In a race that played out in a similar fashion to the 2017 running of the Brickyard 400, Sunday’s (July 21) return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval needed multiple overtimes to decide a winner.
In double overtime, Kyle Larson took the lead from Ryan Blaney and held off Tyler Reddick for a series-leading fourth NASCAR Cup Series win of 2024.
Despite seeming to jump the second-to-last restart of the race, Larson was still allowed to keep his position for the race’s final restart, where he pulled away from the field to add another crown jewel to his resume.
“This is such a prestigious place, hallowed ground,” Larson said to NBC Sports’ Marty Snider. “Cool to get a chance to race here on the oval again. Our team never gave up all, just fought and dug. Can’t thank them enough.”
Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney finished second and third, respectively, with Christopher Bell and Bubba Wallace rounding out the top five. Todd Gilliland, Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez, Noah Gragson and Chase Elliott completed the top 10.
It was Indianapolis’ pit road that dealt the first major blow of the afternoon, as Chase Elliott was penalized for prematurely blending onto the racetrack after the first round of green flag pit stops. Denny Hamlin ended up being the biggest winner on the first cycle of stops, as he assumed the race lead and the stage win from Tyler Reddick, who was forced to settle for a fifth-place finish in stage one.
With pit strategies varying under caution, it was Ty Gibbs and Bubba Wallace – both of whom took two tires rather than four – that led the field off pit road. However, Tyler Reddick, Michael McDowell and seven other drivers opted to stay out on the ensuing restart, with John Hunter Nemechek taking the lead on lap 56.
A debris caution on lap 70 bunched the field back up, and the majority of the field pitted, with Kyle Busch and Todd Gilliland leading the field to the green flag. Chaos would ensue on the restart, however, as William Byron, Harrison Burton and AJ Allmendinger found themselves as victims of a hard crash on the exit of turn 2.
With the majority of the field deciding to stay out, Wallace cleared Elliott for the race lead on lap 79. Hamlin would quickly move through the field, though, moving up to third place behind Wallace and Elliott.
With the field trying to save gas for the race’s final stretch, it was Wallace who won stage two. The stage victory was the first for the Mobile, Alabama native since 2022.
With the field’s strategies split in half, Hamlin assumed the race lead under the caution flag. Corey LaJoie led the cars that pitted off of pit road, while 17 drivers elected to stay out.
Hamlin cleared Nemechek on the lap 105 restart, with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. taking over the second position. A stack-up at the back of the field would force another caution flag, however. Martin Truex Jr. would get loose in turn 3, sending his Toyota Camry hard into the outside wall. With the back of the pack slowing up, Josh Berry joined Truex in the outside wall, knocking the driver of the No. 4 out of the race.
While Hamlin grabbed the lead on the next restart, the green flag conditions only lasted for one corner. A pair of champions in Joey Logano and Jimmie Johnson would bring out the caution flag on lap 110, forcing both drivers out of the race.
With Nemechek, Ross Chastain and 11 other drivers choosing to stay on the racetrack, Denny Hamlin and the rest of the field decided to pit, opting to make lap 112 the moment of their final pit stop.
Unlike earlier in the race, Nemechek was unable to rocket to the lead on the lap 115 restart, as Chastain took the lead over Nemechek, Alex Bowman and Larson.
With Chastain, Nemechek, Bowman and other drivers making their final pit stop under green, Truex spun to bring out the caution flag with 36 laps to go. The No. 19 wasn’t the only Joe Gibbs Racing team with an issue late, however, as for the second straight week, engine issues plagued the No. 54 car of Ty Gibbs.
An incident involving Kyle Busch sent the race into overtime.
Brickyard 400 Results From Indy
The Cup Series’ next race will be at Richmond Raceway on Aug. 11. The Federated Auto Parts 400 will go green shortly after 6 p.m. ET, with coverage on USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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It’s a miracle! A miracle I tell you!!! The racing surface is safe to race on until just after the 5 car had taken the white flag then, bam, out comes the caution. Who didn’t see a HMS car winning today after “Mr. H” was the honorary pace car driver…. Worse than the WWE
And don’t forget Larson’s Indy car paint job on his Cup car this weekend.
As far as I was concerned that was the biggest controversy of the race. Forget Keselowski running out of gas, forget about the questionable restart, it was obvious that NASCAR did not want to have another GWC restart and they waited until the white to throw the caution. I’d be fine with that being SOP if they were consistent because I hate GWC finishes, but we all know how that goes.
Now Denny is once again 43 points behind in the regular season standings. Nascar will have to penalize Larson and Elliott two more times for speeding for hamlin to catch back up. Good race for Larson.
NASCAR has lost it’s way. They stole the race by dropping keselowsk and advancing hendrix Larson on an illegal move! They cannot get a race in on TV anymore. It’s either rained out for LATE afternoon thunderstorms or the live feed is cut off because of time constraints. What happened to a decent start time?
Today was the biggest rig of a win I’ve ever seen. I’m disgusted
You obviously missed Larson driving from 23rd to the lead.He was clearly the fastest car and was going to win no matter what .
I hate to admit it, but I miss Fox.
Two weeks in a row now NBC has preempted a Cup race. I can understand last week, the shooting was a major developing news story, but the Biden story broke before the race and NBC had already covered it. Was it necessary to move the last few minutes of the race to cover it again, just so America’s got Talent would start on time? Does anyone believe they’d do that to an NFL or MLB game? Of course not!
The networks have never considered racing a real sport, and still don’t. Instead of looking for more money from the networks, maybe NASCAR should be demanding more respect from them.
NA$CAR will never consider anything that doesn’t make them more money.
“Was it necessary to move the last few minutes of the race to cover it again, just so America’s Got Talent would start on time?”
NBC News and local news were scheduled for 6:00 and 6:30. Everything after that on the schedule were repeats. Had it been an NFL game they would have started the news after the game finished, even if it went into OT. So that tells you just how regarded NASCAR is by the NBC network.