By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

NASCAR Cup drivers face crucial race on Indianapolis oval as Playoffs loom 

Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at on the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval will bring two significant conclusions—the championship round of the $1-million-to-win In-Season Challenge and the end of TNT’s five-race run as a broadcast partner for this season.

A general view of racing. during the NASCAR Cup Series Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 21, 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)

Ty Dillon’s matchup against Ty Dillon in the finals of the In-Season Challenge will receive considerable, well-deserved attention in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 presented by PPG (2 p.m. ET on TNT, IMS Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The novel tournament, introduced this year, won’t be the only focus, not with the 26-race Cup Series regular season nearing conclusion an Playoff spots still very much in play.

By finishing ahead of Gibbs in Sunday’s race, Dillon could complete an improbable run as 32nd seed in the 32-driver Challenge field.

“I feel like we’ve already won this thing, no matter what happens on Sunday,” said Dillon, who picked up his only career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2014.

“I know this is an awesome moment in time for myself, my family and Kaulig Racing, but in a few weeks, life’s going to move on, and hopefully we continue to get better and we win races and continue to stay in the spotlight.”

Certain to stay in the spotlight over the next few weeks are the drivers on either side of the elimination line for the Cup Series Playoffs. Currently, after a seventh-place finish last Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway, Bubba Wallace holds the 16th and final Playoff-eligible position by 16 points over Ryan Preece.

Twelve drivers—Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Shane van Gisbergen, William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain and Josh Berry—already have scored wins this season and are presumed safe for Playoff berths.

With a 156-point margin above the elimination line and just five races left in the regular season, Tyler Reddick likewise is all but certain to qualify for the Playoffs. Alex Bowman helped himself with a third-place run at Dover and is 14th on the potential Playoff grid, 63 points to the good.

Despite a career-average finish of 33.0 on the Indy oval, Bowman is cautiously optimistic about his chances on Sunday.

“We’ve had a good stretch lately, and Dover was another step in the right direction for our (No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports) team,” Bowman said. “Indy hasn’t been our strongest track, but with the way we’ve been running, I feel like we’re in a position to keep building on this momentum and have a solid weekend at The Brickyard.”

At the top of the standings, the race for the Regular Season Championship—not to mention the bonus of 15 Playoff points—has tightened considerably over the past few weeks.

With a sixth-place run at Dover, Chase Elliott knocked Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron out of the top spot in the standings, a position Byron had held for 17 of the first 20 weeks in the season.

Elliott now leads Byron by 16 points, third-place Kyle Larson by 38 and Dover winner Denny Hamlin by 39.

Byron’s race at Dover ended 14 laps short of its double-overtime finish after Bell spun while battling for the lead and ignited a wreck that sidelined Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet.

“Last weekend (was) a tough one,” said Byron, who has posted just one finish better than 27th in his last five races (eighth at Sonoma). “We ran basically in the top five all day just to get involved in someone else’s mess at the end.

“It sucks, but we have to move on and focus on Indy now. We obviously have the speed, just need the finishes at this point. I think we’ve shown how strong we are with having no practice in Dover and running up front all day. We have a long practice this weekend since we’re back on the oval, which will be nice to really get the car dialed in.”

Connor Zilisch looks for third straight win in Indianapolis oval debut

Talk about a quick study.

No NASCAR Xfinity Series driver comes to Indianapolis Motor Speedway with more momentum than Connor Zilisch, who won his series-best fourth race of the season and fifth of his young career in last Saturday’s rain-shortened event at Dover Motor Speedway.

Fresh from consecutive victories at Sonoma Raceway and Dover, Zilisch will try for a third straight win in Saturday’s Pennzoil 250 on the historic 2.5-mile oval (4:30 p.m. ET on CW, IMS Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

All five of Zilisch’s victories have come in his series debuts at the respective tracks, dating to his first Xfinity start last year at Watkins Glen International. In addition, with his win at Dover, Zilisch trimmed the series lead of JR Motorsports teammate and reigning series champion Justin Allgaier to 56 points with six races left in the regular season.

Zilisch, who turned 19 on Tuesday, believes the regular-season crown might be difficult to attain.

“Fifty-six points is a lot, especially when you’re racing against Justin Allgaier,” Zilisch said. “It’s going to be hard to make that up with him being the points leader, but I would never say never. He would need to have very bad luck, and I would need to continue this crazy streak that I’m on.”

That streak includes wins in three of the last five races, eight consecutive top-five finishes (with three second-place runs to go with the three wins) and an average result of 2.25 over those eight events.

Ty Majeski returns to the track that launched 2024 NASCAR Truck Series title run

After three weeks off, the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series returns to action in Friday night’s TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (8 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

That’s good news for reigning series champion Ty Majeski, whose victory at the 0.686-mile short track last year proved to be a springboard to the series championship.

Majeski added a win at Richmond and a runner-up finish from the pole at the Milwaukee Mile in his next two starts. After qualifying for the Championship 4, he won from the pole at Phoenix Raceway to secure the title.

Majeski was fourth in the Truck Series standings when he came to Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park last year. This season, his position is considerably more tenuous. With three races left in the regular season, the driver of the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford is 10th on the potential Playoff grid, just 38 points above the current elimination line.

Accordingly, the TSport 200 couldn’t come at a better time for the 30-year-old short-track ace from Seymour, Wisconsin, who won the prestigious Slinger Nationals super late model race in his native state on July 8 during the down time for the Truck Series.

Watkins Glen International and Richmond Raceway follow Indianapolis, and that portion of the schedule bodes well for Majeski in a disappointing year for ThorSport. Majeski is the only one of the organization’s drivers currently above the elimination line.

Jake Garcia is 11th, 38 points behind his champion teammate. Two-time title winner Ben Rhodes is 13th on the current Playoff grid, 68 points out, and three-time champion Matt Crafton is 153 points down in 16th, needing a win in the next three races to advance to the 10-driver Playoffs.