BY REID SPENCER-NASCAR WIRE SERVICE
Three of Tyler Reddick’s four career NASCAR Cup Series victories have come on road courses, but his win last year on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course stands out above the others for the driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota.
On July 31 of last year, driving for Richard Childress Racing, Reddick avoided the tumult in turn 1 to score a 1.065-second victory over runner-up Austin Cindric. His return to the speedway this weekend brought the memory of that win into sharp focus.
“This is just an incredible venue,” Reddick said on Saturday. “It has been around for so long. It has so much history. It’s pretty crazy to roll up on this place. My son (Beau) pointed out that I’m on the grandstands over here.
“It’s pretty surreal. I remember so much of it — those memories will always stay with me.”
Observing Indy from afar in his younger days, the 27-year-old Reddick grew to appreciate the legend and history of the place.
“I never got to come experience a lot of racing here when I was younger, but I always watched, always paid attention,” Reddick said. “That Sunday earlier in the year when Monaco is on, Indy is on and then we go race the (Coca-Cola) 600 is probably one of my favorite days of the year to be able to watch so much motorsports.
“I hope to be able, one day, to be here for it all on that Sunday in the future. I always enjoyed watching it. It feels like the racer’s holiday, but being on the walls in the museum here is pretty crazy. It didn’t seem real in the moment, when it happened last year, but the trophy is real. I hope to be able to do it again.”
Who Knew? Kevin Harvick Was Driving Hurt This Summer
Everyone knows auto racing can be a dangerous sport, but in Kevin Harvick’s case, it was a staircase that did the damage.
During NASCAR’s off week in June, Kevin Harvick accompanied his son Keelan to Italy, where Keelan, then 10 years old, was racing go-karts.
“I fell down a flight of steps in Italy and had a stack of busted ribs for several weeks,” Harvick acknowledged Saturday to the surprise of the assembled media at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
So Harvick was driving with cracked ribs at Nashville and Chicago without making the news public — a very Earnhardt-like thing to do.
Now in his final season of NASCAR Cup racing, Harvick feels a special fondness for Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he won three times on the oval.
“My last race on the oval I won, so I feel pretty good about that,” said Harvick, who won the Brickyard 400 in 2003, 2019 and 2020. “It just kind of ended up that way.”
International Cast Highlights Cup Race On Indy Road Course
Drivers from seven different countries will populate the grid for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at the Brickyard.
In addition to United States, the following countries will be represented: Mexico (series regular Daniel Suárez), New Zealand (Shane van Gisbergen); England (Jenson Button); Japan (Kamui Kobayashi); Germany (Mike Rockenfeller) and Australia (Brodie Kostecki).
By now, van Gisbergen is a household name to NASCAR fans, after his triumph in his first Cup start on the Chicago Street Course. Kostecki, from Perth in Western Australia, is a bit more obscure, having won twice in the Repco Supercars Championship in his native country.
“I was actually pretty scared after I found out I was doing this race,” Kostecki said Saturday morning in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway media center. “I went back through the last two years to study pretty quickly on how the race played out and what it was like in turn 1.
“Obviously, this weekend, there have been changes to the restart zone. It was a bit interesting going back through and watching how the races played out. I honestly think it will be quite a bit different this weekend with the restart zone.”
To diminish the possibility of cars arriving five-wide into the first turn, NASCAR has moved the restart zone between turns 13 and 14. A similar move on the Chicago Street Course in July was effective in reducing the chaos in the first corner.
Nevertheless, Button, a former Formula 1 champion, expects heightened aggression to be the norm in NASCAR’s Next Gen cars.
“In NASCAR, I feel it’s so competitive,” Button said. “On restarts, they’re way more ‘on it’ than any other series I’ve raced in… The Cup Series, for me, from lap 1 to the last lap, they are ‘on it’ every single lap. There’s no rest. You cannot breathe in a race in the Cup Series.
“It’s impressive — it really is. I was shocked when I did my first race.”
NASCAR Cup Series
Indianapolis Motor Speedway – Indianapolis, IN
Verizon 200 – August 13, 2023
Sunday’s Starting Line Up
Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed
1. 99 Daniel Suarez Freeway.com Chevrolet 87.968 99.814
2. 45 Tyler Reddick SiriusXM Radio Toyota 88.113 99.649
3. 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 88.335 99.399
4. 34 Michael McDowell Horizon Hobby Ford 88.434 99.288
5. 8 Kyle Busch 3CHI Chevrolet 88.496 99.218
6. 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 88.499 99.215
7. 20 Christopher Bell Rheem/PSC Industries-Johns Manville Toyota 88.516 99.196
8. 91 Shane Van Gisbergen(i) Enhance Health Chevrolet 88.544 99.164
9. 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 88.606 99.095
10. 54 Ty Gibbs # Monster Energy Toyota 88.606 99.095
11. 33 Brodie Kostecki Mobile X Chevrolet 88.495 99.219
12. 19 Martin Truex, Jr. Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota 88.533 99.177
13. 14 Chase Briscoe HighPoint.com Ford 88.539 99.170
14. 7 Corey LaJoie Gainbridge Chevrolet 88.656 99.039
15. 31 Justin Haley LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet 88.669 99.024
16. 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Atlas Ford 88.764 98.918
17. 17 Chris Buescher Castrol Edge Ford 88.839 98.835
18. 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 88.855 98.817
19. 23 Bubba Wallace MoneyLion Toyota 88.924 98.740
20. 2 Austin Cindric Discount Tire Ford 88.939 98.724
21. 1 Ross Chastain Worldwide Express Chevrolet 88.947 98.715
22. 6 Brad Keselowski Socios.com Ford 88.953 98.708
23. 38 Todd Gilliland gener8tor Skills Ford 88.962 98.698
24. 21 Harrison Burton DEX Imaging Ford 88.996 98.661
25. 11 Denny Hamlin Yahoo! Toyota 89.005 98.651
26. 16 A.J. Allmendinger Dyna-Gro Seed Chevrolet 89.065 98.584
27. 3 Austin Dillon Cowboy Channel Chevrolet 89.068 98.581
28. 67 Kamui Kobayashi(i) Toyota Genuine Parts Toyota 89.077 98.571
29. 51 Andy Lally Camping World Ford 89.119 98.524
30. 41 Ryan Preece Purdue University Ford 89.203 98.432
31. 15 Jenson Button Mobil 1 Ford 89.269 98.359
32. 78 Josh Bilicki(i) Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet 89.400 98.215
33. 10 Aric Almirola Ford Ford 89.537 98.064
34. 47 Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. Kroger/Frosted Flakes Chevrolet 89.694 97.893
35. 77 Ty Dillon Raze Tea Chevrolet 89.762 97.819
36. 43 Erik Jones Allegiant Chevrolet 89.789 97.789
37. 42 Mike Rockenfeller Sunseeker Resort Chevrolet 89.819 97.757
38. 4 Kevin Harvick Mobil 1 Ford 89.820 97.756
39. 24 William Byron RaptorTough.com Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series