A hot, steamy day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway found his cool, calm best.
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Jeff Gordon’s sweet tribute to Tony Stewart before his final appearance at Indianapolis Motor Speedway July 24, completely stole the show. Busch becomes the first driver in NASCAR history to accomplish the sweep of winning both races from the pole position.
The good news: Gordon stopped in his pit without problem. We’re in your home state.
“I just can’t say enough about the whole group of guys and people that are around us, around me and Adam and Joe with our opportunities that we’ve got with having fast race cars and Toyota’s support, M&M’s support, NOS Energy Drink’s support and it’s just been fun”. “I didn’t know we’d have that speed in our auto”.
“That’s a moment that I will remember the rest of my life”. After a almost seven and a half minute delay, the race restarted with three laps to go and quickly went back under the yellow flag as Trevor Bayne and Clint Bowyer crashed down the backstretch.
“What a class act he is”, Gordon said of his friend. “It meant a lot to me that he invited me to come take that last lap with him”. “It was a special moment”.
But there’s more. After leading all but one lap on Saturday, Busch led 149 of 160 in winning his second consecutive Cup race at Indianapolis.
A caution flag for debris in turn three with nine laps to go set the insane race closing events in motion as drivers outside the top five pitted for fresh tires and soon after the race resumed with the field tightly bunched a four vehicle incident off turn two involving fourth place running Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski, and Ryan Blaney brought out the red flag as the track was cleared.
Teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano were the only other two drivers to lead laps.
“I’ve never had a dominant auto like this”, Busch said after celebrating his fourth win of the season with his wife and son. The latter two now evoke the usual fond farewells reserved for drivers fans have loved and hated over the years, because they were so often a threat to win.
A day before the Brickyard, Busch chatted with IndyCar driver Josef Newgarden in the garage. But Busch has not only momentum but youth on his side. Just look at Sunday, when he won his fourth straight NASCAR national series race at a track known to be very hard to master.
With his wins at the Brickyard, the idea of Busch trying his hand at the Indianapolis 500 have begun to creep up.
“What a class act he is”, Gordon said of Stewart, who is retiring at the end of the season.
Busch won with a speed of 184.634 miles per hour. While Indy has not historically been a strong track for Toyota, it has been for Gibbs Racing.
Pardoning the election year pun, but can anything be done to make the Brickyard great again? On lap 87, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin both got caught and and had to do a pass through penalty. The end result has been consistent; pit stops, fuel strategy and getting out front usually wins the race. And by the time of Biffle’s crash, Gordon was in danger of being lapped by Busch. Gordon will replace him there, as well.
On Sunday, NASCAR held what is supposed to be one of their premier events of the season, the Brickyard 400.
“It seems like every year we kind of keep sneaking that direction a little more [with the surface] and we keep making it a little heavier and giving it more grip”, Stewart said. “Tony wants to be great”. “He had the fast vehicle all weekend and you knew he was the guy”. When Gordon was introduced – as being from nearby Pittsboro, Indiana – for his pace auto ride-and-wave around the 2.5-mile speedway, the crowd erupted in loud and raucous cheers.
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For his part, Busch started young and spent the callowness of his youth fighting with team owner Rick Hendrick, NASCAR and, above all, himself. The turning point was last year’s comeback from grievous injuries to his leg and foot.
