Kyle Busch kisses his wife Samantha as he holds their son Brexton after wining the Brickyard 400 NASCAR auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Sunday, July 24, 2016.
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But nobody was better than Busch this weekend. “I think it’s only fitting that all of us in this room, along with the millions of fans around the world, recognize what you’ve brought to this sport and congratulate you on all you’ve done, and say, ‘Thank you'”. “Of course, Interstate Batteries”. “This Toyota was so awesome”. Not even some of my teammates could challenge. This thing was hooked up; it was on rails.
“I hoped it (the car) would be that good and it was just so fast, ” Busch said from victory lane, “To get out front and stay out front where not even our own teammates could get us, this auto was on rails”. A sixth caution for a six-car wreck resulted in a red flag and what was expected to be a two-lap sprint to the finish.
On the Lap 154 restart, Carl Edwards made contact with Ryan Newman. “Being out of the vehicle this long made me realize how tough this really is”. We were fighting really hard for the bottom, and it felt like I got tight with whoever was on the outside of me.
“If indeed that is what happened, I apologize”.
Stewart pronounced Brickyard ’16 enjoyable to the max.
Matt Kenseth, Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, finished second. Denny Hamlin overcame a speeding penalty to finish fourth.
Kenseth said on the final restart he was able to get underneath Logano entering Turn 1 and the vehicle was tight. “Everything went the way we wanted it to just came up short today. I hate that we finished seventh, but it’s probably where we deserved to finish from a speed point of view”.
Busch was at the front of the pack the entire race. “And, we are all going to work together to do our best to continue to keep that excitement and momentum in the team there for when he is ready to come back, so he comes back and doesn’t miss a beat and can win some races”.
The difference: Busch’s perfectly-timed restarts.
He surrendered the lead for 14 laps after his first pit stop, regained it when race leader Brad Keselowski pitted then gave it up again for only five laps when he made his second pit stop. Keselowski got off pit road first by taking only two tires.
Busch took the lead from Joey Logano on Lap 62 and never trailed. After losing the lead, Logano lost additional positions.
“It was a long race”, he said. We got the vehicle much better. “When that caution came out with 10 or 11 to go, that was sort of the kick (in the butt) that we didn’t want to see”. After winning each of the last four NASCAR races at Indy, the two-time Brickyard victor was asked if he wanted to follow his brother’s lead and try the 500. Jimmie Johnson, who fell a lap down earlier in the race after a pit-road penalty, was third. He returned to top-five territory in the closing laps.
“We never got in front of him (Kyle Busch) all day”, Kenseth stated after his third runner-up finish in the event, “I don’t think anybody else got the lead to see if anybody else had anything”.
Busch, who won for the fourth time this season, became the first driver in NASCAR history to win both the Xfinity and Cup races from the pole in the same weekend.
Now, Busch is in ideal position to become the second Cup driver to win the 400 back-to-back. Edwards was second at 184.547 and Stewart, an IN favorite, will start third IN the final race on his home track after posting a 184.328. Stewart is a two-time victor at his home track.
“This is still one of the top ten crowds that NASCAR Sprint Cup races will have this season”. I thought previous year was going to be my final race. The Sonoma race was his first Sprint Cup race since 2011.
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Stewart is making his final appearance at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he’s won twice.
