NASCAR: Driver Ratings for Verizon 200 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course

Crash NASCAR journalist Chad Smith goes through the field to hand out driver ratings for the Verizon 200 at Indianapolis.
Michael McDowell, Front Row Motorsports at Indianapolis
Michael McDowell, Front Row Motorsports at Indianapolis

Michael McDowell: 10

A dominant win to lock his team int꧑o the Playoffs.

Chase Elliott: 9

The win Chase needs to get i☂nto the Playoffs was ꦆright there, but he just came up one spot short.

Daniel Suarez: 6

A great weekend for the pole sitter was ♔ruined with one small mistake on a pit stop, but he salvaged a 3rd place finish.

Tyler Reddick: 8

The strongest Toyota♒ driver scored another top-five finish as they head ඣinto another road course race.

Alex Bowman: 9

This was a surprising, but much needed, top-five result for B🌞owman, who still needs to win to get into the Playoffs.

Chase Briscoe: 7

Briscoe had a great run t🍌o 6th, while the rest of the Stewart Ha✃as Racing cars finished 23rd, 31st, and 39th.

Martin Truex Jr: 7

Truex had a typical quiet, ꦰbut solid aℱfternoon yet again.

Kyle Larson: 7

This has been an extremely busy we🐼ek for Larson,🌜 so scoring a top-ten after an issue early in the race was quite impressive.

Christopher Bell: 7

Bell did💯n't really go forward but he did spend some time up f𓃲ront and had a decent afternoon.

Shane Van Gisbergen: 8

The Supercars ace followed up his Chicago street course win with a solid♉ t🐬op-ten result today in a different environment.

Shane Van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing
Shane Van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing

Chris Buescher: 7

Buescher followed up his two ♍straight victories wiꩲth an 11th place result and kept it clean.

Ty Gibbs: 6

Gibbs won the Xfinity race yesterday but had a much tougher time today, getting roughed up a couple of times by other🐠 driv🍸ers.

Ryan Blaney: 6

It was an eventful day for Blaney, who was rammed by his 🐭teammate, then dumped AJ Allmendinger for some reason.

William Byron: 9

No one will talk about it, but this was a sensational drive by Byron, coming ♊from the very back of the field to finish inside the top 15.

Austin Cindric: 7

Cindric has always been good on road ﷺcourses but he didn't have the speed to showcase it today.

Ross Chastain: 6

Two oꦅf the Trackhouse c🦋ars were very quick, and yet again, Chastain was not one of them.

Bubba Wallace: 5

From a race perspective, Wallace did okay by keeping it clean, but others around him fa💯red much better and made up a bunch of ground.

Denny Hamlin: 4

Hamlin🐼 led laps today but it was off sequence, and he was never a factor for much of the we꧑ekend.

Brad Keselowski: 4

A top 20 finish for Brad on a road course wasn't terrib😼le, but he won't be happy about it.

Brodie Kostecki: 8

B𝄹rodie had an impressive weekend, showing speed and the ability to recover after bad fortune in his first ever NASCAR start.

Kevin Harvick: 5

Not the way the three-time Brickyard 400 winner wanted his final race to go but he did improve 1๊5 positions༺ on the day.

Kevin Harvick, Stewart Haas Racing
Kevin Harvick, Stewart Haas Racing

Mike Rockenfeller: 7

Aggression was not an issue f🗹or Rockenfeller, who was using up his fellow c♒ompetitors when the opportunity presented itself.

AJ Allmendinger: 3

The inaugural race winner had a weekend to forget, which is a shame considering how much he looks forward to this stop on 🅠the calendar each year.

Jenson Button: 3

Button got into it with several drivers on S🐎unday, and often times he got the꧑ short end of the stick.

Kamui Kobayashi: 3

Kobayashi was another driver that got run into as ꦚother drivers made mistakes.

Joey Logano: 2

Logano made a 🃏fool of himself in this race last year with his dive bomb maneuver, and today was just as bad, taking out multiple drꦚivers, including ramming the back of his teammate on the way to a 34th place finish.

Kyle Busch: 5

His greaไt day ไwent south late in the race, which will only motivate him even more heading into next weekend at Watkins Glen.

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