Things did not go Kyle Larson’s way in the Indianapolis 500 in May, but in his return trip to Speedway, Ind., Larson earned redemption with a win in the Brickyard 400 on Sunday, July 21.
With green flag passes hard to come by, pit strategy became the most effective way to move up the running order. Let’s see which drivers wound up on the right or wrong side of the strategy at the Brickyard.
Pitting Later Pays Off for Larson
When the race restarted on lap 130, the field was split into three different strategy groups.
Group one consisted of Brad Keselowski and Daniel Hemric, a pair of drivers who pitted way back on lap 102.
The second group was made up of a dozen drivers who took on fuel on lap 112, led by Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin.
The remaining drivers in contention, including Larson and Tyler Reddick, pitted on lap 122 or later to put themselves in a comfortable position on fuel.
At first, it looked as if Keselowski and Blaney might stretch their tanks and hold off Larson. That all changed when Kyle Busch spun and hit the turn 3 wall with just three laps left, adding to his nightmare 2024 season.
The caution came out, triggering NASCAR overtime. In response, several of the lap 111 drivers came down pit road, fearing they did not have enough fuel for overtime. Then, just as the field was coming to the restart, Keselowski surrendered the lead to pit, his No. 6 RFK Racing Ford running out of fuel.
“It was still going to be tight [on fuel],” Keselowski’s crew chief Matt McCall told Frontstretch post-race about what could have happened without overtime. “Obviously, we’ll never know now, but a better chance for sure without a caution. It was losing pressure [coming to the green for overtime]. He could have kept going probably a little further, but the best thing to do instead of causing a big crash was to pit right there.”
On the ensuing restart, a mid-pack pileup put the race right back under yellow. Of those involved, Hemric and Hamlin had recently abandoned their pit strategy to ensure they were good on fuel.
Keselowski’s misfortune opened the door for Larson to move up to the front row, pass Blaney in the first overtime, and then he held off Reddick in double overtime for the honor to kiss the yard of bricks.
In the end, it was crew chief Cliff Daniels who made the winning pit call for Larson and the No. 5 team, overcoming earlier adversity when they pitted twice under the second caution of the race for a loose right rear tire.
“I’m really proud of our guys the way they handled a situation when we had a lug that started to cross thread,” Daniels said. “I got frustrated in the moment not knowing what happened, but the guys played it great. Very proud of the pit crew.”
Peril at Pit Exit for Elliott, Keselowski
Pit road at Indianapolis Motor Speedway has its own unique characteristics compared to other racetracks NASCAR visits, and that includes pit exit.
Before the race, NASCAR laid out the procedure for exiting pit road and blending back onto the track, instructing drivers to stay on the inside warmup lane until the exit of turn two and staying off the racing surface.
Violation of this pit exit process claimed two big names: Keselowski and Chase Elliott. Both drivers had to serve pass-through penalties under green.
Between the two, the penalty probably hurt Keselowski the most, putting him a lap down and forcing him and McCall to pursue the alternate lap 102 pit strategy. It almost paid off for the No. 6 team, but Keselowski ultimately finished 21st.
Elliott was running as high as second in the early laps before serving his pit exit penalty on lap 30. Elliott rebounded back up to 10th, but it could have been a much day for the driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet.
Look Ahead to Next Week
It will be a bit of a wait before the drivers of the Cup Series hit the track again on Sunday, August 11, with the running of the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway. NASCAR’s second trip to Richmond this season will be the first points-paying race in Cup Series history with multiple tire types.
The teams will have both the regular tire and a softer “option” tire to choose from for pit strategy calls. It will be interesting to see how the option tires respond to the old, abrasive surface at The Action Track.
About the author
Andrew Stoddard joined Frontstretch in May of 2022 as an iRacing contributor. He is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College, the University of Richmond, and VCU. He works as an athletic communications specialist at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.
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“will be the first points-paying race in Cup Series history with multiple tire types.”
The Hoosier/Goodyear tire wars in the past don’t count? Probably because those teams were locked into one tire and not allowed to swap, right?
The scribes now should preface their comments with “To the best of my knowledge…” They have no idea of history.