NASCAR Xfinity Series Predictions at Indianapolis
AJ Allmendinger celebrating his 2022 Pennzoil 150 win in victory lane.
NASCAR Xfinity Series is back home in Indiana for the Pennzoil 150 Presented by Advance Auto Parts this Saturday at 5:30 PM EST on USA.
It’s a unique weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where NASCAR and IndyCar will be hosting a double header event on Saturday. IndyCar will race first at 2PM EST on USA for the Gallagher Grand Prix.
AJ Allmendinger has experience in both settings, but will be sticking to stock cars for the weekend. He enters as the favorite to win the Pennzoil 150, as he dominated in last year’s win over Alex Bowman, leading 42 laps. Overall, Allmendiger’s worst finish at this track was a 4th place run in 2020, he would score a 2nd place finish in 2021. He’s raced four times this season on the Xfinity schedule, with three of those races on road courses. He’s got one win coming at COTA, 2nd at Sonoma, and 9th at Road America. The Dinger is the man to beat at the yard of bricks.
Ty Gibbs will be looking to claim victory for the first time this season on Saturday. Gibbs has two starts at this track, a 19th place run in 2021 and an 8th place finish last year. He’ll be making his seventh start in the Xfinity Series this season, with two starts coming at road courses, resulting a 3rd place finish at COTA and 4th place finish at Sonoma. Outside of his DNF at Nashville, his worst finish in Xfinity competition was 6th in Atlanta. He will be a contender on Saturday.
Justin Allgaier has a win at Indianapolis, but it came on the famed 2.5 mile oval. He’ll be looking to make history and become the only NASCAR driver to win on both the Indy oval and Indy road course, and he’s got a strong chance to do so. He finished 7th in 2020, 11th in 2021, and finished 3rd last year. Overall for road courses in 2023, Allgaier has four Top 5’s and Top 10’s with his worst finish coming at Road America in 18th. After last week’s blunder on pit road costed him the win at Michigan, he’ll be looking to obunce back in a big way this Saturday.
Sam Mayer finally got that monkey off his back after winning at Road America, the most recent road course for the Xfinity Series. At the Indy road course, Mayer has finished 27th in 2021 and 7th in last year’s race. Similar to his JRM teammate Justin Allgaier, Mayer also has four Top 5’s and Top 10’s on road courses this season, with his worst finish coming at Chicago in 18th. He’ll be looking to push the envelope and add to the win column this year.
Chandler Smith lost his brakes in the last road course race at Road America, but he’ll be looking to turn his luck around and make a strong first impression at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Smith’s finishes on road courses have been 12th at COTA, 9th at Portland, 14th at Sonoma, and 8th at Chicago. Not to mention, he’ll be leaning on teammate AJ Allmendinger for advice on how to to tackle the 2.4 mile road course this Saturday afternoon.