The 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Indianapolis came down to the final straightaway, where Justin Allgaier couldn’t quite catch Kyle Busch for the victory in the Indiana 250.
Busch led from the pole, with Joe Gibbs Racing running 1-2-3 for a while. Christopher Bell ran just behind Busch, nearly catching him at times, with teammate Brandon Jones rounding out the trio.
The three, along with Tyler Reddick, separated themselves from the field until a caution on lap 15. Austin Dillon, running Kaulig Racing’s No. 10 in his fourth appearance in the car this year, stalled on the backstretch access road after pitting with issues.
Busch fell to the back after having to pit a second time under caution, since not all lug nuts were tight on the car. Bell inherited the lead on the restart, but racing was quickly yellow-flagged again after David Starr blew an engine.
Jones got the lead after another round of stops, holding off Busch and Austin Cindric for the stage win.
Soon after the restart, Brandon Brown spun, bringing out the caution once again. Busch led again up until around lap 50, where Allgaier’s No. 7 crept closer and closer to and finally passed Busch’s No. 18 on lap 53.
The JR Motorsports veteran pulled away from Busch, eventually winning the second stage, and swapped the lead back and forth with Busch after the restart.
Reddick joined the battle for the lead until another caution came out, one that saw Josh Williams and Justin Haley gamble on pit stops. Williams stayed out, while Haley took two tires and got out ahead of the leaders. Both couldn’t keep the lead, however, with Reddick and Bell taking over the top two spots.
Busch made his way up to third before Cindric and Jones made contact, sending Jones’ No. 19 spinning with less than 15 laps to go.
The next restart beget the eighth and final caution of the day (and a red flag) when Bell and Reddick started alongside each other. Still side-by-side coming out of turn 2, Bell got loose, slid up into Reddick and both cars slammed into the wall on lap 93.
After the cleanup concluded and the red flag was lifted, Busch and Allgaier restarted alongside one another with four laps remaining. Busch got out in front of the No. 7 but couldn’t drive away from him. At the same time, though, Allgaier couldn’t gain enough momentum to pass the No. 18, and Busch held him off to win at Indianapolis.
This was Busch’s fourth Xfinity Series win at the track and 96th overall, inching him closer to his self-professed cutoff of 100 series victories.
Xfinity Indianapolis results
Next week’s DC Solar 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will be the final race of the regular season. The race will get underway shortly after 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Sept. 14.
About the author
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of VCU, he works as a producer and talent for Audacy Richmond's radio stations. In addition to motorsports journalism, Adam also covered and broadcasted numerous VCU athletics for the campus newspaper and radio station during his four years there. He's been a racing fan since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.
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One name kept me from watching the race. Kyle Bush. Case closed.
KyBu on pole and wins… who didn’t see that one coming.
The 20 car did a nice job of taking a dive so that KyBu would be assured of winning. Nice work Bell the boss appreciates it.
Letarte says openly that KyBu is just messin with little kids to run up his score…tell us something we didn’t know.
There was a bigger crowd of spotters on the pagoda than there were fans in the stands. I bet the concessions guy went home with empty pockets.
Letarte loves to babble a whole lot even without Jiffy and June Bug next to him. Man that guy is nails on a chalkboard.
I agree with what Midasmicah said. As soon as I read that Ky. Busch was not only in the race, but had the pole, I skipped this race.
Lol true racing fans don’t skip a race cause Kyle Busch is racing…sure no one would of had a problem if Austin Dillon led the whole thing from the pole. Get over it…ah the Kyle Busch effect, no one cared bout cup regulars in lower series till he came to the scene. ?
Come on, I get that your a Busch fan but how can you not see the pointlessness the rest of us non-fans fee watching a race where we already know who is going to win before the race starts.
Personally, I don’t want to see any Cup driver who has won more than 3 cup races to be able to run in the lower series more that a couple of times a year.
LOL… how can you compare Dillon to Busch with a straight face. One is a champion, the other doesn’t even belong in cup and only has a ride as a result of nepotism.
Cause when i listen to sirius radio after a Austin Dillon win last year for example and hear people congratulate the team on a win or Larson or anyone else not names Kyle Busch even the sirius guys said there is no way you cant call this a Kyle Busch effect. People only give a crap about cup regulars in the Busch series after Kyle dominated in there and stayed. Mark Martin use to race often and no one cared. Thats why I say this. You go read youtube comments after a xifnity race and most comments support my argument. Its frusturating cause. Yes odds are Kyle Busch will win where as if he isnt in the field and its other cup regulars others have a shot. Just goes to show the seperation in talent gap between those other guys and Kyle Busch. But no one appreciates it and the hate backs it up. I compare Dillon to Busch because they are both cup series regulars and by everyones argument, neither should be racing in the lower series but in reality, fans just dont want Kyle Busch racing period.
Sorry typing on a phone so may be some awful sentences lol and so far this Indy race is intense btw ? hard hard impacts! Thank god for safer barriers
Well, I can understand your frustration with the double standard but, as I said above, I don’t like any Cup guys running the lower series. Especially past champions. While I would never be happy with Dillon winning any race (I just don’t like him), you have to admit, the Xfinity series is probably where he belongs. He is out of his league in Cup.
BTW, I wasn’t a fan of Martin or Martin running the Busch series back in the day. I can’t remember if I voiced that displeasure or not on comment boards but I can honestly say I didn’t like him running in the lower series either.
Yeah, I don’t know what was in the water in Indianapolis but this race was a lot less “parade like” than most of the Brickyard 400s in the last decade. Mainly because of all the wrecks and restarts. I suppose it can be attributed to the racing package this year. I still wouldn’t say it was a great race, just more fun to watch than most years.
True, Mark Martin thrived racing the Busch series. He beamed with pride after winning in that series. He couldn’t get enough accolades from the booth. Just Mark Martin and the kids. He was in heaven.
Exactly and no one was up in arms about it then. I dont care what series they race in. Theoretically all those drivers should be able to win. The fact that none of them seem to be able to compete with Kyle including cup regulars speaks more for the talent Kyle has over the competition imo.
And no one complained when Dale Senior won all those Busch races year after year at Daytona in February.