Kyle Busch fought off two Green-White-Checkered overtimes to his relief holding off his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate; Matt Kenseth, while the rest of the field was scrambling for position in setting a NASCAR record at the Crown Royal, presents the Combat Wounded Coalition 400.
In the history of NASCAR, never has a driver dominated a weekend the way Kyle Busch did by winning both poles and taking the two victories at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He established a NASCAR first of taking every accolade, a feat never reached before and as a bonus led a total of 91 per cent or 211 of 233 of the overall laps during his speedy weekend.
“This Toyota was awesome today,” said Busch, who won his second Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis, his fourth of the season and the 38th of his career. “It was just so fast and able to get out front and stay out front. Not even some of my teammates could challenge. This was hooked up and on rails. It’s fun to come out here and have such a dominant piece at Indy. They don’t come along often, so I was just hoping I didn’t screw it up.”
Busch is acutely aware of the history of the sport, and completing a weekend sweep by winning both races from the pole was high on his bucket list.
“It’s so cool because it hasn’t been done before,” said the defending Sprint Cup champion, who is the second driver to win back-to-back races at the Brickyard — the other being Jimmie Johnson in 2008 and 2009. “I’ve tried and been successful at being able to do a lot of things that others haven’t been able to do before. I guess I give myself more chances than others do because I run more of those (Xfinity) races.
“It helps you, and when it helps you win on Sunday, that’s what makes everything so worthwhile on those Saturday races. The guys on Saturday do a good job, too, helping prepare me and being able to do this stuff on Sunday.”
At the end of the race while Busch was doing burnouts, Indiana native, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon, who began his career in the Hoosier state, cruised around the 2.5-mile oval as a salute to the fans that were ecstatically received by the crowd.
“You know it’s the last time that you’re going to race here in a pro series,” said an emotional Stewart showing how special it really was for him. “To be able to share that lap with Jeff was pretty cool. Today at the driver’s meeting, he stood up and spoke about me and I wanted him there to share the moment. I told my spotter to get to his spotter before we even took the last restart on that last caution that I wanted to do that with him. It was the right thing to do and I couldn’t think of anyone to share that moment with than with him.”
The NASCAR Sprint Cup series now moves to the Pocono Raceway for the running of the Pennsylvania 400 on Sunday, July 31, airing on NBCSN.
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