INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Motor Speedway rewarded Kyle Larson's effort in May with a Brickyard 400 victory on Sunday.
Larson survived late race cautions, overtime and a red flag to follow up his 18th place finish and Rookie of the Year effort at the Indianapolis 500 to win his third "crown jewel" NASCAR race.
NASCAR returned to the oval configuration of the IMS after a three-year run on the track's infield road course. The first race after the hiatus produced one of the more memorable finishes in the history of the race.
NASCAR's Gen7 car took to the 2.5-mile oval for its first competitive laps on that configuration. There was a lot of hype as well as questions about how the car would perform.
The race showed that the cars are able to draft and sling-shot one another in order to make passes. While it appeared as though "dirty air" was still a problem in the corners, the car performed well on the straightaways and in some instances was able to hit 200+ mph.
Denny Hamlin, who was chasing his first Brickyard 400 win, won stage 1 while Bubba Wallace, driving in a car Hamlin owns, won the second stage.
The third stage is when things began to heat up. The first two stages saw minimal crashes. However, by the second half of the race, drivers became more aggressive, leading to more accidents.
Up front, the race was between Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson. Both Keselowski and Blaney inherited their track position through pit strategy and had significantly less fuel than Kyle Larson.
Larson worked his way through the field over the course of the final 30 scheduled laps and finally put himself in position to make a lunge at the win when Kyle Busch crashed on lap 157 to bring out the caution flag and trigger NASCAR overtime.
Just before the restart, Keselowski ran out of fuel and was forced to pit as the rest of the field took the green flag. However, just a few feet after the green flag fell, a big pileup in Turn 1 brought out the red flag.
Larson sat inside his car during the red flag pondering, thinking about what he needed to do to score his first win on the IMS oval.
On the restart, Larson fought Ryan Blaney tooth and nail. Blaney tried to crowd Larson into Turn 1, but Larson never gave up the position. He cleared Blaney and set his sights on the finish line.
Just as most of the field had rounded off Turn 2, Ryan Preece spun and hit the inside wall. Preece's car was significantly damaged, and it didn't appear he could get the car rolling.
NASCAR waited to throw the yellow until it was sure Preece would be unable to get his car restarted. Fortunately for Larson and unfortunately for the fans, the yellow flag waved just after Larson took the white flag.
Despite wins on the IMS dirt track, this was Larson's first victory at IMS on the oval configuration.
After the race, he told the TV interviewer that he wanted to "go for two" and try the Indianapolis 500 again next May.
