SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Recap by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Matt Sullivan/Getty Images photo —
“I guess Kyle’s back.”
That astute observation from Team Penske’s Joey Logano was the perfect description of not just Sunday afternoon’s final result at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but the entire NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season for the driver he was referring to, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch.
Busch used a perfectly-timed run on a restart with eight laps to go to seize the lead from race-long dominator Kevin Harvick, and then held the lead over Logano on two successive restarts to lay claim to the world’s most famous speedway and win his first career Brickyard 400 in the historic race’s 22nd running.
The race was extended to 164 laps due to a green-white-checkered finish resulting from Trevor Bayne’s crash in turn two with two laps to go in regulation, only the second race at IMS to go into overtime.
The win was Busch’s fourth Sprint Cup win of the season (all in the past five races), third in a row and the 33rd of his young but storied career. It also marked a weekend sweep for the Las Vegas, Nev. driver, who won the NASCAR XFINITY Series race on Saturday as a prelude to the Brickyard 400.
“We had a lot of fun today,” Busch said. “We tried some different strategies there toward the end that kind of worked in our favor. I wasn’t sure about it, but those late restarts definitely worked in our favor and to come home with a victory here at the Brickyard 400 there’s nothing else like it. It’s probably the biggest one of my career so far, and hopefully there’s more wins here at the Brickyard and bigger wins in the series yet for me.”
The win was also Toyota’s first career victory at IMS, giving the manufacturer wins at every active Sprint Cup Series track as a result.
Busch made up 35 points on 30th place in the standings Sunday, and now sits only 23 points away from being inside the top 30 in points and claiming a spot in the Sprint Cup Chase Grid.
“It’s just a true testament to what this team is all about,” Busch said of his team’s — and his own — comeback drive. “I knew we had a really good car on Friday when I was just going out there practicing by myself. It drove really good by itself and I knew we’d have a good shot if we could get out there and get out front. I felt like we were the strongest car by ourselves, but traffic was just so hard to pass.”
In a race that went largely green through the first two-thirds of the day, Logano jumped to the lead on the opening lap ahead of polesitter Carl Edwards and paced the field through lap 12, when Edwards used a power run down the frontstretch to take the point after Logano reported debris on the grill opening of his No. 22 Ford.
A quick green flag run saw the first round of pit stops hit at lap 27, with Edwards opting to delay his stop until lap 32 and be the bookend to the opening cycle. That move would prove to be beneficial for Harvick, as the Stewart-Haas Racing driver and defending Sprint Cup champion would hold the lead when the field came back around and cycled out at lap 34.
Harvick held the lead through the race’s second caution — for balloons on the backstretch — but lost the top spot when Logano stayed out for track position. Logano would pace the field through his next scheduled stop at lap 63, when Harvick re-assumed command.
Harvick’s pit strategy would keep him back out front until after the halfway point of the race, at which point another green flag pit cycle saw Busch assume the lead for the first time at lap 86. That lead would be short-lived, however, as a debris caution and another shuffle in pit strategy put Harvick back out front on slightly older tires with 63 laps to go.
Two more cautions inside of 60 laps to go saw Harvick retain command under green, but pit strategy shuffle the deck for a third time — leaving David Ragan as the race leader with 35 laps to go and short on fuel. Both Ragan and Keselowski would take turns at the front before pitting for the fuel they needed to make it to the finish, handing the lead again to Harvick as the caution flew with 20 laps to go.
After cleanup from a blown tire by Justin Allgaier and a skirmish involving Aric Almirola and Trevor Bayne, and another caution for a spinning Dale Earnhardt Jr. in turn one with 13 laps to go, Harvick led the field to green on the race-defining restart — where Denny Hamlin gave Harvick such a big push that it got Harvick out of shape, allowing Busch to get by for a career-defining victory in one of NASCAR’s crown jewel events.
“There is no question that we’ve certainly over exceeded,” Busch admitted. “We just wanted to come back and get back into a rhythm of things and finish top 20, finish top 15, get to some top 10s, but right when I did come back, I felt right ready to go. I didn’t want to come back and not be ready to contend for race wins or contend for top 5s, top 10s. You know, when I did come back, I knew that that was what we were going to be here to do. But I wasn’t sure it was going to come this quick.”
“Gelling with (crew chief) Adam Stevens and just getting used to him as a crew chief, obviously I’ve worked with him on the XFINITY side but never at the Sprint Cup level. This is an entirely different game up here, but it’s all worked, and we’ve certainly exceeded our expectations. This is just a run that anybody would have ever imagined including myself or my wife or my team. And now we’ve won at the Brickyard. That’s really special.”
“We’re going to bask in the moment and enjoy it.”
For Logano, who finished second, the sting of defeat was tough. He was trying to both sweep the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 in the same season and hand team owner Roger Penske his first Cup win at IMS — the only event Penske has fielded cars in at the historic track where he does not have at least one win.
“What is he, four out of five the last few races? That’s pretty damned good,” Logano said. “Apparently he’s been watching while he’s been getting ready and he’s a man on a mission. I just got to hope he slows down a little bit before the Chase starts.”
“It is disappointing, but we still finished second and we’ll take that momentum and go on to Pocono.”
Harvick finished third after leading 75 laps on the afternoon, also frustrated with the way the final series of restarts played out.
“We had a great day,” Harvick said. “I think everybody did a great job, just in that, I guess, second or third to last restart where the 22 (Logano) and 18 (Busch) were able to get hooked up and kind of drive by us and I lost control of the race there and didn’t really have what I wanted on the restarts once the 18 got control, the speed was too high and I spun the tires on the next one, and just didn’t get the restarts all put together like I needed to.”
“It just didn’t all pan out there at the end, but everybody did a great job all day.”
Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five.
Clint Bowyer was sixth in an impressive run for Michael Waltrip Racing, followed by Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Kyle Larson and Keselowski.
Former Brickyard winner Ryan Newman rallied from dead-last on the grid to finish 11th, while polesitter Carl Edwards was shuffled backwards during the late-race restarts and crossed the line 13th.
Jeff Gordon’s day — and his hopes for a record sixth Brickyard 400 triumph — came to an end on lap 51 following the race’s first caution for balloons on the backstretch. On the ensuing restart, Gordon and Bowyer got together and crashed, leaving Gordon’s No. 24 3M Chevrolet with heavy damage and unable to contend for the victory.
Gordon ultimately finished 42nd in his final Brickyard 400, the race that truly sparked the rise of his star-studded career.
“Today was an unfortunate day,” Gordon said. “It seems like in recent years it’s been kind of feast or famine for us here. But I tell you what, from the first time I came here all the way through last year and even this year the fans have been amazing, the experiences have been amazing, the wins.”
“Everything has been incredible and I feel so fortunate to have just gotten an opportunity to race here. Certainly to have five wins here is just unbelievable as well.”
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to action at Pocono Raceway on August 2 for the Windows 10 400.
RESULTS: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series; Crown Royal presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard; Indianapolis Motor Speedway; July 26, 2015
- Kyle Busch
- Joey Logano
- Kevin Harvick
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Denny Hamlin
- Clint Bowyer
- Matt Kenseth
- Kurt Busch
- Kyle Larson
- Brad Keselowski
- Ryan Newman
- Ryan Blaney
- Carl Edwards
- Paul Menard
- Jimmie Johnson
- Jamie McMurray
- Sam Hornish Jr.
- Chase Elliott
- Greg Biffle
- Casey Mears
- David Ragan
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- A.J. Allmendinger
- Kasey Kahne
- Austin Dillon
- Landon Cassill
- Danica Patrick
- Tony Stewart
- David Gilliland
- Michael Annett
- Michael McDowell
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Cole Whitt
- Brett Moffitt
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Brian Scott
- Justin Allgaier
- Aric Almirola
- J.J. Yeley
- Trevor Bayne
- Timmy Hill
- Jeff Gordon
- Alex Bowman
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network. Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s. He is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for both the United Sprint Car Series and the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
Email Jacob at: speed77radio@gmail.com
Follow on Twitter: @Speed77Radio or @JacobSeelman77
