	37	28.7	+9	86	75	+11	1	0	0.0%	0	81	43.2	12
AJ Allmendinger	26	38	31	26	12	38	26.8	+0	86	88	-2	3	21	2.4%	0	81	64.5	11
Ty Dillon	35	33	27	27	6	38	27.7	+8	93	83	+10	15	0	15.9%	0	81	44.5	10
Jenson Button	31	30	25	28	22	38	29.8	+3	60	60	+0	0	2	0.0%	0	81	42.6	9
Corey Lajoie	14	32	32	29	8	37	28.5	-15	77	93	-16	6	0	11.0%	0	81	43.7	8
Andy Lally	29	29	28	30	24	38	28.9	-1	59	64	-5	0	0	0.0%	0	81	40.0	7
Ryan Preece	30	36	34	31	25	38	32.9	-1	66	71	-5	0	0	0.0%	0	81	38.0	6
Josh Bilicki	32	31	33	32	11	37	31.0	+0	103	105	-2	4	0	1.2%	0	81	34.5	0
Kamui Kobayashi	28	25	30	33	6	38	26.9	-5	115	122	-7	18	0	13.4%	0	81	46.0	0
Joey Logano	18	34	35	34	16	38	33.6	-16	46	63	-17	0	0	0.0%	0	81	28.5	3
Erik Jones	36	37	37	35	8	38	32.9	+1	66	69	-3	5	0	4.9%	0	81	32.2	2
Kyle Busch	5	4	36	36	1	37	15.6	-31	69	100	-31	29	3	65.9%	0	80	59.0	11
Todd Gilliland	23	23	38	37	14	39	28.3	-14	65	82	-17	2	1	1.2%	0	80	44.1	1
Justin Haley	15	39	39	38	15	39	38.7	-23	2	14	-12	1	0	0.0%	0	80	24.8	1
Aric Almirola	33	21	19	39	19	38	25.7	-6	78	86	-8	0	1	0.0%	0	79	43.1	1

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Race Fast Facts

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course
Verizon 200 at the Brickyard
Race Winner: Michael McDowell
Age: 38
Team : No. 34 - Horizon Hobby Ford
Owner: Bob Jenkins
Crew Chief: Travis Peterson
Michael McDowell won the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard, his second victory in 453 Cup Series races.
This is his first victory and sixth top-10 finish in 2023.
This is his first victory and second top-10 finish in three races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.
Chase Elliott (second) posted his second top-10 finish in three races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. It is his ninth top-10 finish in 2023.
Daniel Suarez (third) posted his first top-10 finish in three races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.
Ty Gibbs (12th) was the highest finishing rookie.
Martin Truex Jr. leads the point standings by 60 points over Denny Hamlin.

Race Recap

Michael McDowell grabs NASCAR Cup Playoff spot with win at Indy Road Course

August 13th, 2023

By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service

Running a race he knew he could win, Michael McDowell held off Chase Elliott in Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard a grabbed a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

The driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford led 54 of 82 laps at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in a race that featured just one caution and ran under the green flag for the final 77 laps.

"My family comes to the races we think we can win," said McDowell, who shared hugs with his wife and children after climbing from his car. "We thought we could win this one."

McDowell’s second career victory was a convincing one. He passed pole winner Daniel Suárez for the lead after a restart on Lap 6 and held it until he brought the No. 34 Mustang to pit road on Lap 17 for a green-flag stop.

After pitting for a second time on Lap 49, McDowell regained the top spot when Bubba Wallace pitted on Lap 53 and held it the rest of the way. Over the last 29 laps, Elliott—needing a victory to advance to the Playoffs—narrowed McDowell’s four-second margin to .937 seconds at the finish, but that was as close as the 2020 series champion could get.

"I was really trying to pace myself," McDowell said. "I figured there would be a late-race caution, and I didn’t want to burn my stuff up. I was just trying to maintain that gap.

"Then when I got into traffic, (Elliott) started closing, I had to push it, but I just can’t believe it."

McDowell now has victories at Daytona (the 2021 Daytona 500) and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, arguably the two most iconic venues in the sport. He put a Ford in Victory Lane at a road course for the first time since Ryan Blaney won the inaugural race at the Charlotte Roval in 2018.

"Winning the Daytona 500 was one of the coolest moments you could ever have," said McDowell, one of the most accomplished road racers in the Cup Series. "But going to Victory Lane without your family, that was tough.

"So we cherry-pick. We come to the races we think we can win… Just so proud… You know, I thought we could point our way in (to the Playoffs), but after the car that we had yesterday in practice, I thought, man, we’ve got a good shot at winning if we could just get track position and maintain it."

That’s exactly what McDowell did. After Suarez beat McDowell of pit road on Lap 17, McDowell chased the No. 99 Chevrolet until they caught the cars of Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski at the end of Stage 2 on lap 35.

Hamlin and Keselowski were on older tires, and McDowell surged past Keselowski and Suárez through the Turn 12 and 13 complex. When Hamlin and Keselowski finally came to pit road on Lap 36, McDowell was back in the lead.

Much of the race was a three-way battle between McDowell, Elliott and Suárez, but Suárez lost valuable time when his left front tire landed on an air gun hose during the Lap 49 stop. The snafu cost Suárez six seconds and a chance to win.

"We win and we lose as a team, and that’s all I can say," said Suárez, who salvaged a third-place finish. "The guys brought a very fast race car. I felt that maybe we were one adjustment behind in the first run with the back of the car, but then we made it a little bit better.

"But I felt like I was always one step behind the No. 9 and the No. 34, and then at the end, I felt that when my car came alive again, we had that issue.

"Just a little bit heartbreaking, but that’s part of the sport. All we can do is continue to push, continue to build race cars like this, and I’ll keep on winning races."

Elliott was gracious in his praise for McDowell, and he identified where his No. 9 Chevrolet needed to be stronger.

"Just to be a little better through the back half (of the course) over there and get off of (Turn) 14 a little better just to have myself in a better spot getting into (Turn) 1.

"Just really appreciate the effort, man. Our Napa Chevy was really good, really good. Just needed just a little bit more and came up a bit short. But congrats to Michael, man. He did a good job. Ran a great race and stayed mistake-free, and that’s what you’ve got to do to win."

Tyler Reddick finished fourth, followed by Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell. Shane van Gisbergen, who won the Chicago Street Race in July was 10^th in his second NASCAR Cup start.

McDowell’s win reduces the number of available Playoff spots to three. Keselowski and Kevin Harvick are comfortably situated on points—barring more different winners at Watkins Glen and Daytona—but Wallace’s hold on the final spot was reduced from 58 points pre-race to 28 over Suarez.