Bubba Wallace Wins NASCAR’s Brickyard 400
Bubba Wallace broke a 100-race winless streak to win the Brickyard 400 in a double-overtime finish and pick up his third career Cup Series win.
With the victory, Wallace became the first Black driver to win a race on the iconic oval track. Lewis Hamilton won the final United States Grand Prix held on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course layout in 2007.
Wallace had to line up next to defending Brickyard 400 winner Kyle Larson twice for overtime restarts, but was able to hold him off both times, despite running very low on fuel.
“To win here at the Brickyard, knowing how big this race is. Knowing all the noise that’s going on in the background, to set that all aside is a testament to these people here on this 23 team,” the teary 23XI Racing driver said on TNT after the race.
Read Also: WHAT NASCAR DRIVER HAS THE MOST BRICKYARD 400 WINS?
Wallace held a comfortable lead in the closing laps, and his team had their fingers crossed that he had enough fuel to make it to the finish, when a rain shower forced the race to be red flagged on lap 157 of the scheduled 160.
Wallace and Larson were running close together after the first overtime restart with Wallace in front when Christopher Bell spun Zane Smith on the back straight to bring out another yellow before they made it to the white flag.
Wallace pulled away on the second restart and Larson was unable to mount a serious challenge.
Wallace was below the playoffs cutline coming into the race, but the win locked him into the post season.
The race also saw Ty Gibbs win the first $1 million In-Season Challenge with a 21st-place finish. His rival Ty Dillon got caught up in a wreck during the second stage and ended up finishing three laps down in 28th. Gibbs said his team would donate $10,000 of the prize to the charity of Dillon’s choosing.
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Wallace was the 13th different race winner of the season, which leaves three win-and-you’re-in playoff spots left with four races to go in the regular season. Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman and Chris Buescher are the last three drivers above the cutline without a win.
Full Results:
1. (2) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 168.
2. (13) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 168.
3. (39) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 168.
4. (23) Ryan Preece, Ford, 168.
5. (14) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 168.
6. (19) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 168.
7. (24) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 168.
8. (16) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 168.
9. (21) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 168.
10. (8) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 168.
11. (28) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 168.
12. (36) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 168.
13. (30) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 168.
14. (7) Chris Buescher, Ford, 168.
15. (10) Austin Cindric, Ford, 168.
16. (6) William Byron, Chevrolet, 168.
17. (38) Katherine Legge, Chevrolet, 168.
18. (1) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 168.
19. (11) Shane Van Gisbergen #, Chevrolet, 168.
20. (29) Cole Custer, Ford, 168.
21. (5) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 168.
22. (17) Josh Berry, Ford, 168.
23. (9) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 167.
24. (35) Jesse Love(i), Chevrolet, 167.
25. (12) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 166.
26. (25) Riley Herbst #, Toyota, 166.
27. (31) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 165.
28. (26) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 165.
29. (4) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, Accident, 163.
30. (22) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 162.
31. (27) Zane Smith, Ford, Accident, 161.
32. (15) Joey Logano, Ford, Accident, 160.
33. (18) Noah Gragson, Ford, 153.
34. (37) Josh Bilicki(i), Ford, Electrical, 125.
35. (32) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 101.
36. (3) Erik Jones, Toyota, Accident, 89.
37. (34) Cody Ware, Ford, Fatigue, 58.
38. (20) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, Accident, 56.
39. (33) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, Accident, 17.