NASCAR takeaways: Kyle Larson rides strong car, good fortune to Brickyard victory
INDIANAPOLIS — Kyle Larson was the unluckiest guy around Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Memorial Day weekend.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver got some luck Sunday to combine with a fast car and a strong performance to capture the Brickyard 400.
Larson, whose Memorial Day weekend Indy 500-Coke 600 double was ruined when rain delayed the start of the 500 to then cause him to miss the start of the 600, and then rain in Charlotte kept him from ever getting in the Cup car in a rain-shortened race, got the cautions when he needed them Sunday.
On an overtime restart, leader Brad Keselowski ran out of gas and dipped down to pit road, leaving Larson, who was third, in the optimal inside lane on the restart and allowing him to outduel Ryan Blaney for the lead.
"Everything just comes full circle," Larson said. "Everything is meant to be. Today definitely [was] meant to be for us.
"With the way the strategy was working out, Brad running out of fuel, me inheriting the front row. A lot had to fall into place. Thankfully, it did."
Larson reiterated his intentions to run the Indianapolis 500 next year in another double attempt.
"We're working on it," he told a raucous Indianapolis crowd that loves Larson because of his sprint-car racing roots. "I hope we can announce something soon. See you guys all next May."
The race was the 30th anniversary since the inaugural Cup race at Indianapolis, which was won by Hendrick Motorsports driver Jeff Gordon, who is now vice chairman of the organization owned by Rick Hendrick.
"I don't know that I've ever been this excited," Hendrick said.
Takeaways from a Brickyard 400 where Tyler Reddick finished second, followed by Blaney, Christopher Bell and Bubba Wallace.
Blaney Frustrated With Finish
Blaney didn't have anyone to be particularly mad at other than just the situation. He wishes in a situation like he was in, NASCAR would wave off the restart if the leader opts to pit coming to the green.
"It's lady luck I'm pissed off at," Blaney said.
Blaney technically was the leader for the restart, but Larson on the inside seemed to get a great jump on him.
"You're promoting the third-place guy now to where I get screwed," Blaney said. "The third-place guy is benefiting. The guy behind me is benefiting. It's one of those weird [things] — you don't see that very often.
"If it was any other place, it's not going to be as bad. ... Here it's just a death sentence — you're not going to maintain the lead from the top."
Blaney had wished that Keselowski would have pitted earlier if he knew he was going to run out of gas.
"We were going to run out coming off of 4 coming to the checkered [if it went green to the finish], so it was worth the shot [to stay out]," Keselowski said.
NASCAR Cup Series: Brickyard 400 highlights
Wallace Closes Gap
Bubba Wallace's fifth-place finish (and a stage win) allowed him to close the gap from 27 points to seven points on Ross Chastain for what is currently the final playoff spot. Four races remain in the regular season.
With 12 winners this year, at most four winless drivers will make the playoffs. Martin Truex Jr. is up 108 points on Wallace, Ty Gibbs is up 42, Chris Buescher is up 17, then Chastain is currently the last driver in.
"We executed," Wallace said. "That's what it's all about. Apparently, we made up a lot of points. We'll just keep on digging."
Wrecks Ruin Several Days
Eleven of the 39 cars didn't finish the Brickyard 400 after accidents ended their race.
With passing at a premium and drivers digging for spots on the restarts where those are the best opportunities to gain spots, drivers trying to fill holes ended up with contact and then the chain reaction collected more.
Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson and William Byron were among them.
Hamlin was collected by a spinning Kyle Busch, whose car appeared to snap on him as he was underneath Hamlin.
"There was a car coming across the track and I hit him," said Denny Hamlin.
Joey Logano didn't even see Jimmie Johnson getting turned into him from behind.
"It scared the hell out of me — I never saw it," Logano said. "Carson had a good restart and filled the gap pon the restart. You can't blame him for that but he went for a little bit more and got a little bit greedy and Blaney shut the door on him."
Byron blamed Chase Briscoe for his incident.
"The 14 [of Briscoe] was making a bunch of crazy moves down the frontstretch and missed the corner in [Turn] 2, pulled up right in front of me and checked us all up and got us run over," Byron said.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
