SPEEDWAY, Ind. ― Indianapolis native Matthew Brabham put on a clinic at his home track, leading the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway from start to finish in his No. 20 GYM WEED Ford Mustang.
Brabham was the class of the field in front of his hometown crowd, scoring his second victory of 2023 and leading a 1-2 finish by CD Racing.
Brabham, alongside another hometown favorite, Adam Andretti, led the field to green in a historic start by two of the most famous last names in motorsports.
Andretti settled into second behind Brabham in his No. 44 Top Liner Chevrolet Camaro and was followed by Chris Dyson in the No. 16 GYM WEED Ford Mustang. The top three ran close together, but pulled out to a large lead over fourth-place Paul Menard in the No. 2 Weaver Racing/Technique Dodge Challenger.
A full-course caution brought competitors back together on lap 11, but the top three once again created a gap in front of the field when green-flag racing resumed three laps later.
As the laps progressed, Brabham’s lead stretched out in front of Andretti and Dyson, while the latter battled each other over the second position. At one point, it appeared that Andretti had the clear advantage as he was finally able to pull away from Dyson, but Dyson reeled him back with 10 laps to go.
By lap 34, Dyson was stalking Andretti, looking for the opportunity to make the pass, but Andretti was able to hold him off by hitting his marks perfectly. Unfortunately, as Dyson was relentlessly pursuing Andretti with just four laps to go, Andretti experienced a mechanical issue and went off the track surface, coming to a stop and turning second place over to Dyson.
One lap later, Dyson spun his GYM WEED machine going into turn one, but was able to right himself and continue on. Dyson’s brief pause allowed third-place Menard to close in on him, and the two fought to the finish in the remaining three laps.
Brabham was displayed the checkered flag, securing his second win of the season, and Dyson and Menard crossed the finish line second and third, respectively.
Keith Grant in the No. 40 Showtime Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro followed Menard in fourth, and Tomy Drissi in the No. 8 Lucas Oil Chevrolet Camaro, also a Showtime Motorsports entry, rounded out the top five.
“I want to give a big thanks to everyone who came out to the track today, it’s so good to see the crowd here at my home track,” said Brabham. “Most importantly, I want to thank my CD Racing team. It’s so good to be a part of this team. They did an awesome job all weekend; we had really fast cars. To get a 1-2 at a place like IMS with Chris is fantastic. Thanks to the team and to GYM WEED. We also can’t forget Adam Andretti. He would have loved to be up on the podium and he certainly drove like he deserved to be here. It’s a shame he broke, but I think Adam really proved something this weekend.”