Kyle Larson had to wait a few months to win at Indianapolis.
Larson won Sunday’s Brickyard 400 under caution after driving ahead of Ryan Blaney on the race’s final restart. Larson took the white flag before NASCAR finally called a caution for Ryan Preece’s stopped car on the backstretch.
Preece spun off Turn 2 on the penultimate lap and hit the inside wall, but NASCAR waited for over 30 seconds to throw the caution as Preece couldn’t get going. By waiting until Larson took the white flag to throw the caution, the race was over per NASCAR rules. Had the caution come out before Larson started his final lap, another restart would have been necessary.
Instead, it was a caution call that showed just how much leeway NASCAR race control gives itself when it comes to spins and wrecks. Race officials have shown repeatedly how quickly they can hit the caution button when a car brushes the wall or does a half-spin in the middle of a race. And on Sunday, they showed how deliberate they can be when a caution may not be the ideal outcome.
The race was extended seven laps past its 160-lap scheduled distance because of two late cautions. Kyle Busch crashed while racing Denny Hamlin for a spot in the top five with less than three scheduled laps to go and then a big wreck on the ensuing restart took out five cars including Hamlin after he had to pit for gas.
Those two late crashes forced a red flag and the end of the race to be aired on USA instead of NBC because of President Joe Biden’s decision to not run for re-election.
Larson had the fastest car over the last 20% of the race and also had the benefit of not needing to save fuel. Larson charged his way toward the front after pitting during a lap 124 caution when Martin Truex Jr. crashed. He had made his way to third at the time of Busch’s crash and was hunting Brad Keselowski and Blaney for the lead.
Keselowski was trying to stretch his fuel too far and didn’t pit after Busch’s crash while drivers like Hamlin and others pitted knowing they were cutting it close on fuel as the race got extended past its scheduled distance. Keselowski ran out of fuel as the field came to the green flag on the penultimate restart and Larson was able to move up to the front row with Blaney.
The race was then red-flagged for over 15 minutes after a five-car crash.
When it resumed, Larson had plenty of fuel and got past Blaney into Turn 1. Tyler Reddick made his way into second and had a slim chance at catching Larson on the final lap had the race stayed green.
Larson became the first NASCAR driver since Kurt Busch in 2014 to attempt both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day in May. But a speeding penalty in the Indy 500 took away any chance Larson had for a good finish at Indy, and thunderstorms delayed his chance to start both races.
The rain-delayed Indy 500 meant Justin Allgaier started the 600 in Larson’s place. Larson arrived in Charlotte as rain stopped the 600. Larson never raced at all in the Cup Series event.
Even though he missed the 600, Larson was granted a playoff waiver by NASCAR and will be in the postseason field. In fact, he’s set to be the top seed in the playoffs with four races to go in the regular season. As it stands through 22 races, Larson would begin the postseason with 28 playoff points, four more than Christopher Bell and seven more than Hamlin.
The playoff picture with 4 races to go
There have been 12 winners through the first 22 races of the season. Larson leads the Cup Series with four wins, while Bell, Hamlin and William Byron each have three. Blaney has two and seven other drivers — Reddic, Austin Cindric, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Keselowski, Alex Bowman and Daniel Suarez — each have one win each.
If there are no new winners, there will be four spots available in the 16-driver playoff field on points. At the moment, Martin Truex Jr. is tops among those drivers in his final season in the Cup Series. Truex is currently 108 points ahead of Bubba Wallace in 17th.
Ahead of Wallace are also Ty Gibbs (+42), Chris Buescher (+17) and Ross Chastain (+7), while Chase Briscoe is 76 points behind Wallace. At the moment, it’s a four driver race for the final three playoff spots.
That playoff push won’t begin again for a couple weeks. Thanks to the Olympics, NASCAR is taking a two-week break. The next race is at Richmond on Sunday, Aug. 11.
Race results
1. Kyle Larson
2. Tyler Reddick
3. Ryan Blaney
4. Christopher Bell
5. Bubba Wallace
6. Todd Gilliland
7. Austin Cindric
8. Daniel Suarez
9. Noah Gragson
10. Chase Elliott
11. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
12. Carson Hocevar
13. Austin Dillon
14. Corey LaJoie
15. Ross Chastain
16. Michael McDowell
17. Zane Smith
18. Cody Ware
19. Ty Dillon
20. Justin Haley
21. Brad Keselowski
22. Chris Buescher
23. Ty Gibbs
24. Chase Briscoe
25. Kyle Busch
26. Ryan Preece
27. Martin Truex Jr.
28. Erik Jones
29. John Hunter Nemechek
30. Daniel Henric
31. Alex Bowman
32. Denny Hamlin
33. Jimmie Johnson
34. Joey Logano
35. Josh Berry
36. Harrison Burton
37. AJ Allmendinger
38. William Byron
39. BJ McLeod
