Kyle Busch outduels Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick to win Brickyard 400 for third straight Sprint Cup win

By Jerry BonkowskiJul 26, 2015, 6:55 PM EDT

Kyle Busch needed four extra laps, but held off Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick in a green-white-checker finish Sunday to capture his first Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“I’m trying to soak it in,” Busch told NBCSN afterward. “Oh my gosh, I just can’t believe this run right now. This car was awesome. I just knew if I could get us out front, I could drive away.”

Busch has won the past three Sprint Cup races and four of the last five, as he closes in on 30th-place in the standings, which would make him Chase eligible.

Having gained 150 points in the last five races, Busch is 23 points out of 30th place after Sunday’s win.

NBC analyst and former Sprint Cup driver Jeff Burton said late in Sunday’s telecast that he believed the injury Busch suffered at the beginning of the season, which forced him to miss the first 11 races, may have given him some perspective.

“It must have, I don’t know,” Busch said when asked about Burton’s observation. “Maybe I found my happy place. … Nothing better than being in victory lane for one of the biggest wins of my career here at Indy, and sweeping the weekend, as well.”

The Las Vegas native also swept the weekend at the legendary track, having won Saturday’s Lilly Diabetes 250 Xfinity Series race.

Logano finished second, followed by Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin.

MORE: Results and stats for the Brickyard 400

MORE: Harvick still leads Sprint Cup driver standings after Brickyard 400

How Kyle Busch won: The victory came down to the restart on Lap 162. Busch beat Joey Logano into Turn 1 and then held off any bid by Logano to get past in the final two laps. Harvick got a bad restart, or he may have been more of a significant factor in the outcome.

Who else had a good race: Logano had hoped to give team owner Roger Penske his first-ever Brickyard 400 win. “It’s just so frustrating, just so close to winning here at the Brickyard,” Logano said. “Second hurts. … Even though she finished 27th, Danica Patrick had a good day for the most part, including running as high as fifth and in the top 15 for much of the race before falling back on the final two restarts on Lap 152 and 162. … After struggling in the last four races, Martin Truex Jr. got back on track with a strong fourth-place finish.

Who had a bad race: Despite all the sentiment and emotion of this being his last Brickyard 400, Jeff Gordon would not win a record sixth race at Indy. On Lap 50,Gordon couldn’t avoid Clint Bowyer and suffered significant damage to his car. Gordon finished 42nd. … Aric Almirola spun out on Lap 107 and hit the inside retaining wall after what appeared to be a tire that went down. Almirola’s car suffered moderate damage and finished 38th. … Dale Earnhardt Jr. tried to pass teammate Kasey Kahne on Lap 147, got into the infield grass on Turn 1, lost control and backed himself into the wall. Earnhardt finished 22nd.

Notable: This was only the second green-white-checker finish in Brickyard 400 history, the other being in 2004. … Pole-sitter Carl Edwards made contact with Joey Logano with 14 laps to go, sending him from second place back to 10th and eventually 21st place with 10 laps remaining. Edwards rallied to finish 13th. … Kevin Harvick was the leader at the halfway point… Chase Elliott finished 18th in his first career Brickyard 400. Elliott will replace Jeff Gordon in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet next season.

Quote of the Day: “We’re a championship contending team, we just have to be championship-eligible. … To persevere through all that and make up that deficit, we’re still continuing on. We still can’t have bad days.” – Race winner Kyle Busch on whether his team can contend for the championship.

Next up: Windows 10 400 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway on Sunday, August 2. Start time is 1:30 pm ET.

Follow @JerryBonkowski

Sonoma Xfinity starting lineup: Kyle Larson wins pole

By Dustin LongJun 10, 2023, 4:07 PM EDT

SONOMA, Calif. — Kyle Larson will start on the pole for Saturday’s inaugural Xfinity Series race at Sonoma Raceway.

Larson won the pole with an average speed of 91.393 mph around the 1.99-mile road course. Justin Allgaier joins Larson on the front row after a lap of 90.562 mph. Sheldon Creed (90.429 mph) qualified third. Aric Almirola (90.375) will start fourth. AJ Allmendinger (90.274) will start fifth.

MORE: Sonoma Xfinity starting lineup

MORE: Alpha Prime Racing’s road woes don’t keep team from competing

Larson is one of seven Cup drivers entered. The others are Almirola (starting fourth), Allmendinger (fifth), Ty Gibbs (seventh), Ross Chastain (15th), Daniel Suarez (17th) and Ty Dillon (32nd).

The green flag is scheduled to wave at 8:20 p.m. ET Saturday on FS1.

Could Daytona International Speedway host NFL games?

By Dustin LongJun 10, 2023, 1:54 PM EDT

The president of Daytona International Speedway says track officials plan to speak with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars about hosting the team’s games if Jacksonville’s stadium is renovated.

The Jaguars will need a temporary home site if plans go forward to renovate the team’s stadium. Daytona International Speedway has been mentioned as a possible candidate. The Jaguars released details Wednesday of what the stadium will look like after the renovation project.

Provided the project is approved by the city of Jacksonville, it is believed the Jaguars would need to find another home site for a couple of seasons while work is being done to its stadium. Daytona International Speedway is among possible sites for the Jaguars to play. More than 100,000 people saw Ricky Stenhouse Jr. win this year’s Daytona 500.

“Daytona International Speedway is a world-renowned sports and entertainment venue and hosts a full schedule of events each year,” said Frank Kelleher, president of Daytona International Speedway, in a statement. “As good neighbors in the Florida sports community, DIS will be speaking with the Jacksonville Jaguars to see if we can assist them with their potential upcoming facility needs around our scheduled events.”

Daytona International Speedway hosted Soccer Fest in July 2022. An announced crowd of 7,573 fans saw the Orlando Pride and Racing Louisville play in a National Women’s Soccer League game at Daytona.

NASCAR displays counterfeit part from Chase Briscoe car

By Dustin LongJun 10, 2023, 12:33 PM EDT

SONOMA, Calif. — NASCAR displayed the counterfeit part from Chase Briscoe‘s car on Saturday at Sonoma Raceway, showing how the part did not correspond to what should have been in the car.

NASCAR found the issue at its R&D Center after last month’s Coca-Cola 600. The sanctioning body fined crew chief John Klausmeier $250,000 and suspended him for six races. NASCAR also docked Briscoe and the team 120 points and 25 playoff points for the L3 infraction.

“We want to be transparent on the penalties,” said Brad Moran, managing director of the Cup Series as he displayed the counterfeit part to media.

Moran displayed a a portion of the engine panel from Briscoe’s car. He noted the engine duct was counterfeit. He said the proper pieces are 3D printed at the R&D Center and Fiberworks Composites sells them and installs them for teams. Moran said the duct is “in the bottom of the car under the engine panel. It’s to help cool the driver. It was added prior to the first race. During testing … we realized we wanted to get heat out of the engine compartment, and that’s what this piece does.”

Moran noted that with the counterfeit part, “we can clearly see the textures are different (from the proper part).”

He displayed what officials call a gauge that determines if the duct fits the proper parameters. He showed it fitting a proper duct and not properly fitting in the counterfeit part.

“It was a part that was made, and it was made for whatever reason,” Moran said. “It was, I guess, put on by error, but it was on the vehicle. It is a piece that should not have been made in the first place, and it was spotted at our teardown at the R&D Center.”

Moran said the issue was found in a visual inspection of the part. NASCAR inspected it further and Moran said “there are certain little characteristics that are in (a proper piece)” that officials did not see in the one on Briscoe’s car. “The more we examined it, the more we realized that’s not a part they bought.”

Moran noted that while the penalties were severe, they could have been worse based on the rulebook.

“It was the low end of the L3,” Moran said. “It’s a real big hit for any team. If it continues, and we feel we are not where we need to be, unfortunately, it’s going to ramp up. We’re not going to stop.

“The deal with this car is it needs to be run without modifying. It costs teams a lot of money in development. All the owners agreed. We all agreed where we need to be to make this a successful program, and we’re not going to give up.”

Sunday Cup race at Sonoma Raceway: Start time, TV info, weather

By Dustin LongJun 10, 2023, 10:00 AM EDT

The Cup Series heads to wine country to compete on the 1.99-mile road course at Sonoma Raceway. This race leads into the final off weekend of the season. After the break, the series races 20 consecutive weekends. NBC and USA will broadcast those races.

Details for Sunday’s Cup race at Sonoma Raceway

(All times Eastern)

START: Adam Devine will give the command to start engines at 3:38 p.m. … The green flag is scheduled to wave at 3:50 p.m.

PRERACE: Cup garage opens at 12:30 p.m. … Drivers meeting is at 2:45 p.m. … Driver intros are at 3 p.m. … Earl Smith, pastor for the Golden State Warriors and San Francisco 49ers, will give the invocation at 3:30 p.m. … Tiffany Woys will perform the national anthem at 3:31 p.m.

DISTANCE: The race is 110 laps (218.9 miles) on the 1.99-mile road course.

STAGES: Stage 1 ends at Lap 25. Stage 2 ends at Lap 55.

STARTING LINEUP: Qualifying begins at 6 p.m. Saturday

TV/RADIO: Fox will broadcast the race at 3:30 p.m. … Coverage begins at 2 p.m. on FS1 and switches to Fox at 3 p.m. … Performance Racing Network coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. and also will stream at goprn.com. SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will carry the PRN broadcast.

STREAMING: Fox Sports

FORECAST: Weather Underground — Partly cloudy with a high of 69 degrees and a 1% chance of rain at the start of the race.

LAST YEAR: Daniel Suarez won his first career Cup race last year at Sonoma. Chris Buescher finished second. Michael McDowell placed third.