INDIANAPOLIS — AJ Allmendinger took advantage of two frightening multi-car crashes, the leader getting spun out and a penalty — all in the last five laps — to win the Brickyard 200.
He beat Ryan Blaney by 0.929 seconds in the first NASCAR Cup race held on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's road course.
But the victory was overshadowed by two big pileups. With six laps to go, Martin Truex Jr. caught the curb and crashed. But, a caution wasn't called and racing continued.
Historic Brickyard 200 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
On the next lap, however, there was mayhem. In the same spot, William Byron ran over the blue curb. It tore up his car and caused a massive chain reaction behind him. Kyle Busch and Daniel Suarez were among 16 cars that went spinning off the track.
Video captured number 22 Joey Logano hitting the wall. Luckily, he was able to climb out of his car after the crash.
NASCAR didn't report any serious injuries from the crash. The cars, track and wall, on the other hand, sustained some damage and left behind a lot to clean up.
Officials waved the red flag to make repairs and rebuild the wall Logano slammed into. They ended up completely taking away the blue curb. Although this was an unusual move, officials ultimately decided it was easier to take the whole thing away.
Then, the team at Indianapolis Motor Speedway worked to clear the track of debris. Even IMS President Doug Boles ran to help. He lost his suit jacket and grabbed a broom to start sweeping up debris.
When the repairs were finally done, the race headed into overtime. But again there was another big crash at turn 6.
This time, Michael McDowell went airborne, which led to several cars crashing. Once again, officials waved the red flag, cleaned up and after some waiting, they started back up again.
Finally, after all this madness and over an hour of crashing and fixing and crashing and, again, fixing, Allmendinger took the green and white checkered flag.
This was Allmendinger's second NASCAR Cup Series victory.
In second was Ryan Blaney, followed by Kyle Larson and Reigning Cup Series champion Chase Elliott finished fourth.
