Kyle Busch had the lead nearly the entire race, hanging on through a flurry of late cautions for his second straight win at the Brickyard 400.
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On Sunday, he accomplished the feat. The Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver also led 149 of 170 laps on his way to the win, a new track record for NASCAR at IMS.
Kyle Busch ruled Indianapolis this weekend, winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup’s Brickyard 400 a day after winning the XFINITY Series Lilly Diabetes 250.
To claim his fourth win of the season, Busch had to hold off the competition on four restarts inside the final 10 laps. What a ideal pairing, I am willing to bet that most Kid Rock fans also know a thing or two about NASCAR.
Jeff Gordon, filling in for injured Dale Earnhardt Jr.in the No. 88 Chevrolet, started 21st and finished 13th. Gordon came out of retirement to replace Dale Earnhardt Jr., who missed the race due to concussion symptoms.
Larson was in 19th entering Sunday, but his fifth-place finish in the Brickyard saw him rise to 15th in the points. They drove slowly around the 2.5-mile oval, side-by-side, waving to the fans who had cheered them for so many years. “I love this guy. I have always respected his talent”. “Overall, I feel like our baseline has been pretty good here this weekend”.
Carl Edwards climbed into the second place about a third of the way into the race, and stood just a few seconds behind Busch for much of the middle portion of the race. Johnson won in 2008 and 2009.
“Today is the 1st day in many that I sensed improvement”, he wrote Friday on Twitter.
The Joe Gibbs Racing team knows about hard times. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was 12th, followed by Chris Buescher in 14th and Logano’s teammate Brad Keselowski in 17th.
Multiple restarts put the race into Overtime starting at 30 to go with the crash by the 7 auto of David Ragan, a debris caution with 10 laps to go when a piece of metal side skirt or exhaust skirt had to be cleaned up, and then a multi-car wreck with 7 laps to go, collecting Brad Keselowski, Danica Patrick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Carl Edwards, Ryan Blaney and Ryan Newman. Third at the time, Edwards lost traction in front of the field and six cars were involved in the accident, including contenders Keselowski and Ryan Newman. Nobody was seriously hurt but the wreck brought out a red flag for nearly eight minutes. That even that deserves an asterisk, as Kyle Busch had the benefit of four fresh tires while leader Joey Logano had four worn Goodyears. Stewart focused on Indy cars early on and had to await the formation of the Indy Racing League to get his shot at winning the Indy 500, which never came to pass.
And if a JGR driver wants to win the championship, they will probably have to go through teammate Kyle Busch first. “I couldn’t think of a better guy to share that moment with”.
By the time Busch reaches his mid-forties – if he keeps his current pace – he’ll have amassed 80 Sprint Cup victories or so, which would put him in some exclusive company. Team owner Rick Hendrick hasn’t had a auto finish in the top three in four consecutive races. Matt Kenseth brought his 20 vehicle to the checkered in second and Denny Hamlin brought his number 11 machine in fourth. But the estimated crowd of about 50,000 left plenty of seats empty at a race that has seen attendance steadily dwindle over the past eight years. “It meant a lot to me that he invited me to come take that last lap with him”.
“It certainly may open up some avenues”, Busch said.
UP NEXT: Pocono Raceway, July 31. Matt Kenseth, the New Hampshire victor, was second, 2.126 seconds behind Busch.
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Jeff Gordon led a tribute for Tony Stewart prior to the final Brickyard 400 for both men on Sunday.
