Busch hoping to use big Brickyard weekend for momentum

He led a race-record 149 of the 170 laps and beat Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Matt Kenseth to the finish line by 2.126 seconds.

Busch swept the Indianapolis weekend for the second year in a row, winning the Xfinity Series Lilly Diabetes 250 on Saturday as a warm-up to his triumph in the main show. After winning each of the last four NASCAR races at Indy, the two-time Brickyard victor was asked if he wanted to follow his brother’s lead and try the 500. Gordon, who replaced the injured Dale Earnhardt Jr., wound up 13th in his season debut.

As Kyle Busch climbed from his vehicle and celebrated an incredibly dominant victory while standing in a cloud of burnout smoke, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon took ceremonial last rides aboard Sprint Cup cars on the back straight side by side.

Gordon will likely run at least one more race-the Pocono 400 in Dale Jr’s auto… This year featured wide smiles from Gordon, his wife and two children during pre-race introductions, and an equally large grin when Gordon exited his auto following the race. It also raises questions about the long-term viability of this race.

Carl Edwards became Busch’s competition in the last half of the race, but it was an Edwards mistake that set in motion the three late-race restarts that made Busch sweat. He also is the winningest NASCAR driver at IMS with five Brickyard 400 wins….

Edwards almost overtook Busch on lap 127 after a restart following a caution, yet Busch remained the leader. “I knew when we got the checkered we just didn’t want to come in just yet”. I thought past year was going to be my final race.

Until then, other drivers expect Gordon to be an immediate factor.

And Logano nearly had a chance on the first two of those four late race restarts, but he faded quickly and finished seventh. I was trying to stay down and be where I needed to be to get in front of them, but they just kept turning underneath me.

– Stewart, who retires from full-time Sprint Cup racing at the end of the season, said that he had not considered being a “back-up driver” for his team in the future.

The most memorable moment of Sunday’s Brickyard 400 was the final lap. “You’ve been doing an fantastic job this year, and I know you want to keep it on the lowdown, but I’m sorry, buddy”.

Harvick, who drives for Stewart-Haas Racing, and Kyle Larson, who drives for Chip Ganassi Racing, both stopped and changed tires.

“He (Gordon) broke my back for me”, Stewart said grinning. But there’s some people out there that have expressed some interest to me, so we’ll see where things kind of go.

“We never got in front of him (Kyle Busch) all day”, Kenseth stated after his third runner-up finish in the event, “I don’t think anybody else got the lead to see if anybody else had anything”.

Stewart finished 11th in his final race at Indianapolis, while Gordon was 13th.

Stewart’s fierce, sometimes temperamental personality often clashed with Gordon’s generally good-natured, low-key demeanor to life and racing. “They just took advantage of me on those restarts”.

There is no “fix” to racing stock cars at Indianapolis. Team owner Rick Hendrick hasn’t had a vehicle finish in the top three in four consecutive races.

“I was coming anyway to root for Chase (Elliott), but now I get to cheer for Chase and Jeff”, said Tyler Sharp, 27, of Rushville, who said he was a “huge” Jeff Gordon fan until the champ stepped out of the seat. “Unfortunately those restarts at the end didn’t help me out although I did get a few spots back on that final corner, it was pretty exciting and insane”.