Busch turns weekend into clean sweep with Brickyard 400 win

Busch was so strong at Indianapolis, that he overshadowed Jeff Gordon in his comeback and Tony Stewart in his farewell race on their home track.

Although he didn’t wind up with a storybook finish and a trip to Victory Lane, Stewart still relished his final Brickyard appearance. Gordon will replace him there, as well.

Gordon started 21st in Earnhardt Jr.’s auto and wasn’t able to challenge for what would have been a record sixth Brickyard 400 win. “The smoothness there, the communication, their information they gave me to prepare me for this race, there were many times I felt I was letting them down”, Gordon said.

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

Stewart took a deep breath, removed his safety equipment and crawled out of the No. 14 vehicle he has made iconic again – he took it to honor his hero, A.J. Foyt.

Then, before Stewart could greet anyone, including his parents, team owner or any member of his crew, he turned to see the opponent he once “hated”.

The hug that followed sent shivers through all who saw it up close.

“I have gained so much respect and admiration for Tony”, Gordon said. “To share that moment with Jeff here at Indianapolis, I don’t even have the words for it”.

“That’s a moment that I will remember the rest of my life”.

“The challenges to be out there against the best, especially on those restarts, I got my butt kicked on restarts today, it’s embarrassing”, Gordon said on the broadcast.

“I can say that just ranks in the top three coolest moments of my 18 years in this series”, Stewart said. Hours earlier, Gordon stood in front of a packed drivers meeting in Pagoda Plaza and spoke from the heart. “They don’t come along often, so I was just hoping I didn’t screw it up”. “You’ve been doing an incredible job this year, and I know you want to keep it on the lowdown, but I’m sorry, buddy. You’re at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway”.

Stewart had a sense of what was coming, even if he was uneasy about it. “I had a decent restart the first time, and the second one I probably had just as good of a restart, but the 20 (Kenseth) got underneath me, and I was kind of stuck from that point and kind of fell into the clutches of the tires behind me”.

Gordon ended with “Thank you”.

Stewart said he got the idea to get Gordon to take a lap with him before the race ended.

“I felt like I just got tight down there”, Edwards said. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place”.

Kyle Busch led a race-high 149 of 170 laps en route to capturing his second consecutive weekend sweep at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with an overtime victory in the Crown Royal Presents the Combat Wounded Coalition 400 at The Brickyard on Sunday. But he got his money’s worth at this track and then some. Carl Edwards looked like he would have a top-five finish before crashing late in the race.

The top five finishers were Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson. It meant a lot to me that he wanted me to make that last lap with him. Logano stayed out when the yellow flag waved for a Greg Biffle incident on lap 53, assuming the race lead.

“It was an awesome weekend”, said Stewart, who also had to battle back from a pit road speeding penalty. The race went into overtime as late-race crashes, cautions and a red-flag period delayed the finish. It’s fun to come out here and have such a dominant piece at Indy. “I needed a fill-in on restarts”. Everybody, Drew Brown (Stewart’s PR Representative), everybody tried to make my weekend as easy as possible.

“Other than that, I thought the race went really well”.