NASCAR Monday Mash-Up: Playoff battle tightens up after Indy
Two more weeks in the NASCAR regular season and we have a very tight battle on the bubble for those final spots in the playoffs. Michael McDowell dominated on the Indy Road Course and won the Verizon 200 in convincing fashion. He also put himself into the playoffs. There were a lot of postseason implications for all three national series this weekend.
In the Craftsman Truck Series, Ty Majeski got his redemption from Richmond. He had the fastest truck by far and took his Ford F-150 to victory lane at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Carson Hocevar wasn’t sneaking up behind him and stealing the race this week.
This puts Majeski in a great position to contend for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship.
As for the NASCAR Xfinity Series, AJ Allmendinger came in and won the pole for the third straight year in the series at Indy. However, despite winning two stages, and a few restarts more than the Cup Series had, Allmendinger couldn’t hold onto this one to the end.
Eventually, Ty Gibbs found his way around the leaders and never looked back. Gibbs was excellent in his run on the Indy Road Course and it paid off with a date with the bricks, and this amazing burnout.
When you consider all of the movers, comers and goers on the playoff line, these races just get more and more interesting. Parker Kligerman is just 17 points from taking Sheldon Creed’s spot in the postseason. However, a lot can happen on Sunday.
The Xfinity Series will go all the way until the second round of the Cup Series playoffs before their own championship run begins.
So, let’s get into the NASCAR Cup Series action.
Michael McDowell messes with NASCAR Playoff bubble
The NASCAR Playoffs were already confusing enough. This time of the year, teams are adding and subtracting and then adding in caveats for surprise winners and more. Michael McDowell went into Indy and decided to throw the gameboard in the air for everyone else.
With his dominating performance, McDowell punched his ticket to the playoffs for the second time in his career. His team will still try to earn points, and even go for the win at Watkins Glen next week. However, all of the pressure is off of them now.
During the race, Joey Logano got into a couple of spats on the track. The only caution of the race came out as Justin Haley got booted into the tire barrier on Lap 2.
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Logano would find himself turned around on the restart heading into Turn 1 and from there he struggled all day. Not a good day for the defending champion who likely can’t wait to get back to the Indianapolis oval.
Daniel Suárez might have been the only car that could compete with McDowell on the day. However, the NASCAR driver from Mexico was set back by a botched pit stop. Before that bad stop, Suárez booted Chase Elliott out of his way.
While all of that was fun and made things interesting, the real story was who can catch McDowell? It looked like the 99 would. Then the 45 team found speed at times. However, it came down to a race against the clock for Elliott as he just ran out of time.
When McDowell came across the line for his second NASCAR win ever, Elliott was less than a second behind.
This win puts so much pressure on Bubba Wallace, Suárez, and Elliott. Wallace has to hold onto his points lead, just 28 over Suárez. Meanwhile, the other two drivers just missed a chance to win their way into the playoffs.
With another road course at Watkins Glen, Elliott and Suárez are probably a lot more confident than the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series field.