Kyle Busch Makes History With Back-To-Back Indy Wins

Kyle Busch crushed the field in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, writing another page of history in the process as he scored his second straight victory in the Brickyard 400.

That’s not to say Busch didn’t have to sweat a little about the win. The defending series champion had to deal with extremely hot weather conditions during the day.

On top of that, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver had to hold off some tough competition through three cautions with less than 10 laps to go in regulation, a red flag to clean up from an accident and two overtime restarts to score the win.

Busch said he didn’t expect to be as dominant on the day as he was, leading 149 of the race’s 170 laps.

“This Toyota was awesome today, it was just so fast and able to get out front and stay out front,” he said. “Not even some of my teammates could challenge. This was hooked up and on rails.”

The only major challenge came on the first overtime restart, when Joey Logano was able to get alongside Busch’s No. 18 Skittles Toyota going through turn one, a move no one else had been able to make all day. But that went away when Jamie McMurray spun behind the leaders, gathering up Ryan Newman in the process.

That gave Busch back the advantage on the final restart, from which he checked out on the field to take the win.

“Adam Stevens (crew chief) and these guys are a phenomenal group and I’m proud to be with them,” said Busch. “It’s fun to come out here and have such a dominant piece at Indy. They don’t come along often so I was just hoping I didn’t screw it up.”

Busch made history by becoming the first driver to sweep both NASCAR races and both poles on the weekend, having won Saturday’s Xfinity Series race from the pole position.

“It’s so cool because it hasn’t been done before,” Busch said. “I’ve tried and been successful at being able to do a lot of things that others haven’t been able to do before. I guess I give myself more chances than others because I run more of those races. It helps you and when it helps you win on Sunday, that’s what makes everything so worthwhile on those Saturday races.”

Logano and his Team Penske teammate, Brad Keselowski, had earlier tried to get an advantage over the competition, driving deep into the first long green flag run and pitting late, eliminating the need for one of the pit stops during the race.

That strategy went away with a caution on lap 52, when fellow Ford driver Greg Biffle hit the wall in turn 2. That handed control of the race back to Busch.

While Busch dominated the day, the last portion of the race gave his competitors a chance to steal the victory away from him, as five caution flags and one red flag flew in the final 10 laps.

The first of those came out on lap 150 for debris in turn two. Several drivers, including Keselowski, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick hit pit road for fresh tires.

Busch retook the lead on lap 153, with Busch retaining the top spot, followed by his teammate Matt Kenseth and Logano. Behind them, JGR teammate Carl Edwards slipped up the track in turn 1, clipping Ryan Newman and triggering a multi-car crash that included Keselowski, Ryan Blaney and Danica Patrick.

No one was injured, but race officials threw the red flag to allow for track clean up.

The race would resume with two laps left in regulation, with Busch again taking control on the drop of the green. As the field thundered down the backstretch, contact between Trevor Bayne and Clint Bowyer sent both spinning into the inside wall. That drew the seventh caution of the day, sending the race into overtime.

After the turn 1 crash between McMurray and Newman sent the race into a second Overtime, Busch powered away from the field on the final restart, and drove away to the win.

Kenseth finished in second, with Jimmie Johnson in third, Hamlin in fourth and Kyle Larson in fifth.

Kevin Harvick, Logano, Martin Truex, Jr., Austin Dillon and Paul Menard rounded out the top ten.

While Busch celebrated the win by kissing the yard of bricks at the start/finish line, two other drivers took a special lap as they finished their final races at Indianapolis.

Tony Stewart, who is retiring from full time driving at the end of the year, used a three wide move to pull himself up to second on the opening lap of the race. But he would fade back in the pack over the course of the race, hindered by a pit road speeding penalty. In the end, the two-time Brickyard 400 winner finished 11th.

“This has been the most relaxing Brickyard I’ve ever had and the most fun I’ve had at a Brickyard,” Stewart said. “It was fun to win those two races, but it was stressful to do it. For some reason this weekend, Drew Brown and Eddie Jarvis and everybody just made my schedule as open as they could to let me enjoy it and we did. We had a lot of fun this weekend from start to finish.”

Meanwhile, five-time Brickyard 400 winner Jeff Gordon, coming out of retirement to relief drive for Dale Earnhardt, Jr., fought the handling on the No. 88 Chevrolet all day, and was never a factor in the race. In the end, he came home with a solid 13th place finish.

Gordon said he enjoyed moments during the race.

“When we were up in 12th and Greg (Ives, crew chief) made an excellent call to come in a little early,” said Gordon. “We got the car much better. I was having fun at that point. This is a challenging, challenging race track. Really hard to get all four corners. There were moments of fun. I didn’t want to see those restarts. I’m horrible on restarts. So those didn’t help us any, but I got a few back on that last one.”

Gordon will again drive in relief for Earnhardt, Jr. in next week’s race at Pocono Raceway.

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Indianapolis Motor Speedway – Speedway, IN
Brickyard 400 – July 24, 2016

1. (1) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 170.
2. (18) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 170.
3. (13) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 170.
4. (4) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 170.
5. (10) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 170.
6. (7) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 170.
7. (14) Joey Logano, Ford, 170.
8. (8) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 170.
9. (12) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 170.
10. (23) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 170.
11. (3) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 170.
12. (16) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 170.
13. (21) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 170.
14. (22) Chris Buescher #, Ford, 170.
15. (15) Chase Elliott #, Chevrolet, 170.
16. (11) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 170.
17. (5) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 170.
18. (26) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 170.
19. (9) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 170.
20. (33) Landon Cassill, Ford, 169.
21. (31) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 169.
22. (24) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 169.
23. (27) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 168.
24. (34) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 168.
25. (29) Aric Almirola, Ford, 168.
26. (37) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 168.
27. (32) Brian Scott #, Ford, 168.
28. (38) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 167.
29. (35) * Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 167.
30. (20) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 167.
31. (6) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, Accident, 166.
32. (36) * Ryan Ellis(i), Toyota, 166.
33. (39) * Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 165.
34. (40) Patrick Carpentier, Ford, 164.
35. (2) Carl Edwards, Toyota, Accident, 154.
36. (17) * Ryan Blaney #, Ford, Accident, 152.
37. (28) David Ragan, Toyota, Accident, 117.
38. (25) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, Overheating, 71.
39. (19) Greg Biffle, Ford, Accident, 53.
40. (30) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, Engine, 4.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 128.94 mph.

Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 17 Mins, 46 Secs. Margin of Victory: 2.126 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 8 for 34 laps.

Lead Changes: 4 among 3 drivers.

Lap Leaders: Kyle Busch 1-26; B. Keselowski 27-41; Kyle Busch 42-55; J. Logano 56-61; Kyle Busch 62-170.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Kyle Busch 3 times for 149 laps; B. Keselowski 1 time for 15 laps; J. Logano 1 time for 6 laps.

Top 16 in Points: K. Harvick – 671; B. Keselowski – 647; Kurt Busch – 627; J. Logano – 606; Kyle Busch – 601; C. Edwards – 593; M. Truex Jr. – 573; J. Johnson – 552; M. Kenseth – 545; D. Hamlin – 542; C. Elliott # – 525; A. Dillon – 520; R. Newman – 507; J. Mcmurray – 496; K. Larson – 472; K. Kahne – 462.