Kenseth came home second, unable to do anything but watch as his teammate walked away from the field.
“The last (restart) we had, obviously the bottom was the preferred choice, but the 22 (Logano) … I don’t think anybody restarts better than him the last handful of years, especially that initial launch through the gears.”
“With him doing it outside, he did a spectacular job of still being beside Kyle when we got to Turn 1 and I wasn’t up there as close as I was hoping to get. … But got through the gears fine and got in position, I just couldn’t do anything when I got there. Hats off to Kyle, he drove a heck of a race today.”
Jimmie Johnson battled back from being a lap down in the second half, coming home third ahead of Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson.
Kevin Harvick, Logano, Martin Truex Jr., Austin Dillon and Paul Menard rounded out the top 10.
Stewart finished 11th on a day when he qualified third and ran inside the top 10 for most of the race, but was undone by a late-race speeding penalty that pinned him a lap down until a debris caution with 10 to go, when he received the free pass in 19th.
“This has been the most relaxing Brickyard (weekend) I’ve ever had, and this was probably the most fun I’ve had at a Brickyard too,” Stewart admitted. “I mean, it was nice to win those two races, but it was stressful to do it, and for some reason this weekend … Drew Brown, 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.”
“I put us way behind today with a penalty that got us a lap down and at the back of the longest line, and to battle back to 11th I’m pretty proud of that, for our whole team.”
Meanwhile, Gordon finished 13th after qualifying 21st and fighting his way forward for most of the day, running inside the top 10 at one point before fading on the final restart of the race.
“Today was a fight,” Gordon said. “It was challenging to be out there with the best of the best … especially on those restarts. I got my butt kicked today on restarts. It was embarassing. While I was filling in for Dale Jr., and I hope he’s doing good, I needed a fill-in on restarts.”
“Other than that I thought our day went really well. I really liked working with Greg and this whole 88 team. It took us a little while to get the balance right, but the track and adjustments eventually came to us. … We had a fast race car, we just could never get the track position we needed because it was pretty tough to pass out there.”
The pair also made a post-race “victory lap” around the 2.5-mile facility, paying tribute to the legions of Indiana fans that have supported them over the course of their Sprint Cup careers as they concluded what is expected to be their final attempt at the Brickyard.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to action on July 31 at Pocono Raceway, with the running of the Pennsylvania 400.
