He led a race-record 149 of the 170 laps and beat Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Matt Kenseth to the finish line by 2.126 seconds.
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“I didn’t expect it, ” said Busch about his dominance. “I guess, I hoped it would be this way. But this Toyota was awesome today”. I could get out front and stay there, even my teammates couldn’t keep up. He is the first NASCAR driver in history to sweep the pole position and the race wins in both events on one weekend. He was the most dominant driver at Indy since Juan Pablo Montoya led 167 of 200 laps to win the Indy 500 in 2000.
Johnson’s efforts for a fifth Brickyard win were hindered when he received a penalty for speeding on pit road on the 86th lap.
“It definitely helps keep the prestige in the dirt racing going, and if they have more than one race, they’d have to be really careful about where they took the trucks”, said Christopher Bell, who won Eldora past year and finished second last week. Gordon came out of retirement to replace Dale Earnhardt Jr., who missed the race due to concussion symptoms.
Busch won at the Brickyard past year for his first win at the track of his career. “It was a fight. Wow!” Dirt late models don’t have windshields, so dirt kicked back just gets inside the cars.
– Unknown to Stewart, the team had reached out to Gordon as a replacement for Stewart, who was recovering from a back injury from an off-season dune buggy accident in California, for the Daytona 500. Stewart has made rumblings this may be his last season as a full-time driver. Gordon delivered a moving speech in which he thanked Stewart for the impact he has made on the sport and ended with a standing ovation for the three-time Cup champ and two-time Brickyard victor.
Although the Columbus, Ind. enjoyed an extra 25 miles around the 2.5-mile Yard of Bricks when the race was extended by 10 laps of overtime, the three-time Sprint Cup champion wasn’t ready to bid farewell to his home track.
But Busch’s domination overshadowed everything and everyone.
Busch only surrendered the lead once – when he pitted after 27 laps – and retook the lead when Brendan Gaughan made his pit stop.
Given the elimination format of the Chase, how many titles will have come Busch’s way by the time he’s as ancient as Stewart and Gordon is more unpredictable at this point.
The No. 18 auto was so strong that Roger Penske’s drivers started with a strategy of trying stretch their runs long enough to make one fewer pit stop.
It didn’t work. Logano finished seventh and Keselowski wound up 17th.
The only real challenge for Busch came with a series of late crashes, which began when Carl Edwards’ auto wiggled in the first turn on a restart with seven laps to go. This caused him to lose a lap, which put him back in the field and led to picking up damage in a multi-car crash with seven laps to go. His vehicle slid up the track, hitting Keselowski and catching Ryan Blaney, Ryan Newman and Danica Patrick.
The wreck brought out a red flag for nearly eight minutes.
HOT STREAK: After sweeping both Indy races previous year, Busch could do it again.
Driving for Front Row Motorsports team, Landon Cassill was able to post his fourth top-20 finish of the season. Johnson’s comeback broke a streak of six straight races not finishing in the top 10…
TOUGH WEEK: Greg Biffle wanted this weekend to be a tribute for his late father, who died Tuesday. He was involved in a wreck during one of the many overtime restarts that forced him to end his day early.
Even the main grandstand had plenty of empty seats.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series now heads to Pocono Raceway next Sunday afternoon for the Pennsylvania 400.
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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Kyle Busch completed the weekend sweep at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with another dominating performance in Sunday’s Sprint Cup race. George was voted into the chairman roles during Hulman & Co.’s annual meeting in March, but there was no public confirmation of the change until he was introduced as the IMS chairman over the Speedway’s public address system when he stepped out to give the command to start engines for Sunday’s race.
