SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Kyle Busch claimed his first Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard victory Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday.
Although it was his first win in the race also known as the Brickyard 400, Sunday’s victory was Busch’s third consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win and his fourth in the last five races.
Joey Logano finished second after battling Busch for the lead on a green-white-checker restart following the ninth yellow flag of the race. Busch took the lead from Kevin Harvick on a restart with eight laps to go.
Harvick finished third, Martin Truex Jr. was fourth, and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five.
Harvick gave up the race lead when his car was hit while headed down pit road for the final time during the fifth caution of the race. As a result, he restarted eighth with 36 laps to go.
At that point, David Ragan restarted with the lead.
Ragan pitted under green a few laps later, handing the lead over to Brad Keselowski.
Harvick was back up front when Keselowski pitted under yellow just inside 20 laps to go. Busch restarted third behind Harvick and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Carl Edwards and then took second from Edwards on the restart.
Harvick was the leader at the halfway point by a margin of more than four seconds over his boss and teammate at Stewart-Haas Racing, Tony Stewart, as Stewart continued to hold off Keselowski. He gave up that lead a few laps later to head for pit road for a scheduled green-flag pit stop.
After several others pitted, Busch moved into the top spot and was leading when the yellow flag flew for the third time just past lap 90.
Harvick, among others, stayed out during the yellow flag, while Busch led another group down pit road. As a result, Harvick was back up front for the restart with Keselowski next to him on the front row for a restart just before the lap 100 mark.
Edwards had started on the pole, but lost the lead to Logano on the first lap. Edwards and Busch stayed out a few laps longer during a cycle of green-flag pit stops around lap 32, putting Edwards back up front for a few laps.
But when he finally hit pit road, Harvick cycled to the lead.
Pit strategies began to vary when the yellow flag waved for the first time on lap 45, with strategies for some taking on a road course-type flair with teams scheduling pit stops by counting laps backward from the end of the race.
Logano was among those who stayed out during the first yellow flag, inheriting the lead and holding the top spot until he turned the position back over to Harvick when he headed for pit road under green just before lap 65.
Jeff Gordon’s bid to extend his Indy record to a sixth win flew out the window at the lap-50 mark, courtesy of an incident with Clint Bowyer that resulted in significant damage to Gordon’s car.