PREVIEW: The return of the Brickyard 400 beckons veterans and newcomers alike
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
IMAGE: MBM Motorsports, @MBMMotorsports
Friday, July 19, 2024 (8:30 P.M. ET, FS1)
TRUCKS Race 15 of 23
TSport 200 at IRP
2023 Last-Place Finisher: Greg Van Alst
ENTRY LIST
There are 35 trucks entered for Friday’s 36-truck field, so all will qualify.
DRIVER CHANGE: #1-TRICON Garage
William Sawalich will make his ninth series start and third of the season, his fist since a 26th-place run in Martinsville. He takes the place of Kris Wright, who finished 26th in Pocono. Sawalich ran in this race last year, taking home a career-best 6th with the same TRICON effort.
DRIVER CHANGE: #7-Spire Motorsports
Golden Harvest is the listed sponsor for Sammy Smith, who will run double-duty with the XFINITY Series in his third Truck Series start of the year and fourth of his career. Smith most recently came home a strong 5th at North Wilkesboro, where he struggled early after starting a distant 31st. He takes the place of Connor Mosack, who finished 15th in Pocono.
RETURNING: #16-Hattori Racing Enterprises
Also back in action for the first time since North Wilkesboro is the Hattori team, which attempted to make their first start of the season with Aric Almirola before rain cancelled qualifying. This time, Johnny Sauter will pilot the #16 with Aisin as sponsor. Sauter seeks his 323rd series start and third of the season, his first since a 17th-placce showing in Niece Motorsports’ #45 back in Texas.
MISSING: #21-Floridian Motorsports
Not among this week’s entrants is the Floridian Motorsports effort with which Sage Karam finished 33rd after mechanical issues in Pocono.
DRIVER CHANGE: #22-Reaume Brothers Racing
The preliminary entry list had “TBA” in the driver’s column for Josh Reaume’s #22, which last week in Pocono came home 27th with Mason Maggio. However, it was back on June 5th that the team announced the ride would go to Rhode Island late model star Tyler Tomassi, who will make his NASCAR national series debut. In his current full-time late model effort, Tomassi has already secured a win at his home track, the Seekonk Speedway, and ranks Top Ten in points.
MISSING: #27-Reaume Brothers Racing
The Reaume effort has not entered the #27 truck with which Stephen Mallozzi turned 22 laps at Pocono before transmission issues.
MISSING: #28-FDNY Racing
Also not making the trip will be Bryan Dauzat, who at Pocono was involved in an incident in practice, then was wrecked by Zane Smith in the final laps of the race itself, leaving them 34th in the running order. Driver and team will return in Talladega.
RETURNING: #44-Niece Motorsports
Fresh off Race 2 of IndyCar’s Iowa double-header, where he finished last after serving as stand-in for an injured Jack Harvey, Conor Daly will kick off another double-header in NASCAR. Carrying sponsorship from Power Plus, Daly will make just his fourth career Truck Series start and first since 2023, when he ran 18th at Mid-Ohio. This will also be the first start of the year for the Niece team’s part-time #44 effort.
MISSING: #90-Terry Carroll Motorsports
Justin S. Carroll is not entered this week after a 28th-place showing in Pocono.
DRIVER CHANGE: #91-McAnally-Hilgemann Racing
Jack Wood carries colorful sponsorship from the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis on the McAnally #91 as he makes his 57th series start and 9th of the season, his first since a 16th-place finish in an unsponsored truck at Nashville. Wood takes the place of Zane Smith, who finished 20th in Pocono.
RETURNING: #04-Roper Racing
Joining Conor Daly among this weekend’s IndyCar contingent is Marco Andretti, whose most recent Truck Series start at COTA famously ended with the entire rear assembly coming loose from his truck at the far end of the track, leaving him 31st. This will be Andretti’s fifth series start, and comes after a 5th-place finish in his most recent ARCA Menards Series start at Mid-Ohio.
CUP INVADERS: #45-Ross Chastain
Saturday, July 20, 2024 (3:30 P.M. ET, USA)
XFINITY Race 20 of 33
Pennzoil 250 at Indianapolis
2019 Last-Place Finisher: J.J. Yeley
ENTRY LIST
There are 38 drivers entered for as many spots, so all will qualify.
MISSING: #4-JD Motorsports
MISSING: #6-JD Motorsports
RETURNING / DRIVER SWAP / TEAM UPDATE: #45-Alpha Prime Racing
News broke on Monday that Johnny Davis’ longtime XFINITY Series team, JD Motorsports, had laid off most of its crew after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April with nearly a half-million dollars in debt. The team had withdrawn their #6 last Saturday, leaving only their #4 with which Thomas Annunziata climbed from last across the starting line to finish 28th. Now the #4 isn’t entered either, and Garrett Smithley, entered in the #6 last week, follows the team’s Owner Points to Alpha Prime Racing’s part-time third entry, the #45. Smithley brings his Trophy Tractor sponsorship to join Rich Mar Florist on a new red-and-white paint scheme.
RETURNING: #13-Motorsports Business Management
MBM has most recently started a XFINITY Series race at Talladega, where earlier this year, David Starr finished 24th and led a lap. However, their #13 entry has not started one since the 2022 season finale at Phoenix, where Dawson Cram finished 31st. The number returns this Saturday with B.J. McLeod as driver, continuing a relationship between driver and team that began in this year’s Coca-Cola 600. The vibrant “Falling In Reverse” paint scheme will be the first of two rides for McLeod this weekend as he will also run for the team in the #66 on Sunday (see below).
DRIVER CHANGE: #14-SS-Green Light Racing
Speaking of David Starr, it was announced midway through the week that he would drive SS-Green Light’s #14 this Saturday, taking the place of 29th-place Pocono finisher Mason Massey. This will be Starr’s 264th series start and sixth of the season, his first since he finished a season-best 17th with this same team at Iowa.
MISSING: #17-Hendrick Motorsports
The Hendrick team has not entered their XFINITY car this week following a 3rd-place finish by William Byron in Pocono.
DRIVER CHANGE: #19-Joe Gibbs Racing
Welcome back Joe Graf, Jr., who on Saturday will make his first XFINITY Series start of the year after he completed the entire 2023 campaign. For the first time since last fall in Homestead, that ride will be in the “all-star” Joe Gibbs Racing entry, this time taking the place of 5th-place Pocono finisher Taylor Gray. Toyota Gazoo Racing is the listed sponsor for the #19.
DRIVER CHANGE: #20-Joe Gibbs Racing
After several rumors about Aric Almirola parting ways with Joe Gibbs Racing following his latest start at Darlington, and speculation about how that came about, Almirola is just as suddenly back in the #20 He Gets Us Toyota this Saturday. He takes the place of Ryan Truex, who finished 19th last Saturday in Pocono. Almirola has run the XFINITY race at Indianapolis just once before, finishing 14th in 2015, but has nine Brickyard 400 starts with a best finish of 3rd in his last back in 2020.
DRIVER CHANGE: #26-Sam Hunt Racing
Conor Daly’s double-duty effort concludes on Saturday in the XFINITY Series, where his Indianapolis 500 sponsor Polkadot brings its pink-and-white colors to the Sam Hunt team. Daly takes the place of Corey Heim, who will focus on Friday’s Truck Series race after a 16th-place run in Pocono’s XFINITY event. This will be just the third XFINITY start of Daly’s career and first since his 35th-place showing last fall on the Charlotte “Roval.”
DRIVER CHANGE: #35-Joey Gase Motorsports
Joey Gase will pilot his own car for only the eighth time in 2024 and first since his season-best 16th-place showing in Iowa. He takes the place of Stephen Mallozzi, whose series debut at Pocono was spoiled by engine trouble that left him 35th.
MISSING: #74-Mike Harmon Racing
Without a ride after the closing of JD Motorsports, Dawson Cram is likewise not entered this Saturday, one week after a Lap 2 brake failure at Pocono led to a hard crash in Harmon’s #74. Both driver and team are not among this week’s field.
RETURNING: #88-JR Motorsports
Carson Kvapil looks to continue his breakthrough part-time schedule in 2024 in only his sixth career XFINITY Series start, his first since a 12th-place showing in Nashville. Kvapil continues his sponsorship from Clarience Technologies in the JRM #88. His father Travis Kvapil never started a XFINITY Series race on the big Indianapolis oval, but has seven Brickyard 400s on his resume with a best finish of 24th in 2010.
DRIVER CHANGE: #07-SS-Green Light Racing
Welcome back hard luck Greg Van Alst, who returns to the XFINITY Series for the first time since his last-place finishes at both Atlanta and Loudon in his first series starts, and his first in NASCAR national competition since his injury during a hard crash in the Truck Series race at Talladega. CB Fabricating continues as sponsor this time at Bobby Dotter’s shop, where he takes the place of 33rd-place Pocono finisher Patrick Emerling. The preliminary entry list showed “TBA” for the driver but the CB Fabricating still listed as sponsor.
CUP INVADERS: #15-Josh Berry
Sunday, July 21, 2024 (2:30 P.M. ET, NBC)
CUP Race 22 of 36
Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis
2020 Last-Place Finisher: Ryan Preece
ENTRY LIST
There are 39 drivers entered for 40 spots, just one entry short of the fourth “full” field of 2024.
RETURNING: #33-Richard Childress Racing
Ty Dillon will make the 243rd Cup Series start of his career and fourth of the season, his first since a 20th-place finish in Loudon. For a third straight Cup start, he will do so for a different Chevrolet team, reuniting with his family’s RCR team in the part-time #33 most recently run by Austin Hill at Chicago. It may come as a surprise that Indianapolis is one of Dillon’s best tracks. In his four Brickyard 400 starts, he finished 19th, 21st, 13th, and 14th, completing all but two laps in the process. He’s also the 2014 winner of the XFINITY Series race here, one of his two Top Fives and five Top Tens in only six series starts here. Titan Risk Solutions is the listed sponsor.
MISSING: #44-NY Racing Team
Not among the entries is J.J. Yeley, whose reunion with the NY Racing Team ended with engine issue in Pocono that left him 35th just before a series of crashes whittled down the field.
RETURNING: #66-Motorsports Business Management
B.J. McLeod completes his double-duty effort with the XFINITY Series and MBM on Sunday, where Timmy Hill’s sponsor Coble Enterprises will back the effort. McLeod competed in just the last four Brickyard 400s, but has improved his finish each time, climbing from 32nd to 30th, 25th, and a most recent 22nd.
RETURNING: #84-Legacy Motor Club
Completing the Brickyard 400 entry list is none other than four-time winner Jimmie Johnson, who seeks to tie his former teammate Jeff Gordon with a fifth win at this track, and an elusive 84th career victory on his resume. Making his 695th series start, Johnson returns to Cup for the first time since his 29th-place showing in the Coca-Cola 600 in a Carvana paint scheme designed by his daughters. Recall that Johnson was unable to compete in the latest Brickyard 400 in 2020 due to then-existing COVID protocols, handing the wheel to Justin Allgaier.
TODAY IN LASTCAR HISTORY (July 19, 1963): Dominic Persicketti scored the first last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in a 200-lap race at Old Bridge Stadium (Old Bridge, New Jersey) when his #27 1961 Ford crashed after 16 laps. Persicketti, who started last in the 20-car field, was making his fifth and final Cup Series start. His best finish was 8th, which he scored at Trenton, New Jersey on May 17, 1959, then matched at Norwood, Massachusetts on June 17, 1961. He passed away in 2016.
