Kyle Busch Dominates at the Brickyard

Originally written for CLNS Radio.

Kyle Busch dominated the Combat Wounded Coalition 400 to win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon.

Photo courtesy Adam Niemeyer

Busch led a record 149 laps on Sunday, and showed his dominance throughout the weekend.

“This Toyota was awesome today, it was just so fast,” Busch said.  “We just had it hooked up, this thing was on rails.”

Busch swept the NASCAR weekend for the second-straight year following a win in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race.  He also became the first driver to sweep the weekend by winning both races from the pole.

“I’ve been successful at a lot of things people haven’t been able to do before,” Busch said.  “When it’s helping you win on Sundays, it’s what makes it all worthwhile running those Saturday races.”

Tony Stewart finished 11th in his final race at Indianapolis, and said this was the most relaxing race weekend at Indy he’s ever had.

“For some reason, this weekend…everybody made my schedule as open as they could so I could enjoy it, and we did,” Stewart said.  “We had a lot of fun this weekend from start to finish.”

One of the biggest stories of the weekend centered around Jeff Gordon coming out of retirement to drive for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the 88 car.  Gordon said the car was good all day, but that he was a little rusty on restarts.

Photo courtesy Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images

“I got my butt kicked on restarts today,” Gordon said.  “I needed a fill-in on restarts.  Other than that, it went pretty well.”

After the race, Stewart and Gordon ran a final lap together and saluted the fans after what is most likely their final race at their home track.

“I knew when we got the checkered, I didn’t want to come in just yet, and I wanted to run one more lap,” Stewart said.  “Before that last green run, I told my spotter to go tell his spotter that after this thing’s over, we need to go a lap around here together.”

 “What a class act he is,” Gordon said.  “It meant a lot to me that he asked me to make that last lap with him.”

“It is most likely the last time we’ll get to do that, and I couldn’t think of a better guy to spend a moment like that with,” Stewart said.

Unofficial results:

1. Kyle Busch

2. Matt Kenseth

3. Jimmie Johnson

4. Denny Hamlin

5. Kyle Larson

6. Kevin Harvick

7. Joey Logano

8. Martin Truex Jr.

9. Austin Dillon

10. Paul Menard

11. Tony Stewart

12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

13. Jeff Gordon

14. Chris Buescher

15. Chase Elliott

16. Kurt Busch

17. Brad Keselowski

18. Kasey Kahne

19. Jamie McMurray

20. Landon Cassill

21. Clint Bowyer

22. Danica Patrick

23. Michael McDowell

24. Casey Mears

25. Aric Almirola

26. Regan Smith

27. Brian Scott

28. Michael Annett

29. Cole Whitt

30. Trevor Bayne

31. Ryan Newman

32. Ryan Ellis

33. Reed Sorenson

34. Patrick Carpentier

35. Carl Edwards

36. Ryan Blaney

37. David Ragan

38. AJ Allmendinger

39. Greg Biffle

40. Matt DiBenedetto

Photo courtesy Robert Laberge/Getty Images

 Special thanks to Adam Niemeyer for a photo of Kyle Busch.  For more from Adam, check out his blog here.