Busch sweeps at Brickyard
Jr., who has battled concussion-like symptoms and has not yet been cleared by doctors to drive.
Afterward the two drivers who grew up in Indiana drove side-by-side around the 2.5-mile oval final last time.
“I have gained so much respect and admiration for Tony,” Gordon said. “I love this guy. I have always respected his talent.”
But nobody was better than Busch this weekend.
One year after winning both Indianapolis races, he joined third-place finisher Jimmie Johnson as the only back-to-back winners of the Brickyard. Johnson won in 2008 and 2009.
Busch surrendered the lead for 14 laps after his first pit stop, regained it when race leader Brad Keselowski pitted then gave it up again for only five laps when he made his second pit stop.
Everyone else spent the race chasing Busch.
The No. 18 car was so strong that Roger Penske’s drivers started with a strategy of trying stretch their runs long enough to make one fewer pit stop. It didn’t work. Logano finished seventh and Keselowski wound up 17th.
The only real challenge for Busch came with a series of late crashes that delayed his fourth trip to Victory Lane this season.
The crashes began when Carl Edwards’ car wiggled in the first turn on a restart with seven laps to go. His car slid up the track, hitting Keselowski and wound up involving Ryan Blaney, Ryan Newman and Danica Patrick, too. Though nobody was seriously hurt, the wreck brought out a red flag for almost eight minutes.
On the ensuing restart, with three to go, Busch again pulled away only to have a collision between Trevor Bayne and Clint Bowyer behind him to send the race into first overtime.
It happened again when Jamie McMurray slid through the first turn and into the wall on the next restart, but Busch pulled away one more time for a historic win in a race that actually was 425 miles.
“I certainly didn’t want one, let alone five of them of however many there were,” Busch said. “We just wanted the race to go green till the end. We had a really good long-run car till the end, so I felt like we’d be able to hold off all those guys behind us and then we had all those restarts.”
Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota had three cars finish in the top five and head to Pocono with back-toback victories.
Kenseth is the defending race winner.