SPEEDWAY, Indiana — Kyle Busch dominated the Combat Wounded Coalition 400 at the Brickyard, a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday on his way to his second-straight Brickyard win.
“This Toyota was awesome today; it was just so fast and able to get out front and stay out front. Not even some of my teammates could challenge. This was hooked up and on rails,” Busch said.
To claim his fourth win of the season, Busch had to hold off the competition on four restarts inside the final 10 laps in a race more commonly known as the Brickyard 400.
A sixth caution for a six-car wreck resulted in a red flag and what was expected to be a two-lap sprint to the finish. Of the cars involved, those sustaining the most damage were Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Newman. The checkered flag didn’t come two laps later, though, as an incident between Trevor Bayne and Clint Bowyer less than a lap after the restart, again, brought out the yellow flag for the seventh time in the race.
“I felt like I just got tight down there,” Edwards said. “I had a little trouble, there, on the starts and I got down there. We were fighting really hard for the bottom, and it felt like I got tight with whoever was on the outside of me. If, indeed, that is what happened, I apologize. That’s pretty frustrating.”
When the race restarted from the seventh caution, the race field didn’t get to turn one before an incident involving Jamie McMurray, Newman and Brian Scott brought the yellow flag right back out for an eighth caution and another restart.
Matt Kenseth finished second to give Joe Gibbs Racing a one-two finish. Jimmie Johnson was third to give the four-car team of Hendrick Motorsports its first top-10 finish in four races. A third JGR driver, Denny Hamlin, finished fourth to give the Gibbs organization three cars inside the top-five of the finishing order. Kyle Larson rounded out the top-five.
Joey Logano got from third to second between the sixth and seventh cautions and was on the front row next to Busch on the final restart, but he dropped back to seventh by the checkered flag.
“It was just not good,” Logano said of his final restart. “I had a decent restart the first time, and the second one I probably had just as good of a restart, but the 20 (Kenseth) got underneath me, and I was kind of stuck from that point and kind of fell into the clutches of the tires behind me. I was trying to stay down and be where I needed to be to get in front of them, but they just kept turning underneath me. I hate that we finished seventh, but it’s probably where we deserved to finish from a speed point of view.”
Busch was never passed on the track throughout the race. Early in the race, Team Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Logano began a strategy of making one less stop. Both led laps, but it was a strategy both driver aborted by the halfway point of the race.
After Busch started on the pole and led early, he pitted under green on lap 27, handing the lead over to Keselowski. Still planning to make one less stop, Keselowski and Logano stayed out until lap 42 before hitting pit road for the first time.
When Keselowski and Logano finally pitted, Busch returned to the lead. Logano stayed out when the yellow flag waved for a Greg Biffle incident on lap 53, assuming the race lead. Keselowski got off pit road first by taking only two tires. When the race restarted, Keselowski slipped back several positions, and Logano eventually lost the lead to Busch on lap 62. After losing the lead, Logano lost additional positions.
Jeff Gordon, driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr. while he recovers from concussion symptoms, finished 13th.
Keselowski and Logano were the only two drivers other than Busch to lead laps, with Keselowski running up front for 15 laps and Logano six.