The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday’s race.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Jeff Gordon’s first Cup race win.
NBC will cover Sunday’s race.
Here’s a look at where each Cup organization stands heading into the 22nd race of the season.
23XI Course — Good news: Tyler Reddick has a series-best 14 top-10 finishes this season. … Reddick, who is third in the standings, has gained 49 points on the leader over the last four races. … Bubba Wallace moved to within 27 points of the final playoff spot, gaining 18 points at Pocono with his 10th-place finish. Bad news: It has been 64 races since Wallace won a Cup race.
Several drivers behind Tyler Reddick are changing places in this week’s top 10.
Front Row Motorsports — Good News: Michael McDowell won at Indy, even though it was on a road course last year. Bad news: Todd Gilliland’s streak of nine consecutive top-20 finishes ended at Pocono with a 34th-place finish.
Hendrick Motorsports — Good News: Chase Elliott’s ninth-place finish at Pocono moved him past teammate Kyle Larson for the lead. … Alex Bowman and teammate William Byron are tied with 12 top-10 finishes this season, second only to Tyler Reddick. … The organization has won three of the last nine Indy races, with three different drivers. … Byron is the youngest driver to win a NASCAR race at Indy. He was 19 years, 7 months and 23 days old when he won the Xfinity race in July 2017. Bad news: Elliott has not won a stage since winning the first leg of the season-opening Daytona 500.
There are five races remaining in the regular season, including Sunday’s race at Indianapolis on NBC.
Joe Gibbs Racing — Good News: Denny Hamlin’s second-place finish at Pocono ended a streak of five consecutive finishes outside the top 10. … Christopher Bell has won a series-high nine stages this season. Bad news: Hamlin has yet to win at Indianapolis in Cup racing in 15 attempts. He has five top-five finishes and led 131 laps at the oval. … Martin Truex Jr. has finished 24th or worse in nine of his 16 starts at Indianapolis. … Ty Gibbs had an engine failure at Pocono last weekend. He has four top-10 finishes in the last 15 races.
JTG Daugherty Racing — Good News: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has finished in the top 10 in three of the last five races. Bad news: Stenhouse’s best finish at Indianapolis came in 2016, when he placed 12th.
Kaulig Racing — Good news: AJ Allmendinger has finished 11th or better in four of his nine starts this season. Bad news: Daniel Hemric failed to finish last weekend’s race at Pocono, ending his streak of 20 races with a finish.
Legacy Motor Club — Good news: Four-time Brickyard 400 winner Jimmie Johnson is back in the car this weekend. … John Hunter Nemechek finished 15th in his only Cup start at the Indy oval in 2020. Bad news: Erik Jones has not led a single lap this season.
Richard Childress Racing — Good News: Kyle Busch will make his 700th Cup start this weekend, becoming the 20th driver in series history to accomplish the feat. At 39 years, 2 months and 19 days on race day, Busch will be the second-youngest driver to reach the mark. Only Richard Petty was younger at 38 years, 11 months and 18 days. Bad news: The organization has only finished in the top five twice all season. … Busch was 31 points clear of the playoff starting line heading into the Coca-Cola 600 in late May. He is 102 points below the playoff starting line heading into Indianapolis. … Austin Dillon has failed to finish three of the last six races.
Six drivers took part in a tire test at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Rick Ware Racing — Good News: Cody Ware will start his second straight race and fourth of the season. Bad news: Justin Haley has the longest active winless streak at 126 races among those who have won at least one Cup race.
RFK Racing — Good news: Chris Buescher’s 11th-place finish at Pocono moved him out of the final playoff spot with five races remaining in the regular season. … Buescher has gone 52 races without a pit speeding penalty, the longest active streak in the series. … Brad Keselowski is one of only three former Indy winners entered this weekend, joining Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson. Bad news: Buescher has not scored stage points in three of the last four races.
Spire Motorsports — Good news: Corey LaJoie has finished all but one of the last 74 races. … Zane Smith started a career-best ninth last weekend at Pocono. … Carson Hocevar has started in the top 15 in each of the last three races, his longest streak of the season. Bad news: LaJoie’s only top-10 finish this year came in the season-opening Daytona 500, where he finished fourth.
“Two guys that race hard,” Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of racing, said of the contact between Corey LaJoie and Kyle Busch.
Stewart-Haas Racing — Good news: The organization is the most recent to win the race on the Indianapolis oval. Kevin Harvick won there in 2020. … Noah Gragson has six top-10 finishes this season. He didn’t have a single top-10 finish last year. … Josh Berry has qualified fifth or better in three of the last five races. Bad news: The last time the series raced on the Indy oval in 2020, Ryan Preece was among the victims of a pit lane accident and finished last. … Chase Briscoe has one top-10 finish in the last eight races, including a runner-up finish at New Hampshire.
Team Penske — Good News: The team is hoping to win the Indianapolis title this year after Josef Newgarden won his second consecutive Indianapolis 500. Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Austin Cindric will try to round out the team’s winning streak. The team won both races in 2018. … Logano has finished in the top 10 in seven of the last eight races at Indy. Bad news: Blaney has only one top-10 finish in six Cup starts at Indianapolis.
Ryan Blaney earned his second NASCAR Cup victory in the last five races.
Trackhouse Racing — Good news: This is the organization’s first race on the Indianapolis oval. Bad news: Ross Chastain dropped to the final playoff spot after his crash and 36th-place finish last weekend at Pocono. He has failed to finish two of the last three races due to a crash. … Daniel Suarez’s 42 stage points are the fewest among those who have earned a playoff spot this season. … It has been 33 races since the organization won a pole, which came when Suarez was fastest on the Indy road course last year.
Wood Brothers Racing — Good news: Harrison Burton finished a career-best third at Indianapolis in 2022… Bad news: This arrival was on the Indy road course. He never ran a Cup race on the Indy oval.