INDIANAPOLIS — In Saturday’s Pennzoil 150 presented by Advance Auto Parts NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, the fastest car met superior strategy.

In this case, the fastest car—Ty Gibbs’ No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota won the battle—decisively—over the craftiness of AJ Allmendinger, as the two full-time NASCAR Cup Series drivers stole the show and potential Playoff points from the Xfinity regulars.

Allmendinger, the pole winner, parlayed pit strategy into a pair of stage wins, but Gibbs charged ahead after a restart with 16 of 62 laps left and beat Sam Mayer to the finish line by 7.959 seconds at the 2.439, 14-turn circuit. Mayer passed a disappointed Allmendinger for the runner-up spot on the penultimate lap.

The victory was the first of the season for Gibbs, who won last year’s Xfinity title before moving up to his full-time Cup ride. It was his first victory on the Indy Road Course and his 12^th win in 58 starts in the series.

“Awesome car—great car—thank you, (crew chief) Jason Ratcliff,” exulted Gibbs, who will try to hold onto the final Playoff-eligible position in Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard Cup Series race (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, IMS Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“I raced go-karts down the street with a bunch of kids…it’s really special.”

His strategy for Sunday is uncomplicated.

“Just have a good car, set the car up right and go win,” Gibbs said.

Mayer, who won the first Xfinity Series race of his career on July 29 at Road America, was satisfied with second on Saturday.

“That was all I had right there to catch the 10 (Allmendinger) and get us some more points,” said Mayer, who scored his fourth straight top-five finish. “I’m really proud of our guys here today. Our Chevrolet was really fast. But a lot of positivity going into the next couple of weeks because we are clicking off top fives like it’s easy.

“These road courses have been good to us the last couple of weeks—and the ovals are just as good. I’m looking forward to what we have going into (Watkins) Glen next week and then a bunch of ovals after that.”

Series leader Austin Hill finished fourth, followed by Justin Allgaier, Cole Custer and Parker Kligerman. Sheldon Creed, Kaz Grala and Brett Moffitt completed the top 10. Allgaier clinched a spot in the Xfinity Series Playoffs.

Allmendinger started from the pole but surrendered the lead to Ty Gibbs on Lap 3. Gibbs remained out front until lightning in the area forced NASCAR to red-flag the race at 6:04 p.m.

During the delay, rain soaked the track, but the skies began to clear before the cars restarted. A strategic call by Allmendinger put the driver of the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet back in the lead.

Before the field took the green flag after the resumption of the race, Allmendinger and Mayer pitted for slick tires, while the vast majority of the field stayed on slower treaded rain tires.

Allmendinger rapidly gained ground from the back of the field, and after Gibbs pitted for slicks on lap 14, Allmendinger held a lead of more than 16 seconds in the exchange. He lost just over one second of that advantage before the Brad Perez’s Chevrolet stopped on the track on Lap 27 to cause the second caution of the afternoon.

“We were never fast enough to win the race,” Allmendinger said. “I thought Ty was the class of the field… We got in a good rhythm there, maybe if it would’ve stayed green. We just needed a 52-lap green run there to win today.”

In short order after a restart on Lap 31, Allmendinger regained the lead from Mayer, who had stayed out on older tires during the caution.

Gibbs restarted three positions deeper in the field than Allmendinger and began to close the gap to the leader. After Gibbs out braked Mayer into Turn 7 and took the second spot on Lap 38, he trailed Allmendinger by 3.049 seconds.

When both Allmendinger and Gibbs pitted for tires and fuel on Lap 43, however, Gibbs won the race off pit road, right before NASCAR called the third caution when Andre Castro stopped on the track.

On the subsequent restart on Lap 47, Gibbs, who led a race-high 28 laps, pulled out to an immediate advantage, and expanded it the rest of the way.

Cup Series Regulars Dominate

Ty Gibbs and AJ Allmendinger went 1-3 but were arguably the top two cars in the speed department all race with the Cup duo combining to lead 49 of 62 laps on Saturday. That comes after Allmendinger led 42 laps in last year’s win.

This is the second straight season that Cup guys went 1-2 with Allmendinger beating Alex Bowman in 2022. Ross Chastain was fourth while Chase Briscoe was fifth.

The year prior, it was 2-4.

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Mayer Continues Hot Streak

Sam Mayer is showing now that this is who we thought he’d be. Saturday was his fifth top five finish in the last six races including four straight. Those four finishes are 2nd, 1st 5th, 2nd.

He picked up his first career win on a road course two races ago in Road America and is honestly starting to enter the championship conversation if he keeps this up. He had just two top five finishes in the first 14 races to the season but has doubled that just in this stretch.

Hill Takes Points Lead

Austin Hill and John Hunter Nemechek entered the day tied atop the Xfinity Series standings. That’s not a tie anymore. Hill will take an 11-point lead to Watkins Glen next week after coming home fourth to Nemechek being 13th.

Hill didn’t accumulate any stages points though while Nemechek got three via a eighth place finish in Stage 2.

This is a big race because there’s only four races remaining in the regular season and the difference between 1st and 2nd in points is essentially a race win.

The regular season champion receives 15 playoff points. 2nd gets 10.

Hill takes with him to Watkins Glen 11 top 8 finishes in the last 13 races including results of 4th, 5th, 12th, 3rd, 1st, 3rd, 11th, 4th since late June.

Nemechek has finished 13th or worse in 3 of the last 4 races. If you go back to the Chicago street race though, he’s also won three races in that span and also has a runner-up.

NASCAR Xfinity Series Race – Pennzoil 150 presented by Advance Auto Parts

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course

Indianapolis, Indiana

Saturday, August 12, 2023

1. (2)  Ty Gibbs(i), Toyota, 62.

2. (15)  Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, 62.

3. (1)  AJ Allmendinger(i), Chevrolet, 62.

4. (4)  Austin Hill, Chevrolet, 62.

5. (13)  Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 62.

6. (6)  Cole Custer, Ford, 62.

7. (12)  Parker Kligerman, Chevrolet, 62.

8. (9)  Sheldon Creed, Chevrolet, 62.

9. (21)  Kaz Grala, Toyota, 62.

10. (23)  Brett Moffitt, Ford, 62.

11. (26)  Alex Labbe, Toyota, 62.

12. (10)  Riley Herbst, Ford, 62.

13. (8)  John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 62.

14. (3)  Josh Berry, Chevrolet, 62.

15. (27)  Sage Karam, Chevrolet, 62.

16. (14)  Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 62.

17. (24)  Parker Retzlaff #, Chevrolet, 62.

18. (19)  Josh Bilicki, Chevrolet, 62.

19. (20)  Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 62.

20. (29)  Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, 62.

21. (25)  Brandon Jones, Chevrolet, 62.

22. (22)  Miguel Paludo, Chevrolet, 62.

23. (32)  Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 62.

24. (11)  Preston Pardus, Chevrolet, 62.

25. (35)  Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 62.

26. (16)  Connor Mosack, Toyota, 62.

27. (5)  Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 61.

28. (17)  Sammy Smith #, Toyota, 61.

29. (33)  Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, 61.

30. (36)  Kyle Sieg, Ford, 61.

31. (38)  Blaine Perkins #, Chevrolet, 60.

32. (30)  Ryan Sieg, Ford, Suspension, 57.

33. (34)  Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 57.

34. (18)  Chandler Smith #, Chevrolet, Suspension, 56.

35. (37)  Joe Graf Jr., Ford, Axle, 46.

36. (28)  Andre Castro, Chevrolet, Suspension, 39.

37. (7)  Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, Suspension, 38.

38. (31)  Brad Perez, Chevrolet, Brakes, 24.

Average Speed of Race Winner:  77.174 mph.

Time of Race:  1 Hrs, 57 Mins, 34 Secs. Margin of Victory:  7.959 Seconds.

Caution Flags:  3 for 9 laps.

Lead Changes:  10 among 8 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   A. Allmendinger(i) 1-2;T. Gibbs(i) 3-13;J. Berry 14-15;D. Hemric 16-18;A. Allmendinger(i) 19-28;S. Mayer 29-33;A. Allmendinger(i) 34-42;S. Creed 43;J. Clements 44;J. Bilicki 45;T. Gibbs(i) 46-62.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Ty Gibbs(i) 2 times for 28 laps; AJ Allmendinger(i) 3 times for 21 laps; Sam Mayer 1 time for 5 laps; Daniel Hemric 1 time for 3 laps; Josh Berry 1 time for 2 laps; Sheldon Creed 1 time for 1 lap; Josh Bilicki 1 time for 1 lap; Jeremy Clements 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 10,1,11,48,7,19,31,16,8,00

Stage #2 Top Ten: 10,19,1,2,98,21,16,20,11,51