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Kyle Busch clearly had the best car in Sunday's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That much was evident in him leading a race-record 149 of 170 laps and routinely building multi-second gaps over second place.
Yet as dominant as Busch was, a rash of late cautions kept things interesting and gave the field a chance. One such restart saw Joey Logano pull alongside Busch entering Turn 1 only for a multi-car crash to break out, necessitating a double-overtime finish.
But as he had all afternoon, Busch executed flawlessly. He got the better of Logano on the decisive restart and pulled away to win the Brickyard for a second consecutive year and his fourth overall victory of the season.
"Every caution that came out it was like, ‘Ahh, again.' You always seem to get them," Busch said. "We had such a really good car and I didn't want to see any yellows. I figured our strength was our long run speed, but we also had short run speed too and could get out on the field there the first couple of laps.
"It was a great day for us. This was really fun. All those restarts just made it more challenging and we rose to the occasion and we were able to win this thing."
Matt Kenseth, Busch's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, finished second. Jimmie Johnson overcame a pit road speeding penalty to place third, with Denny Hamlin in another JGR entry finishing fourth and Kyle Larson fifth.
Tony Stewart finished 11th in his final Brickyard start. The 44-year-old is retiring at the end of the year and emphasized performing well at the track located roughly an hour from his home in Columbus, Ind.
For most of the day, Stewart ran in or near the top 10 until he was penalized for speeding on pit road and fell down a lap. The rash of late cautions put the three-time Sprint Cup champion back on the same lap as the leaders, but he could only drive to 11th before the checkered flag waved.
"I really did the team wrong, I got a penalty on the last stop and that is a green flag stop that turned into a yellow and got us a lap down," Stewart said. "So, fought back and got something respectable out of this. Didn't leave anything out there."
Jeff Gordon finished 13th on Sunday, his first race since retiring last November. He was pressed into service when Dale Earnhardt Jr. was diagnosed with concussion-like symptoms and will continue driving the No. 88 car until Earnhardt is medically cleared to return.
Stewart and Gordon, who spent his formative years in nearby Pittsboro, Ind., took a commemorative lap post-race in front of the partisan crowd. The good friends, and sometimes rivals, then shared an embrace on pit road.
"Most likely is the last time we'll both get a chance to do that," Stewart said. "I couldn't think of a better guy to share that moment with than Jeff."
Said Gordon: "Thank you to Tony Stewart. What a class act he is. It meant a lot to me that he invited me to come and make that last lap with him. It was a special moment."
Brickyard 400 Finishing Order
Position | Driver | Make | Laps | Status | Led |
1 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 170 | Running | 149 |
2 | Matt Kenseth | Toyota | 170 | Running | 0 |
3 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 170 | Running | 0 |
4 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 170 | Running | 0 |
5 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 170 | Running | 0 |
6 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | 170 | Running | 0 |
7 | Joey Logano | Ford | 170 | Running | 6 |
8 | Martin Truex, Jr. | Toyota | 170 | Running | 0 |
9 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 170 | Running | 0 |
10 | Paul Menard | Chevrolet | 170 | Running | 0 |
11 | Tony Stewart | Chevrolet | 170 | Running | 0 |
12 | Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. | Ford | 170 | Running | 0 |
13 | Jeff Gordon | Chevrolet | 170 | Running | 0 |
14 | Chris Buescher | Ford | 170 | Running | 0 |
15 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 170 | Running | 0 |
16 | Kurt Busch | Chevrolet | 170 | Running | 0 |
17 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 170 | Running | 15 |
18 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | 170 | Running | 0 |
19 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | 170 | Running | 0 |
20 | Landon Cassill | Ford | 169 | Running | 0 |
21 | Clint Bowyer | Chevrolet | 169 | Running | 0 |
22 | Danica Patrick | Chevrolet | 169 | Running | 0 |
23 | Michael McDowell | Chevrolet | 168 | Running | 0 |
24 | Casey Mears | Chevrolet | 168 | Running | 0 |
25 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 168 | Running | 0 |
26 | Regan Smith | Chevrolet | 168 | Running | 0 |
27 | Brian Scott | Ford | 168 | Running | 0 |
28 | Michael Annett | Chevrolet | 167 | Running | 0 |
29 | Cole Whitt | Chevrolet | 167 | Running | 0 |
30 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | 167 | Running | 0 |
31 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | 166 | Crash | 0 |
32 | Ryan Ellis | Toyota | 166 | Running | 0 |
33 | Reed Sorenson | Chevrolet | 165 | Running | 0 |
34 | Patrick Carpentier | Ford | 164 | Running | 0 |
35 | Carl Edwards | Toyota | 154 | Crash | 0 |
36 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 152 | Crash | 0 |
37 | David Ragan | Toyota | 117 | Crash | 0 |
38 | A.J. Allmendinger | Chevrolet | 71 | Overheating | 0 |
39 | Greg Biffle | Ford | 53 | Crash | 0 |
40 | Matt DiBenedetto | Toyota | 4 | Engine | 0 |