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Motorsport

Bubba Wallace beats Kyle Larson to win Brickyard 400 in double overtime

Bubba Wallace Kyle Larson Chase Briscoe Ryan Blaney Denny Hamlin Joey Logano Ryan Preece Ty Dillon Austin Cindric Austin Dillon

Bubba Wallace entered Sunday's Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the playoff bubble, and facing a winless streak that dates back almost three years.

However, Wallace made sure he didn't have to worry about any of that anymore, besting Kyle Larson in double overtime to win the Brickyard 400. It was a tense fight to the final with all of the leaders low on fuel, but Wallace made it last, capturing his first win since Kansas in September 2022. While snapping a 100-race winless streak, he also earned 23XI Racing its first victory as an organization this year.

“I’m worn out," said Wallace. "I thought things every which way besides driving a race car during that red flag ... The adrenaline rush is crazy! I want to thank all these people behind me, all the men and women of Airspeed for making this possible. Welcome to victory lane, Becks (son)! It’s pretty cool. To overcome so much and to put these people in victory lane, that’s what it’s all about. These people keep pushing me, believing in me. Man, just so proud. Thank you!”

Larson finished second after failing to defend his 2024 victory in the Brickyard 400, while Denny Hamlin finished third in a backup car but won as a team owner.

The RFK Racing duo of Ryan Preece and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five. Todd Gilliland, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, and Carson Hocevar filled out the remainder of the top ten.

In the battle for the $1 million in-season bracket challenge, Ty Gibbs claimed the big prize over Ty Dillon, finishing 21st while Dillon was 28th.

Stage 1

General view (Photo by: Jonathan Bachman - Getty Images)

The race got underway with Indiana native Chase Briscoe leading the race. In the early running, Ross Chastain slammed the wall after getting hit by Michael McDowell. Chastain's race was over, leaving him with a 39th-place finish and back-to-back DNFs.

While most of the field came down pit road, the Penske cars of Joey Logano and Austin Cindric stayed out, along with Josh Berry. McDowell suffered a flat tire on the restart, but managed to get it back to the pits.

Those who stayed out went on to short-pit the stage, clearing the way for Briscoe to take the stage win over Wallace and Byron.

Stage 2

Erik Jones, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Toyota (Photo by: Jonathan Bachman - Getty Images)

The strategies continued to split throughout the field as Ryan Preece led a handful of cars who stayed out. Hocevar led the way off pit road with a two-tire call, while Briscoe restarted back in ninth.

There was a significant stack-up on the restart, damaging several cars, but not enough to cause another yellow. Austin Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Cody Ware were all forced to pit under green for repairs. Kyle Busch, Daniel Suarez, Riley Herbst, and in-season challenge finalist Ty Dillon also sustained nose damage that impacted the performance of their race cars.

Preece pitted from the lead 14 laps into the stage, but found himself in a bad spot after a slow stop by the RFK Racing team.

Cole Custer then suffered a flat right-rear tire, foreshadowing for what was to come for the Ford camp. Cindric was leading the race when he also lost a right-rear tire, making it back to pit road without the need of a yellow.

The next caution actually flew for Erik Jones, who had a strong day until the wheel separated from the car and the No. 43 slammed the wall with just ten laps to go in the stage.

Briscoe was about to pit, but he managed to avoid a penalty as he drove back onto the track with pit road closing. Ryan Blaney led the way for the mad dash to the end of the stage after choosing to stay out, winning Stage 2 over Larson and Hamlin.

However, Blaney was running on fumes, and the Penske team was forced to pit while pits were closed, or they would have been at risk of running out on track.

Stage 3

Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (Photo by: Jonathan Bachman - Getty Images)

Larson led Hamlin at the start of the final stage as drivers positioned themselves for the critical fuel window ahead of them.

As stops began to cycle through, Larson came out behind Logano, as well as 23XI teammates Wallace and Reddick. They executed the undercut perfectly, using clean track and short fuel stops to leapfrog their way to the front.

However, Penske's Indianapolis misfortune continued as Logano's right-rear tire went down while he was leading the race. He made it back to the pits, handing the effective race lead to Wallace.

But Wallace had to wait for Blaney to pit with 18 laps to go before he could actually be the race leader. Meanwhile, Larson was in hot pursuit, slashing his lead from six seconds to just under four.

But with just six laps to go, NASCAR called a caution for raindrops. The brief shower forced race control to red-flag the race, bringing the field down pit road with just four laps left in the crown jewel event.

On the first overtime restart, Wallace cleared Larson, but a wreck on the backstretch involving Zane Smith and Tyler Reddick forced the race into double overtime. He again had to face Larson, but once again managed to clear the Hendrick Motorsports driver.

From that point, 23XI Racing was just praying they had enough fuel as Wallace took the white flag and claimed victory at Indianapolis.

Photos from Indianapolis - Race

Cla	Driver	#	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Interval	Pits	Points
1	B. Wallace23XI Racing	23	Toyota	168	3:22'16.317		11	50
2	K. LarsonHendrick Motorsports	5	Chevrolet	168	+0.222 3:22'16.539	0.222	8	47
3	D. HamlinJoe Gibbs Racing	11	Toyota	168	+1.254 3:22'17.571	1.032	8	43
4	R. PreeceRFK Racing	60	Ford	168	+2.978 3:22'19.295	1.724	9	33
5	B. KeselowskiRFK Racing	6	Ford	168	+3.866 3:22'20.183	0.888	8	38
6	T. GillilandFront Row Motorsports	34	Ford	168	+4.501 3:22'20.818	0.635	11	31
7	R. BlaneyTeam Penske	12	Ford	168	+4.771 3:22'21.088	0.270	9	40
8	C. BellJoe Gibbs Racing	20	Toyota	168	+4.862 3:22'21.179	0.091	9	29
9	A. BowmanHendrick Motorsports	48	Chevrolet	168	+4.923 3:22'21.240	0.061	9	33
10	C. HocevarSpire Motorsports	77	Chevrolet	168	+5.404 3:22'21.721	0.481	8	35
11	J. HaleySpire Motorsports	7	Chevrolet	168	+6.135 3:22'22.452	0.731	8	26
12	J. NemechekLegacy Motor Club	42	Toyota	168	+6.318 3:22'22.635	0.183	9	25
13	C. ElliottHendrick Motorsports	9	Chevrolet	168	+6.742 3:22'23.059	0.424	9	24
14	C. BuescherRFK Racing	17	Ford	168	+6.892 3:22'23.209	0.150	8	31
15	A. CindricTeam Penske	2	Ford	168	+6.995 3:22'23.312	0.103	9	22
16	W. ByronHendrick Motorsports	24	Chevrolet	168	+7.029 3:22'23.346	0.034	8	36
17	K. LeggeLive Fast Motorsports	78	Chevrolet	168	+7.347 3:22'23.664	0.318	11	20
18	C. BriscoeJoe Gibbs Racing	19	Toyota	168	+7.509 3:22'23.826	0.162	9	29
19	S. van GisbergenTrackHouse Racing	88	Chevrolet	168	+7.718 3:22'24.035	0.209	10	18
20	C. CusterHaas Factory Team	41	Ford	168	+8.262 3:22'24.579	0.544	11	17
21	T. GibbsJoe Gibbs Racing	54	Toyota	168	+12.540 3:22'28.857	4.278	12	16
22	J. BerryWood Brothers Racing	21	Ford	168	+54.078 3:23'10.395	41.538	10	15
23	A. AllmendingerKaulig Racing	16	Chevrolet	167	+1 Lap 3:22'24.430	1 Lap	11	15
24	J. LoveBeard Motorsports	62	Chevrolet	167	+1 Lap 3:22'25.130	0.700	10
25	K. BuschRichard Childress Racing	8	Chevrolet	166	+2 Laps 3:22'24.834	1 Lap	13	17
26	R. Herbst23XI Racing	35	Toyota	166	+2 Laps 3:22'31.306	6.472	11	11
27	D. SuarezTrackHouse Racing	99	Chevrolet	165	+3 Laps 3:22'25.527	1 Lap	11	10
28	T. DillonKaulig Racing	10	Chevrolet	165	+3 Laps 3:22'25.943	0.416	10	9
29	T. Reddick23XI Racing	45	Toyota	163	+5 Laps 3:18'48.268	2 Laps	10	15
30	M. McDowellSpire Motorsports	71	Chevrolet	162	+6 Laps 3:22'36.286	1 Lap	11	7
31	Z. SmithFront Row Motorsports	38	Ford	161	+7 Laps 3:08'47.579	1 Lap	8	6
32	J. LoganoTeam Penske	22	Ford	160	+8 Laps 3:10'23.020	1 Lap	9	8
33	N. GragsonFront Row Motorsports	4	Ford	153	+15 Laps 3:22'29.502	7 Laps	11	4
34	J. BilickiGarage 66	66	Ford	125	+43 Laps 2:34'54.563	28 Laps	10
35	R. Stenhouse JrHyak Motorsports	47	Chevrolet	101	+67 Laps 3:22'37.055	24 Laps	8	2
36	E. JonesLegacy Motor Club	43	Toyota	89	+79 Laps 1:34'20.588	12 Laps	6	1
37	C. WareRick Ware Racing	51	Ford	58	+110 Laps 1:09'17.405	31 Laps	7	1
38	A. DillonRichard Childress Racing	3	Chevrolet	56	+112 Laps 1:04'38.661	2 Laps	5	3
39	R. ChastainTrackHouse Racing	1	Chevrolet	17	+151 Laps 30'17.381	39 Laps	3	1