Kyle Busch completed a weekend sweep at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a win at the 22nd annual Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard to go with his win Saturday in the NASCAR XFINITY Series Lilly Diabetes 250.
Busch, who missed the first 11 races of the Sprint Cup season due to injury, has remarkably won the last three Sprint Cup races in a row and four of the last five.
“I just can’t believe this run right now, I just can’t believe what’s going on,” said Busch, driver of the No. 18 Skittles Toyota. “The Skittles Camry was awesome and I knew if you got us out front we could just drive away. It’s really a treat to win here in Indy.”
Today’s race came down to a green-white-checkered finish between Busch, on the inside of the front row, and 2015 Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano, who was trying to capture the first Crown Royal 400 at the Brickyard win for legendary team owner Roger Penske.
As the green flag waved, Busch took command going into Turn 1 and continued to lengthen his lead until he crossed the Yard of Bricks as the victor with a .332 of a second winning margin over Logano.
Busch was asked if the injury that caused him to miss races earlier this season brought him a different perspective that has helped his recent performance.
“It must have, I don’t know,” Busch said. “I just think maybe I found my happy place, I don’t know. There’s nothing better than being in victory lane for one of the biggest wins of my career here in Indy, and sweeping the weekend is even bigger yet.”
With today’s performance, Busch, who finished second at Indianapolis in 2012 and 2014, now has nine top-10 finishes in 11 starts at Indianapolis. He led 19 laps in today’s race.
Logano’s runner-up finish is his best at IMS in seven races and his fourth top-10 performance. Logano entered the final restart hoping to secure his first win at Indianapolis.
“When you come here to the Brickyard it’s all about the win and you throw caution to the wind, especially in our situation, and you try to just win the race,” Logano said. “It’s checkers or wreckers basically, and we had a good restart – we had good restarts all day – but the last one was a good one. The 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) got to Kyle and started pushing him and when those cars hooked up and locked bumpers it takes so much drag off the car and they were able to push ahead and I wasn’t going to do nothing there. I got a good draft down the backstretch and he was going to block the bottom and I didn’t have a good enough run to get underneath him. All I could do was hope that he missed his corner and try to get underneath him that way. It’s just so frustrating and close to winning here at the Brickyard, and second hurts.”
Third-place finisher and reigning Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick, who led a race-high 75 laps, posted his ninth top-10 finish in 15 races at IMS in his No. 4 Jimmy John’s/Budweiser Chevrolet.
“Yeah, we lost the lead there (during a late restart),”Harvick said. “The 18 (Busch) and 22 (Logano) got hooked up on the restart there and got by us in Turn 1. The No. 78 (Truex Jr.) and I didn’t really get together and weren’t able to keep the lead. Then I lost the lead and Kyle had a faster pace than I wanted to go and spun the tires, and then he was able to keep the lead. I just didn’t put it together there at the end.”
Truex Jr. finished fourth in his No. 78 Furniture Row Visser Precision Chevrolet, which is his best finish in 10 Indianapolis starts.
Rounding out the top five was Denny Hamlin, who finished fifth in the FedEx Express Toyota. Other notables included Ryan Newman of South Bend, Indiana, who finished 11th in the No. 31 Grainger Chevrolet after starting 43rd; polesitter Carl Edwards, 13th in the No. 19 Stanley Toyota; four-time Brickyard winner Jimmie Johnson, 15th in the No. 48 Kobalt Tools Chevrolet, and two-time Brickyard winner and Columbus, Indiana, native Tony Stewart, 28th in the No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet.
In his 22nd and final start at the Brickyard, Jeff Gordon, of nearby Pittsboro, Indiana, saw his storybook ending for a sixth title thwarted on Lap 50 when Clint Bowyer spun in the north short chute, causing Gordon to spin and resulting in Gordon’s car hitting the inside wall. Gordon made it back to his pit, but his No. 24 3M Chevrolet was seriously damaged. Gordon’s crew made repairs to the car and he returned to the track briefly before heading to the garage for additional work. Gordon returned to the track once more late in the race and finished 42nd after completing 110 laps.
“I don’t know,” Gordon said. “I was underneath Kasey Kahne and we were just racing for position. I saw Bowyer get sideways. I don’t know what caused it. Me and Kasey were trying to check up to avoid it. I don’t know if he got loose or we just both got loose together. Then I just lost control and got in the wall.”
Gordon ends his Brickyard career with five wins, three poles, 12 top-five finishes, 17 top-10 finishes, 14 races led and 528 laps led in 22 appearances – all records.
SOURCE: Indianapolis Motor Speedway • PHOTOS: Brian Groce