INDIANAPOLIS – Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet) took command in overtime after a spirited charge through the field at the Brickyard 400, adding another high-profile win to Hendrick Motorsports’ 40th-anniversary season ledger.
The organization is now the reigning champ of the Daytona 500 with William Byron, the Chicago Street Race with Alex Bowman, and — after Sunday — the Brickyard for a record 11th time, with Larson as the newest winner on the list.
Due to a green-white-checkered finish, the race extended seven laps past its scheduled 160-lap distance. The race ended under caution, with Tyler Reddick finishing second.
Larson pitted for four tires and fuel on lap 123 under the green flag. After passing the commitment line, the caution flag came out on the same lap, allowing Larson to restart 23rd (but on the lead lap) when the race resumed. With fresh tires and a full fuel tank, the 31-year-old driver drove up to third when the caution flag came out with three laps remaining. Despite a red flag on the first NASCAR Overtime restart, Larson held off Ryan Blaney to win the Brickyard 400 on the final restart.
The win marks Larson’s third career crown jewel victory. After taking Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Coca-Cola 600 in 2021 and Darlington Raceway’s Southern 500 in 2022, the Elk Grove, California, native has now checked off the Brickyard 400. Only the season-opening DAYTONA 500 remains on the list before Larson would collect all four crown jewel wins.
“What a job by our team,” Larson said after climbing out of his car at the start/finish line. “I mean, never gave up at all. We had the pit stop issue there early on. I just fought and dug and had things work out. Can’t thank them enough. Hendrickcars.com, Valvoline, Chevrolet, JINYA Ramen Bar, Prime, and all the fans too. I love you, Indiana fans.”
There were ten caution periods for a total of 34 laps. Only 24 of the 39 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
Larson remains the championship leader after Indianapolis with a 10-point advantage over second-place Chase Elliott.
Stage 1 Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Bubba Wallace of 23XI Racing (Toyota)
Stewart Haas Race Finish:
- Noah Gragson (Started 21st, Finished 9th / Running, completed 167 of 167 laps)
- Chase Briscoe (Started 20th, Finished 24th / Running, completed 167 of 167 laps)
- Ryan Preece (Started 31st, Finished 26th / Accident, completed 165 of 167 laps)
- Josh Berry (Started 37th, Finished 35th / Accident, completed 104 of 167 laps)
Stewart Haas Race Points:
- Chase Briscoe (16th with 469 points, 280 out of first)
- Josh Berry (22nd with 388 points, 361 out of first)
- Noah Gragson (23rd with 383 points, 366 out of first)
- Ryan Preece (26th with 329 points, 420 out of first)
Gragson earned his seventh top-10 of the season, and it came in his first career Brickyard 400.
Gragson finished 10th in Stage 1 to earn one bonus point. He led once for three laps.
“We struggled at the beginning part of the weekend, but definitely grateful to come back to Indy,” said said Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Ford Mustang Dark Horse. “I don’t know officially where we’d be with those guys running out of gas off of turn four, but we had plenty of fuel. Drew Blickensderfer (crew chief) called a great race and it’s always fun to have Bass Pro Shops on the hood. We struggled on Friday in practice and got a little better in qualifying. We qualified 21st and we just made progress all day. We got a stage point in Stage 1. Strategy, you never know when the caution is going to come out, but Drew made some great calls. I had more gas than the rest of them there and for a second I thought it was going to be Nashville 2.0 with a bunch of restarts, but we were able to hang on and come out of here unscathed.”
Chase Briscoe finished 10th in Stage 2 to earn one bonus point.
This was a home race for Briscoe as he grew up in nearby Mitchell.
“It was kind of a rough weekend for us from a speed standpoint,” said Chase Briscoe, the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse driver. “We were never really that good or that great. Made our car quite a bit better, but we still were never good enough to win, but we got it up in the mix. I was able to get it up there in the top five for a little bit. The strategy just didn’t go our way. We pitted to prevent what happened at Nashville and then obviously got to where we got in a wreck. It was disappointing. We were kind of up and down all day and thought we were going to be in good position if the cautions kept coming out to be in the mix there in the top-five, but obviously we got caught up in that big wreck. It’s kind of part of the deal at the end of these races. Anytime you have a caution with less than 10 to go, it all turns into chaos and we all start doing stupid stuff. That’s certainly what happened there. Everybody was in a really weird fuel situation there and we kind of hedged our bets hoping there would be more cautions, and then the wreck got us. Frustrating, for sure. Our car was definitely better than where we finished, but we’ll be back. Wish our results could’ve been a bit better, but everything that kind of could go wrong went wrong for us at the end. It’s cool to be back on the oval, the history of it. Hopefully, we can do it again next year. Every time I come here, I feel the love from the Hoosier State. It’s always nice to be back home and appreciated. I wish we could’ve had a better result for them, but I definitely feel the love and that’s my favorite part about coming home.”
“We just got caught in a tough spot there at the end of the race. We decided to stay out and risk it on fuel, and it just didn’t work in our favor today.,” said Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse.
“It looked like when I was riding back there, I guess the 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) got spun out or something,” Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 Panini/Caitlin Clark Ford Mustang Dark Horse. “We were all just stacking, and I think I just got clipped from behind and turned into the wall. It’s an unfortunate end. It’s been a tough weekend. Honestly, today our car was really competitive. I was actually really happy with the car. We obviously started in the back and never could get the track position. I had a tough day on pit road, too. Every time we’d get top-20, we’d get knocked back. Honestly, I had a good experience today, really. We passed cars and had a good balance throughout the race. I really was pretty happy with it. We just needed something to just go our way, strategy-wise, to get up front. All in all, the guys did a great job. I put us in a hole in qualifying, but the car was pretty solid today. We’ve got some things to clean up, but we’ll go get ’em next time.”
Next Up:
The NASCAR Cup Series gets a two-week respite before returning to action on Sunday, August 11, for the Cook Out 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. The race begins at 6:00 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
