2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series preview: Indy Road Course
Brenden Martin previews the Pennzoil 150 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course where AJ Allmendinger will start on pole for the third time this season and Cup drivers look for extra laps.
The 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series season heads to the Brickyard, but on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course for the Pennzoil 150. The 13-turn, 2.605 mile-long track will serve as the 20th Xfinity race this season.
The move to a road course will be a stark transition from the lengthy “Tricky Triangle” at Pocono Raceway last week that did not lack drama. The moment that stuck out last week was a large multi-car wreck that resulted in Our Motorsports No. 27 Jeb Burton flipping on his roof after contact with the inside wall by pit road.
As for the end of the race, JR Motorsports No. 9 Noah Gragson held off Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 Ty Gibbs to take his third win this season. He joined Gibbs and JR Motorsports No. 7 Justin Allgaier as racers with at least three wins.
The Xfinity Series regulars will have a tough time getting to Victory Lane at Indy thanks to the handful of Cup Series drivers making guest appearances on Saturday to get more reps before the Cup race on Sunday.
Hendrick Motorsports once again has an entry just as it did with Kyle Larson at Road America. Alex Bowman will take the reins of the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro. Larson finished second at Road America, losing a duel with Gibbs.
Bowman will look to one-up that finish in Hendrick’s second of three Xfinity races in 2022.
Bowman will lead all Cup regulars to the green flag in fourth to give him his 13th-straight top-10 start in the Xfinity Series going back to 2016.
Stewart Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe will leap back to the Xfinity Series where he won at the Indy Road Course in 2020. Briscoe will take the wheel of the No. 7 SS-Greenlight Racing Ford Mustang, the same team that teammate Cole Custer won with at Auto Club Speedway in California back in February.
Briscoe, known for his road course prowess, infamously lost last season’s Cup Series race at the Indy Road Course by cutting through the grass on the final lap and taking out Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Denny Hamlin after being served a penalty.
That move opened the door for Kaulig Racing No. 16 AJ Allmendinger to win. He will look to do the same thing in this year’s Xfinity race from the pole.
The runner-up in last year’s Xfinity race at Indy, Allmendinger will start up front for the third time this season and the sixth time in his career. The road course specialist won both his races this season on left and right turns with victories at Circuit of the Americas in March and at a rainy Portland International Raceway in June.
This is Allmendinger’s first pole on a road course this season, making his goal to bring home another checkered flag much simpler.
23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace will also join the field at the Indy in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota Supra that has been used by multiple different drivers.
Wallace has said that road courses are his toughest track, so the move to bring him in for another Xfinity road course race is a calculated one.
In his first Xfinity start this season, Wallace finished 28th at COTA. He will look to improve his road course luck starting from 13th in his No. 18 DoorDash Toyota Supra.
Another Cup driver looking for more road course reps is Austin Dillon. Usually in the No. 3 for Richard Childress Racing on Sundays, Dillon will race in the No. 68 car for Brandonbilt Motorsports in place of Brandon Brown.
Brown announced earlier this week that he will have to step outside of the No. 68 car for a few races due to sponsorship issues. However, Brown will still participate at Indy in the No. 47 car for Mike Harmon Racing.
Brown did not have owner points in the Mike Harmon Racing Chevrolet Camaro but qualified with the provisional last spot of 38th thanks to winning a race last year, that being at Talladega Superspeedway.
Ross Chastain will lick his chops at the Indy Road Course in the Xfinity Series in the No. 92 car for DGM Racing. Chastain has two career Xfinity wins in 193 starts, one in 2018 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the other in 2019 at Daytona International Speedway.
Sam Hunt Racing No. 26 Santino Ferrucci will indeed make his scheduled Xfinity start now that NTT IndyCar Series Team Penske No. 2 Josef Newgarden has been cleared to run the IndyCar race at the same track Saturday morning. Ferrucci was on standby in case Newgarden was not clear to race after fainting and being airlifted to the hospital after a hard crash at Iowa Speedway last week.
Ferucci will start the Xfinity race 30th.
In other news, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Brandon Jones will start from the rear after making an adjustment to fix an electrical issue.
The Pennzoil 150 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course will be the seventh-to-last regular season race, leaving time for some drivers to make their way up the playoff standings. The race will be 62 laps long with stage breaks at Laps 20 and 40.
The race can be watched on NBC, the NBC Sports app and Peacock, and can also be listened to on IMS Radio Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Coverage will begin at 3:30 p.m. EST.
Starting Lineup:
To the rear - No. 19 Brandon Jones, No. 4 Bayley Currey, No. 23 Anthony Alfredo, No. 35 Parker Kilgerman, No. 47 Brandon Brown, No. 48 Kaz Grala, No. 68 Austin Dillon (Unapproved Adjustments)
No. 07 Chase Briscoe, No. 88 Miguel Paludo (Tire Change)
Pit Stall Selection:
Goodyear Tire Notes:
NASCAR Xfinity Series – Race No. 20 – 62 laps / 151.22 miles
Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2.439-mile road course) – Indianapolis, Ind.
Fast Facts for July 29-30, 2022
Tire:
Goodyear Eagle 15-inch Road Course Radials
Set limits:
Xfinity: 5 sets for the event
Tire Code:
D-6122 (same on all four tire positions)
Tire Circumference:
2,240 mm (88.19 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation:
Left Front — 22 psi; Right Front — 20 psi;
Left Rear — 17 psi; Right Rear — 17 psi
Notes – Xfinity teams on COTA/Portland/Road America tire on Indy road course: Being on 15-inch bead diameter tires, NASCAR Xfinity Series teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Cup Series at Indianapolis this week . . . Xfinity will run the same tire on all four positions at Indianapolis . . . this tire debuted at COTA earlier in March and was run again at Portland in June and Road America in July . . . as on all NASCAR road courses, teams will not run inner liners in their tires at Indianapolis.
Wet Weather Tires – White-lettered tires on hand: Goodyear will bring its 15-inch wet weather radials to the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for use by Xfinity Series teams, should NASCAR decide that conditions warrant . . . teams will have 5 sets of wets available for the event, with a maximum of 4 sets for the race . . . Xfinity teams last ran in wet conditions at Portland in June . . . in addition to the obvious difference of a tread pattern versus Goodyear’s dry weather “slick” tires, the “Goodyear” and “Eagle” lettering on the sidewalls of the wet weather tires is white, not the standard yellow.