In just the second visit to the oval since 2020, the NASCAR Cup Series lined up for 160 laps around the hallowed grounds of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
When it came to the participants, 39 drivers qualified for the 29th running of the Brickyard 400 with Pocono winner Chase Briscoe taking the pole position. To his right stood Toyota teammate Bubba Wallace.
Amid the off-track noise involving his race team, 23XI Racing, the 31-year-old driver entered Sunday afternoon in a familiar spot — riding on the playoff bubble late in the regular season.
On top of that, Wallace carried a 100-race winless drought into a race taking place at one of his best tracks, starting with the second-best seat in the house coming to the green flag.
Unlike most races, Bubba hopped aboard his car and didn’t hear the pre-race music, pyrotechnics, or cheers and jeers from the fans during the pace laps; instead, he heard the wind and birds chirping while he sat inside his loud, heavy Chumba Casino machine.
The first few laps saw little action up at the front as Briscoe leapt out to an early lead as Bubba and 23XI stablemate Tyler Reddick battled it out for the runner-up spot. Reddick ducked underneath the 23 on the frontstretch and made the pass entering turn 1.
Just as Reddick’s No. 45 Xfinity Mobile Toyota pulled up to Briscoe’s Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, a sudden crash in the back of the field erupted in turn 3 as Michael McDowell shipped Ross Chastain into turn 3 on lap 17, expediting the 1 car’s exit from the race.
Most of the lead lap cars pulled onto pit road under caution with the Fords of Austin Cindric, Joey Logano, and Josh Berry occupying the top-3 positions for the lap 23 restart.
Not long after, McDowell re-entered the frame as he suffered a flat right-front tire, and Noah Gragson soon joined the 71 in the pits as he suffered a cut tire of his own.
These tire troubles failed to bring out the caution for the second time as the stage went green to the end, allowing strategy to take shape.
Logano, Cindric, and Berry pitted one lap after the other starting with 10 laps to go in the first stage with Bubba Wallace’s Camry inheriting second place from the Fords.
In need of stage points, Bubba made his Camry’s rear bumper wide as he made daring blocks on several of his competitors coming to the first green-and-white checkered flag, allowing him to hold second and notch nine crucial stage points.
Briscoe and Wallace were followed by William Byron, Tyler Reddick, and Chris Buescher in the top-5 and Kyle Busch, Carson Hocevar, Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon, and AJ Allmendinger also grabbing points.
When the race went back green, Ryan Preece and Alex Bowman led the field with the three Fords that pitted behind them. The No. 21 PPG Ford piloted by Josh Berry caused a stack-up on the restart that damaged several cars and knocked them out of contention, including Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Austin Dillon, and Cody Ware.
Preece and Bowman ducked onto pit road on lap 66, handing the lead over to Cindric. The Discount Tire machine powered to a commanding lead at the Brickyard, but just six laps after Cole Custer limped to pit road with a right-rear tire issue, the 2022 Daytona 500 winner suffered a right-rear tire failure of his own on lap 84.
Like Custer before him, Cindric limped his Ford to pit road for service, but the incident removed him from possible contention. As a result of the tire failures, several teams made rash moves to get onto pit road before a presumed caution would wave, cautions that never came as the race stayed green until lap 90.
Just after leaving pit road, Erik Jones’ Dollar Tree Toyota lost its right-front wheel heading into turn 3, colliding hard with the outside wall at a high rate of speed, but luckily, the Legacy Motor Club driver walked away from the incident under his own power.
Of the cars that didn’t stop, Ryan Blaney came out of the caution as one of the few that refused service and instead took the lead for a quick sprint to the stage 2 finish, which he inevitably pulled off after keeping Larson and Hamlin at bay.
Following the top-3 in stage 2 were William Byron, Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman, Carson Hocevar, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, and Bubba Wallace collecting stage points.
Blaney entered pit road twice during the stage caution to top off his No. 12 Menards Mustang while Larson and Hamlin stayed out and led the field to green on lap 106.
Josh Berry brought his Wood Brothers Racing car in for service first to start the last round of pit stops on lap 117 with Joey Logano following his lead the following lap. After the two Fords scooted away, Byron and Briscoe ducked into the pits with Wallace, Cindric, and Buescher filing in on lap 119.
Once Larson, Hamlin, Hocevar, Preece, Bowman, and Reddick received service on lap 121, the race developed into a chess match between the effective top-5 cars and the ones staying out hoping to catch a caution.
However, that caution never came, so the battle narrowed to a duel between Logano and Wallace for the final sprint to the finish. Just as Wallace’s Chumba Casino Camry pulled up to Logano’s Pennzoil Mustang, the 22 lost a right-rear tire on the backstretch that forced the defending series champion out of the lead.
With 25 laps to go, Bubba Wallace took control of the Brickyard 400.
The only thing standing between the 23XI racer and his first victory since Kansas in September 2022 was his best friend staying out hoping to make it to the end on fuel and Mother Nature.
Blaney ended his bid at a Brickyard 400 victory when he turned onto the pit lane with 18 laps to go, definitively handing the race lead to Bubba with just 45 miles to the finish with an ever-increasing gap to his teammate Tyler Reddick in second place.
A few laps later, Larson finally slipped by Reddick’s Xfinity mobile machine and began marching toward Wallace, but it seemed even then that it was too little, too late for the defending winner of this event.
That is, until Mother Nature decided to literally rain on Bubba’s parade with six laps to go, erasing a multi-second advantage over Larson and dousing the first two turns that delayed the race for nearly an hour.
When the race went back green, Wallace chose the inside line for the first overtime attempt with Larson taking the outside line. Though Larson got a great launch, the first two turns lost all the rubber from the rainfall, allowing the 23 to clear the 5 on the exit of turn 2.
Just as victory looked to be in Bubba’s crosshairs yet again, another yellow flag popped up for a wreck involving Zane Smith, Reddick, and Christopher Bell.
Radio transmissions from the 23 team seemed to indicate that they didn’t have enough fuel to even make it back to pit road under the stage caution, but they never heard back from their driver, who elected to stay on the race track and let the cards fall where they may.
In the second overtime attempt, the second verse was the same as the first with Wallace getting a great launch that propelled him to the lead before the field hit the backstretch. This time, the field kept their heads on straight to allow the 23 to reach the white flag, still under power while his fuel tank was huffing fumes.
Despite Larson’s best challenges, he failed to contest the lead as Wallace powered out of the fourth turn to cross the yard of bricks first and become the first Black driver in history to win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval.
Wallace, Larson, Hamlin, Preece, and Brad Keselowski constituted the top-5 while Todd Gilliland, Blaney, Bell, Bowman, and Hocevar made up the top-10 finishers. For full results, click here.
The victory locks the 23 team into the postseason for just the second time in their existence and the first time where the team scored a win prior to the postseason. There are now three spots remaining to make the playoffs with just four races to go.
In a time when the powers that be in American politics are scrambling to erase the achievements made by Black Americans, it’s of the utmost importance to signify when Black history is made like it was yesterday afternoon after a rain-delayed day of racing action around America’s most-renowned venue.
Next week’s race at Iowa will kickoff the NBC portion of the schedule with the Iowa Corn 350 airing on USA Netowrk next Sunday starting at 3:30pm Eastern time.
(Top Photo Credit: Getty Images)
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