SPEEDWAY, Ind. — From the short track of Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on Friday night (July 19) to the big, rectangular, historic track of Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday (July 20), Daniel Dye had two completely different races.
A 27th-place finish in the Craftsman Truck Series race at IRP put Dye, who runs full-time in that series, in a hole heading into the final race before the playoffs at Richmond Raceway. Currently battling for a playoffs spot, Dye now finds himself on the outside looking in heading into Richmond.
On Saturday, Dye competed in the Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis, running his seventh of 10 scheduled races with Kaulig Racing in a part-time fourth car.
Dye only managed a 22nd-place qualifying effort, then finished just 18th and 19th in the first two stages, respectively.
Dye was running around the same in the final stage, and was only able to hang around the end of the top 15 with less than 20 laps to go. Soon, Dye found himself in a battle with the No. 5 of Anthony Alfredo with 17 laps to go.
As Dye moved to the inside to make a pass in turn 1, his No. 10 washed up into Alfredo, putting the latter into the outside wall. Dye made an otherworldly save to keep his No. 10 from spinning out, but was forced to use the pit exit apron in turn 2 in order to stay out of more trouble.
Alfredo wasn’t as lucky. The contact with the wall cut his right front tire, forcing him into the wall again in turn 2. Alfredo believed that contact broke something in the steering, as his car began sliding down the track in front of oncoming traffic.
“I tried slowing down and when I hit the brake, it just pulled harder left,” Alfredo said after leaving the care center.
Most everyone was able to avoid him, but Parker Retzlaff, traveling close behind Kyle Sieg, couldn’t see Alfredo until the last second when Sieg ducked low to avoid. As a result, Retzlaff piledrove the No. 5, destroying both cars. Josh Williams was also following close behind Retzlaff, running directly into the back of the No. 31 and totaling his car as well.
Alfredo was upset that Dye’s contact caused him to be the reason for the crash and destroy three race cars.
“Now I’m the guy that took two cars out by shooting down the track like that because I got put in the fence off of [turn] 1,” Alfredo said. “So obviously I’m embarrassed and feel horrible for those guys, but if I could’ve done anything different, I certainly would have.”
Retzlaff was equally frustrated that he couldn’t see anything until the very last second.
“I was behind the [No.] 28, I didn’t really see anything until he was right in front of me,” Retzlaff told FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass. “And I hit him, and then the [No.} 11 ran in the back of me.”
Williams said he had a whole speech prepared to tell the media upon his release from the care center. However he talked to Alfredo before leaving the medical center, which changed his outlook on the matter.
“I get it,” Williams said. “If something’s broke, something’s broke.”
Dye was the one who managed to escape the crash with minimal damage, suffering only right side cosmetic damage from the initial contact with Alfredo. With an 11-lap shootout and a fresh set of tires to get all he could, Dye certainly did, as he managed to crawl all the way up into the top-10 and finish an Xfinity career-best of seventh.
“It was a lot of fun inside the car,” Dye told Frontstretch after the race. “A fun battle all day, really good restart that last restart. I think we restarted like 22nd, made our way up to seventh between the cars that were on older tires. We just made good decisions.
“I followed the [No.] 21 [Austin Hill] pretty much all the way through. So it was fun working with him and getting to race up front.”
However, Dye was quick to take responsibility for the crash that pretty much started with him.
“Yeah man, it sucks for Anthony,” Dye said. “I’m sorry that we had contact. He put it on my door pretty close, and I just lost all front grip. I was all the way out of the throttle and I had hand-over-fist trying to steer it off of him.
“I feel awful about it. I know it sucks to tear up racecars.”
Despite the Truck Series and Xfinity Series running totally different vehicles, Dye said it was an advantage that both series competed on two different tracks.
“The truck was on a short track, and [Xfinity has] a superspeedway package on a 2.5-mile rectangle. When it’s close — like, if you were to run the truck at Kansas [Speedway] and the Xfinity car at Kansas — it’d be weird. But luckily, having two completely different things, they’re in their own ballpark.”
While the Xfinity Series has an extended Olympic break, taking three weeks off from competition, Dye will be back in action in two weeks at Richmond in the aforementioned fight for a playoff spot in the regular season finale. He currently sits one spot below the cut line, just five points behind Tanner Gray for the final playoff spot.
When asked how he would use the break to reset and refocus for the final eight-race stretch (plus his final few Xfinity races), Dye was pretty clear.
“I’m not gonna re-focus, I’m gonna stay focused,” he said. “That’s just the way you have to work when you want it this bad. So yeah, just gonna stay focused and enjoy the week[s] off, go back and get to work, and be ready to go hit it hard at Richmond.”
About the author
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and secondary short track writer. He also serves as an at-track reporter and assists with social media when he can. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight-choreographer-in-training in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.
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