Kyle Busch continued his Saturday domination at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, catching Ryan Blaney on the last lap for his second win at the Lilly Diabetes 250.
Blaney led Laps 76-99, but a bobble coming out of Turn 2 on the last lap after negotiating lapped traffic allowed Busch, who started on the pole, to dart to the inside for a pass on the back straight and a win by .421 of a second.
“I just got close enough to make him mess up and made him get tight off (Turn) 2 and then I was able to capitalize underneath him when he lost his momentum,” said Busch, who won his first XFINITY race at IMS in 2013 and has led 206 of 400 laps in the four-year history of the event. “The Monster Energy Camry was the class of the field. We should’ve won this thing going away, but I guess we had to make it exciting. Hopefully it was exciting down the last lap for the
Blaney took full blame for falling three turns short of the win.
“It was my fault, obviously,” said Blaney, driver of the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford. “You saw it. I screwed up. The crew did not deserve that. I dropped the ball for them today. I take full responsibility. I got tight and got in too deep and didn’t get right off the corner. I threw it away. It’s a pretty bad feeling to throw one away at the Brickyard. There was no pressure for 25 laps and then the last one – I just made a mistake.”
Daniel Suarez finished third in his No. 18 ARRIS Honda, followed by Paul Menard in the No. 33 Richmond/Menards Chevrolet, Elliott Sadler in the No. 1 OneMain Financial Ford, reigning Sprint Cup Series winner Kevin Harvick in the No. 88 Morton Buildings Chevrolet and Kyle Larson in the No. 42 Dixie Chopper/Big Machine Records/Jacobsen Chevrolet.
Regan Smith finished eighth in his No. 7 AmericasPower.org Chevrolet, and in doing so earned a $100,000 bonus in the NASCAR XFINITY Series “Dash 4 Cash” program.
Busch, who qualified ninth for the Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard, will attempt to win his third Sprint Cup race in a row and fourth in his last five starts.
SOURCE: Indianapolis Motor Speedway • PHOTO: Brian Groce