INDIANAPOLIS – Michael McDowell knelt in front of the brick yard at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and delivered the sweetest kisses of his racing career Sunday.
The 38-year-old Arizona driver became a Brickyard champion and member of an elite club.
McDowell inherited the lead on lap 53 of the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard and never trailed again as he drove the most dominant race of his career, beating Chase Elliott to the checkered flag by 0.937 seconds. Victory earned a playoff berth and it was the second NASCAR crown jewel victory in the veteran driver’s career.
McDowell’s only other victory was the Daytona 500 2021.
“It’s a big deal,” he said when asked about his second playoff appearance in three years. “When we won the Daytona 500, it was one of the coolest moments we’ve ever had. We pick the races, my family comes to the ones we think we could win, and we thought we could win this one.
As a result, McDowell’s wife and children also celebrated by kissing the bricks following his 453rd career Cup start. They weren’t at Daytona for his first victory.
While his first career victory came while navigating traffic following a crash on the final lap of NASCAR’s most famous race, there was no doubt Sunday. McDowell won the first stage, finished behind Denny Hamlin in Stage 2 and closed it out by leading a career-high 54 laps to give Front Row Motorsports its fourth Cup victory.
Pole sitter Daniel Suarez finished third.
McDowell’s victory put him on the short list of Cup drivers to reach victory lane at Daytona and Indy, a list that includes names such as the late Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Jarrett, who introduced the brick kiss. tradition.
And during the annual crossover weekend with the IndyCar Series, McDowell also fittingly joined two of IndyCar’s greatest drivers on the list – Mario Andretti and AJ Foyt, the only winners of the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500.
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The significance hit McDowell almost immediately as he completed the 82-lap race on Indy’s 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course.
“We did it, we won Indy,” he shouted over the radio. “We had the fastest car. I don’t know if it was dominant, but it was dominant.
Elliott, the 2020 series champion, spent the final 20 laps trying to chase McDowell. He closed the gap from nearly three seconds to less than one, but couldn’t get close enough to launch a charge.
So he settled for a second place which earned him a few extra points – but not the decisive playoff victory. He will have two more chances to do so as the regular season draws to a close.
“I just lost too much ground mid-cycle,” Elliott said.
Suarez also spent most of the afternoon in the lead in a race that had just one yellow flag and 77 green-flag laps. He finished 5.75 seconds behind McDowell, the byproduct of a pipe getting stuck under the car’s left front tire during a pit stop.
Defending champion Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman, who is also fighting to make the playoffs, finished fourth and fifth.
Shane van Gisbergen finished 10th in his second career start, failing to become the first Cup driver to win his first two career starts. Van Gisbergen won in his NASCAR debut at the inaugural Chicago race last month, but had a tougher weekend when driving his first oval in Friday’s Truck Race and battling a field of drivers who have several years of data on Indy’s course.
“Oh, it’s aggressive,” said the New Zealander. “It was good. I really enjoyed it. You gesture to someone and it gives you the spot and then they expect it to come back, so really cool.
McDowell felt the same way for a very different reason.
“After winning the Daytona 500, there’s not much that can top that, but this was a close second,” he said. “To have it all come together is super special. »
LARSON’S DOUBLE
Kyle Larson’s late arrival after winning Saturday’s Knoxville Nationals sprint car race in Iowa made no difference for the 2021 series champion. He still made it to a news conference scheduled before noon to unveil Arrow McLaren’s No. 17 car for the Indianapolis 500 next May.
Larson is expected to attempt the double and both cars will sport familiar colors – the traditional blue and white paint with a touch of papaya for the Charlotte 600-mile race and the McLaren team’s papaya, blue and white livery.
“Obviously I’m extremely excited, but at the same time I’m so busy running around and trying to take care of my family that I haven’t been doing it – like I haven’t really figured out yet that this was really a reality,” Larson said. “When you have days like today and you unveil the car, all these little steps, it definitely makes it more real. But I’m sure when things slow down in the offseason and I have a lot of time to sit down and think about the upcoming season, that’s when it’s really going to hit.
Larson finished eighth.
BYRON REBOUND
William Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet started from the back of the field on Sunday after failing inspection three times on Friday. He was then forced into a drive-thru at the end of his first lap.
But the series’ only four-time winner this season raced through the field to finish 14th. That wasn’t enough to help him in the standings as Byron slipped one spot to third, behind Denny Hamlin.
Martin Truex Jr. finished seventh to maintain his lead.
FOLLOWING
The series will make its annual stop at Watkins Glen next Sunday, the penultimate race of the regular season.
