INDIANAPOLIS — There was no celebratory burnout – Kyle Busch has done plenty of those the last few weeks – just another big, fat kiss at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Busch’s triumphant return following a horrible crash the day before the season-opening Daytona 500 continued Sunday with one of the biggest wins of his career. He grabbed an elusive victory at Indy, where Busch won the Brickyard 400 for a weekend sweep at the historic track.
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Busch missed the first 11 races of the season because of a broken right leg and left foot. He returned in late May and has won three consecutive Sprint Cup races and four of the last five.
His latest win was celebrated with the traditional kissing of the Yard of Bricks, where he was accompanied by his wife and son, who was born in May.
“Being away for 11 weeks, it was tough. It was pretty hard times,” Busch said. “It was tough to fight through all those things that I had to go through, (and that) Samantha had to go through while she was pregnant. She was helping me. All the steps that we went through to get back into the race car were quite challenging.
“But once we’ve been back, I felt like I just continued right on my stride. This has been a phenomenal return. I won’t say phenomenal year because it was a dismal year to start, but I guess I’ll take that 11-week vacation any year if it’s going to look like this.”
Now he has a prestigious Brickyard victory to give him one of NASCAR’s crown jewels. It ranks alongside his Southern 500 win at Darlington Raceway as the biggest of his career.
“Maybe I found my happy place,” Busch said when asked if he has found a new perspective since his crash.
Busch, who also won the second-tier Xfinity Series race Saturday, is 23 points away from cracking the top 30 in the standings. He needs to be in the top 30 after the next seven races to be eligible for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.
“We’re a championship-contending team, we just need to be championship eligible,” Busch said.
The win for Joe Gibbs Racing was the first Sprint Cup victory at Indianapolis for Toyota, which now has wins at all 23 active tracks.
Chevrolet had entered the race on a 12-year winning streak at the track and had won 16 of the 21 Brickyards. The manufacturer also won the Indianapolis 500 in May with Roger Penske driver Juan Pablo Montoya.
But Penske was denied his first Brickyard 400 win when Joey Logano finished second to Busch.
“Geez, I guess Kyle’s back,” said Logano, the Daytona 500 winner. “It’s just so frustrating running second at the Brickyard. Second hurts.”
Busch knows that all too well. He finished second in two of the previous three Brickyards.
Kevin Harvick was third, followed by Martin Truex Jr., Busch teammate Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer.
Jeff Gordon’s final Brickyard 400 was a huge bust, as an early spin caused considerable damage that eventually sent him to the garage for repairs. Gordon, who has a record five victories at Indianapolis, finished 42nd. He’s retiring at the end of the year.
“It was disappointing,” Gordon said. “I have had an amazing career here in Indy. The fans have been spectacular. I am not going to let a couple races overthrow the races that have gone well.”
Two-time Brickyard winner Tony Stewart was strong early, but strategy backfired on the Indiana native and he finished 28th.
NASCAR used a track-specific rules package that was designed to improve the racing on a track where it’s been incredibly hard for the heavy stock cars to make passes.
But the low-drag package didn’t appear to be much of an improvement, as drivers complained all weekend that the turbulence was too strong when they closed in on another car. There were 16 lead changes among six drivers and Harvick, who called Sunday’s race “a science project,” led a race-high 75 laps.
“I think everybody put in a lot of effort to really try to make everything a lot better, spent a lot of money, but I don’t know that we accomplished everything that we were looking to accomplish,” Harvick said.
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