Race report
NASCAR O'Reilly Indianapolis
Kyle Busch holds off Allgaier for Indianapolis Xfinity win
Justin Allgaier tried to deny him, but Kyle Busch made it a fourth trip to Victory Lane in the Xfinity Series at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Jim Utter
Edited: Sep 7, 2019, 10:51 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Busch got a good jump on the field on a restart with four of 100 laps remaining in Saturday’s Indiana 250 and Allgaier stayed close but could not catch him to attempt a pass.
Allgaier’s most recent win in the series had come in this race one year ago.
The win is Busch’s fourth in the series this season in just seven starts and 96th of his career.
“It was really tough to pass even when you had a run on a guy. You could pass the guys who were set up for long-runs on the straightaways but some of those other guys like (Christopher Bell, Brandon Jones) and the JGR guys, they were stupid fast,” Busch said.
“We got back in traffic and just really fought the handling of this thing and got stuck around fourth-place. I’m real proud of this team. This Toyota Supra was awesome today and glad we got to take it to Victory Lane.”
Noah Gragson ended up third, Jeb Burton finished a career-tying fourth and Justin Haley completed the top-five.
John Hunter Nemechek slammed into the Turn 1 wall on Lap 78 to bring out a caution. All of the lead-lap cars elected to pit with Haley the first off pit road thanks to a two-tire pit stop.
On the restart on Lap 85, Haley was followed by Allgaier, Tyler Reddick, Busch and Christopher Bell.
Reddick got around Haley to take the lead through Turns 3 and 4. One lap later off Turn 4, Bell used a similar move to move into the lead on Lap 87.
Brandon Jones spun after contact with Austin Cindric on Lap 88 to bring out another caution. The race returned to green with eight laps remaining.
Coming off Turn 2 after the restart, Reddick and Bell made contact racing for the lead, sending both crashing into the wall and bringing out another caution. Busch inherited the lead as NASCAR displayed a red flag to clean the track of debris.
The race returned to green on Lap 97 with Busch out front, followed by Allgaier, Burton, Cindric and Gragson.
Stage 2
Allgaier got around Busch with seven laps remaining and held him off to take the Stage 2 win.
Reddick was third, Burton fourth and Jones rounded out the top-five.
Following the break between Stages 1 and 2, most of the lead-lap cars elected to pit for tires and fuel but Busch stayed out and retook the lead.
On the restart on Lap 36, Busch was followed by Gragson, Allgaier, Bell and Haley.
Brandon Brown spun out in Turn 3 on Lap 36 and several cars dove to the pit entry lane to avoid wrecking. “I’m not even sure what happened out there,” Brown said over his radio. “The car just jumped out.”
Bell went to pit road under the caution to check on damage from contact with Gragson on the previous restart.
On the restart on Lap 41, Busch was followed by Allgaier, Gragson, Haley and Nemechek.
With 10 laps remaining in the second stage, Busch held a small but steady lead over Allgaier. Burton was third, Gragson fourth and Reddick fifth.
On Lap 53, Allgaier got around Busch on the inside to take the lead for the first time in the race.
With five laps to go in the stage, Allgaier quickly opened up more than a second lead over Busch.
Stage 1
Jones held off Cindric in a four-lap shootout to the finish to take the Stage 1 victory. It’s his third stage win of the 2019 season.
Gragson was third, Busch was fourth and Custer ended up fifth. Ryan Sieg spun on the last lap of the stage but was able to continue on.
Busch, who started on the pole, took command early and maintained a small but steady advantage over Bell through 10 laps. Jones ran third, Reddick fourth and Allgaier fifth.
On Lap 13, Austin Dillon fell way off the pace on the backstretch with what his team believed was a fuel pressure problem.
NASCAR eventually put out a caution on Lap 14 when it looked like Dillon would not be able to make it back to pit road unassisted. Some lead-lap cars elected to pit but Bell remained on the track and took over the lead on the restart on Lap 20.
Busch was among those who elected to pit but had to come down pit road twice in order to make sure lug nuts on his tires were secure. He restarted 24th.
With 10 laps remaining in the first stage, Bell had a small advantage over Reddick as Jones ran third.
On Lap 21, Allgaier moved into the second spot and began trying to challenge Bell for the lead.
David Starr blew the engine in his No. 52 Chevrolet on Lap 53 to bring out another caution. Several more lead-lap cars elected to pit during this caution, including Bell and Allgaier.
On the restart on Lap 27, Jones led the way followed by Cindric and Gragson. Busch lined up fifth.
Before the race, four cars had to start from the rear of the field – Ronnie Bassett Jr., Josh Bilicki and B.J. McLeod all for unapproved adjustments, and Kyle Weatherman for an engine change.
Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Laps Led 1 18 
Kyle Busch Toyota 100 2:11'21.0 46 2 7 Justin Allgaier Chevrolet 100 0.132 24 3 9 Noah Gragson Chevrolet 100 2.267 1 4 8 Jeb Burton Chevrolet 100 2.562 5 11 Justin Haley Chevrolet 100 3.182 6 19 Brandon Jones Toyota 100 6.739 8 7 00 Cole Custer Ford 100 7.650 8 98 Chase Briscoe Ford 100 7.673 9 61 Austin Hill Toyota 100 7.773 10 39 Ryan Sieg Chevrolet 100 8.493 11 51 Jeremy Clements Chevrolet 100 8.901 12 1 Michael Annett Chevrolet 100 9.245 13 08 Gray Gaulding Chevrolet 100 10.139 14 0 Garrett Smithley Chevrolet 100 10.442 15 90 Ronnie Bassett Jr. Chevrolet 100 11.325 16 4 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 100 11.515 17 36 Josh Williams Chevrolet 100 15.409 4 18 35 Joey Gase Toyota 100 15.466 19 99 Stefan Parsons Toyota 100 15.479 20 07 Ray Black Jr. Chevrolet 100 15.657 21 93 Josh Bilicki Chevrolet 100 16.559 22 15 B.J. McLeod Chevrolet 100 16.841 23 01 Stephen Leicht Chevrolet 100 17.193 24 66 Tommy Joe Martins Toyota 100 17.393 25 5 Matt Mills Chevrolet 100 17.732 26 78 Vinnie Miller Chevrolet 99 1 lap 27 22 Austin Cindric Ford 98 2 laps 28 86 Brandon Brown Chevrolet 97 3 laps 29 20 Christopher Bell Toyota 92 8 laps 15 30 2 Tyler Reddick Chevrolet 92 8 laps 2 31 23 John Hunter Nemechek Chevrolet 79 21 laps 32 74 Mike Harmon Chevrolet 42 58 laps 33 13 Chad Finchum Toyota 41 59 laps 34 10 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 37 63 laps 35 17 Kyle Weatherman Chevrolet 35 65 laps 36 89 Morgan Shepherd Chevrolet 34 66 laps 37 52 David Starr Chevrolet 23 77 laps 38 38 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 7 93 laps
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Briscoe: "We can surprise a lot of people" in Xfinity playoffs
Next article Elliott Sadler's last Xfinity race will be one to remember
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jim Utter
Erik Jones agrees to multi-year contract extension with Legacy Motor Club
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Erik Jones agrees to multi-year contract extension with Legacy Motor Club
Goodyear's option tires at Richmond "were like Mario Kart with a star"
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Goodyear's option tires at Richmond "were like Mario Kart with a star"
NASCAR: Austin Dillon move was "really close to crossing the line"
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
NASCAR: Austin Dillon move was "really close to crossing the line"
Latest news
"FIA Rating pushes drivers like me into retirement" - Sebastien Bourdais
WEC
WEC WEC
Bahrain
5 min
"FIA Rating pushes drivers like me into retirement" - Sebastien Bourdais
Nico Rosberg compares Ferrari’s clashes to his own Mercedes F1 rivalry: “The instructions are not clear enough”
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
25 min
Nico Rosberg compares Ferrari’s clashes to his own Mercedes F1 rivalry: “The instructions are not clear enough”
Carlos Sainz recalls Charles Leclerc battles: “We always managed to find a solution”
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 h
Carlos Sainz recalls Charles Leclerc battles: “We always managed to find a solution”
New WRC constructor offers update on 2027 car development
WRC
WRC WRC
Rally Saudi Arabia
1 h
New WRC constructor offers update on 2027 car development
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe