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 l♏ock his team into the Playoffs.

Chase Elliott: 9

The win Chase needs to get into the Playoffs was right the𒐪re, but he just came up one spot short.

Daniel Suarez: 6

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

Tyler Reddick: 8

The strongest Toyota driver scored another top-five fi🎀nish as they head into another road course race.

Alex Bowman: 9

This was a surprising, but much needed, top-five result f𒉰or Bow🐭man, who still needs to win to get into the Playoffs.

Chase Briscoe: 7

Briscoe had a great 🧸run to 6th, while the rest of the Stewart Haas Racing cars finished 23rd, 31st, and 39th.

Martin Truex Jr: 7

True🌳x had a typical quiet, but solid afternoon yet again.

Kyle Larson: 7

This has been an extr♎emely busy week for Larson, so scoring a top༺-ten after an issue early in the race was quite impressive.

Christopher Bell: 7

Bell didn't really go ღforward but he did spend some time up front and had a decent afternoon.

Shane Van Gisbergen: 8

The🦂 Supercars ace followed up his Chicago street course win with a solid top-ten result today in a different environment.

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

Chris Buescher: 7

Buescher followed up his twওo straight victories with an 11th place result and kept it clean.

Ty Gibbs: 6

Gibbs won the Xfinity race❀ yesterday but had ꦐa much tougher time today, getting roughed up a couple of times by other drivers.

Ryan Blaney: 6

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

William Byron: 9

Noꦜ 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 cours♑es but he didn't have the sp𒊎eed to showcase it today.

Ross Chastain: 6

Two of the Trackhouse cars were ༺very quick, and yet again, Chastain wa🀅s not one of them.

Bubba Wallace: 5

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

Denny Hamlin: 4

Hamlin led laps today but it was off sequence, and h꧑e was never a factor for ꦅmuch of the weekend.

Brad Keselowski: 4

A top 20 finish for Brad on a road course wasn't terrible, but he won't be happy abou⛎t it.

Brodie Kostecki: 8

ღBrodie 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 t♌hree🅷-time Brickyard 400 winner wanted his final race to go but he did improve 15 positions on the day.

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

Mike Rockenfeller: 7

Aggression was not an issue for Rockenfeller, who w𓆏as using up his fellow competitors when the opportunity presented itself.

AJ Allmendinger: 3

The i☂naugural race winner had a weekend to forget, which is a shame considering how much he looksꩵ forward to this stop on the calendar each year.

Jenson Button: 3

Button got into🐠✅ it with several drivers on Sunday, and often times he got the short end of the stick.

Kamui Kobayashi: 3

Kobayashi was another driver that got run ಌinto as other d💙rivers made mistakes.

Joey Logano: 2

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

Kyle Busch: 5

His great day went south late i🎐n the race, which will only motivate him even more heading﷽ into next weekend at Watkins Glen.

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