It was an incredible sunny day in the land of infinite superiority, as the Indy 500 venue paid tribute to former NOWS (National Open Wheel Series) crossover driver Mert Socks. He won their stock car division races at the Indy road course in 1966 and 1967, and many looked to follow in his tradition for the final regular season race of 2019. Coming in, Zach Michael was only 21 points ahead of Matthew Dominique for the final chase position. Matt Raboin and Dave Miller were long shots, but a bad finish by Scott Jackson could propel them to the championship promise-land.

Race Results

Points Standings

Schedule

Early on, there was no doubt that Tim McDonnell was the class of the field. Dave Miller and Matthew Dominique could hold on to the draft as long as they wanted, but it was clear that the #22 was handling perfectly for the 26th race in-a-row.

It took an incredible 72 laps before John Battista, who had been running in the top-7 all day, blew up entering turn one. John Tharp creamed him from behind and destroyed the front end of his machine. He would limp around to finish 31st. Battista, who started the race 156 points ahead of 10th, would finish 42nd. 
 

Zach Michael's championship dreams would be sandwiched after helping Ken Pettit squeeze Zakk Miller on the frontstretch. Zach's front end was slightly bent, as Miller flew directly into the path of Ben Geer who slammed him drivers-side first next to the inside wall. Johnny Reed Foley also caught a piece of the incident.

Craig Lee, Rick Jackson and Scott Jackson dominated the middle portion of the event, leading a combined 29 laps before a flying Ryan Heuser came out of nowhere to pass them all. Sadly, Craig and Rick would pit early on the next round of pit stops, where chaos and sorrow ensued.

On lap 109, Rick merged out of the pit lane wide trying to apex turn three, and cut across of Craig Lee's nose. Both cars suffered minor damage, though each, including Scott Jackson, Ken Pettit, Tyler Scott, Scott Drake, Randy Dobbins and Glenn Kaufmann, were now trapped a lap down.

The next restart provided some three-wide bump-and-run action, as leader Tim McDonnell was punted out of the way by Dave Miller entering turn three trying to navigate the lapped traffic in front. Tim was pushed back to seventh, as Dave Miller pulled away from the field after Ryan Heuser made contact with Scott Drake.

Another bump-and-run by Ryan pushed Dave out of the lead on lap 131, giving Alex Crapser the room to navigate three-wide on the inside and pass them both. Despite a few lead swaps between he and Jimmie Stevens, who was having another miraculous day, the #04 looked to have the final-run charge to the finish.

With less then 10 laps to go, Scott Jackson had gotten his lap back and worked his way to 19th position. Zach Michael struggled to stay in the top-20 after his early accident and was slated in 23rd. Matt Raboin was 5th, though teammate Matthew Dominique was one position behind to play spoiler to both him and the #20 team. For now, Scott and Matthew were in, with Zach and Matt coming from behind with nearly no laps left.

Misfortune occurred on lap 150, after Dan Johnston blew up in front of Steven Spears, who were both in the top-15. They both slid into the outside wall, bringing out the final caution of the race. Leader Alex Crapser hit their debris entering turn one and blew his left-front tire, forcing him to pit and drop back to 34th position. Dave Miller would re-take the lead for a seven-lap shootout.

Lapped-car Randy Dobbins raced side-by-side with Dave two-laps into the run, giving Ryan Heuser a run on the inside lane coming off of turn 4. Randy was still in front, as Dave used his draft to scatter past Ryan on the frontstretch and stay in the lead. The #138 made the same move with two laps to go, but the same exact thing happened. Eventually, a hard-charging Tim McDonnell and Jimmie Stevens flew by Ryan, leaving Dave with several car-lengths of leeway to cruise to the win, and becoming the first repeat winner in 2019. Congrats to Dave, crew chief Sonny Sundae and the entire QuickSilver Motorsports team for an excellent victory!

Brickyard 400, Part 1

Brickyard 400, Part 2