Skittles were spread on the famous brick finish line of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The skittles on the bricks could only mean one thing – Kyle Busch was the Brickyard 400 champion for the second straight year.
It was a historic afternoon for Busch as he dominated the rest of the field on the way to leading 149 laps, the most in the race’s history.
“I’ve never had a dominant car like this at Indy,” Busch said. “Obviously this was a special, special day and a special car.”
Making more history, he also is the first driver to complete the weekend sweep of both the poles and race wins for the Brickyard and the XFINITY race.
“At practice Friday, I didn’t see that kind of speed,” Adam Stevens, Busch’s crew chief said. “It was going to be who made the best adjustments. Kyle is special. What he wants to do with the car is the fastest way around.”
While it wasn’t the most exciting race in history, Busch’s car was just faster than every other car and he was able to successfully restart multiple times at the end of the race and in the overtime.
Because of a caution at the end of the race, ten extra laps were raced in overtime. This was because at the beginning of overtime, another crash requiring caution took place.
Busch was able to navigate four cautions in the last 20 laps of the race without giving up his lead.
“The repeatability was something I was not looking forward to,” Busch said. “I didn’t want one, let alone five of them. You never know what’s going to happen on restarts. There’s a lot of gamesmanship that gets played.”
Early on, Busch began his dominant performance by leading the first 26 laps of the race.
Teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano were the only other two drivers to lead laps. Both tried to employ aggressive pit strategies that helped them get their leads, but their strategies were moot after cautions.
Keselowski led 15 laps, while Logano led 6 laps.
After Busch took back the lead from Logano on lap 62, Busch never trailed again the entire race.
Carl Edwards climbed into the second place about a third of the way into the race, and stood just a few seconds behind Busch for much of the middle portion of the race.
Edwards nearly overtook Busch on lap 127 after a restart following a caution, yet Busch remained the leader. Martin Truex Jr. also after a restart jumped up to second. He tried to make up the gap, but Busch put down fast laps to keep his lead through the end of the race.
“Having an opportunity to go for three in a row is cool,” Busch said. “No one has ever done that.”
