Kyle Busch Completes Weekend Sweep With Brickyard 400 Win

Nothing could stop Kyle Busch this past weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as he went on to capture his first win in the Brickyard 400 on Sunday.

In route to his third straight win, which marks the fourth of the season, Busch outran his former teammate Joey Logano in the final laps of the green-white-checker finish. The win ended up being his second of the weekend after capturing the victory in Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race with a last lap pass.

Busch’s hopes to reach the Chase for the Sprint Cup is starting to become more of a reality. Busch missed the first eleven races of the year after being injured in a crash at the Daytona International Speedway. He goes into Pocono next weekend sitting 23 points out of the top 30 in driver standings. NASCAR’s rules state that a driver must be inside the top 30 in order to make the Chase.

While in victory lane after the race, Busch talked about finding his happy place and capturing the win at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“Nothing better than being in Victory Lane,” said Busch. “Nothing better than being in Victory Lane for one of the biggest wins of my career.”

Chevrolet has gone to victory lane in the last 12 races at the 2.5-mile track in the Sprint Cup Series. That streak certainly came to an end on Sunday with Busch’s victory. He also became the first driver to sweep a weekend there.

Logano will leave the 2.5-mile track with his best finish at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Logano led three different times for a total of 28 laps led to finish in the runner-up spot.

It was a bitter sweet Sunday afternoon for Jeff Gordon as he would make his final appearance at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a driver. Gordon took the green flag in the 19th starting spot. Things went bad for the driver on lap 49 as he and Bowyer made contact in turn three. This would be the result as the second of nine cautions of the day. This caused the No. 24 team to go behind the wall and make repairs to the damaged car. Gordon will leave Indianapolis with a 42nd-place finish.

Jimmie Johnson continues to show the way at the top of the Chase Grid going into next weekend’s event at the Pocono Raceway. Clint Bowyer, who had a roller coaster kind of day on Sunday, will slide right back into it via points after finishing sixth. Bowyer is currently the 16th driver in the category if the Chase began next week. 

Christine Valdez