Allmendinger tops favorites for Saturday’s Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard
Although fans will be absent from this weekend’s racing, they will still be witness to a new tradition of NASCAR and INDYCAR taking to Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the same weekend, something once thought to be blasphemous by many diehard open-wheel racing fans.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series will join INDYCAR as one of two series racing on the 2.439-mile grand prix road course this Fourth of July weekend. The inaugural Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard will be the second race of the day (TV: NBC, Radio: IMS Radio; 3pm EST), following up the INDYCAR GMR Grand Prix (TV: NBC; Noon EST).
A favorite to win the inaugural Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard is no. 16 A.J. Allmendinger. Allmendinger is looking for his fifth career Xfinity win and his second of the season, with the first coming at Atlanta in June, which was his first NASCAR oval track win.
Allmendinger’s record on road courses in the Xfinity Series is impressive. In seven road course starts, he has scored three wins, five top 3 finishes and an average finish of 9.86. He has completed 500 laps and led 167 of those laps, which means he has led 33.4% of the laps he has completed in on road courses in the Xfinity Series.
Allmendinger’s average start in seven road course starts is 3.71 but he will not have the advantage of starting up front Saturday after he drew a 30th-place starting position. However, Allmendinger has his impressive Xfinity Series road course record and good speed in the race’s two practices on his side.
On Friday, Allmendinger was fastest in first practice by 0.548 seconds over no. 22 Austin Cindric and was second-fastest in second practice, 0.467 seconds behind Cindric.
Allmendinger and Cindric are obvious favorites for Saturday, especially considering the numbers at hand.
Cindric has two wins and seven top 10 finishes nine Xfinity road course races. In three of the last four Xfinity road course races, both drivers have finished in the top 3 and Saturday will likely be the same if both drivers can make it to the front.
JR Motorsports drivers no. 8 Jeb Burton and no. 1 Michael Annett make up the front row for Saturday’s Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard while Cindric starts tenth.
The Pennzoil 150 will be 62 laps with stages of 20 laps, 20 laps and 22 laps in the final stage to close out the race, pending any overtimes or the race being cut short.
SOURCES:
NASCAR
Racing-Reference.Info
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com