Harvick’s No. 4 Chevrolet paced the field four times and for much of the day looked well on its way to handing the reigning Sprint Cup champ his second Brickyard 400 trophy. But late race restarts proved his undoing and he finished third behind race winner Kyle Busch and Logano. Ironically a 1-2 finish for Toyota and Ford after 12 consecutive wins by Chevrolet.

Obviously disappointed by the final outcome, Harvick was still philosophical and upbeat after the race.

"We had a great day," he said. "I think everybody did a great job, just in that second or third-to-last restart where the 22 (Logano) and 18 (Busch) were able to get hooked up and kind of drive by us and I lost control of the race there and didn’t really have what I wanted on the restarts.

Fellow Chevrolet driver and fourth place finisher Martin Truex Jr. took responsibility for part of Harvick’s woes.

"Just feel a little bad for Kevin (Harvick) there," Truex said. "I kind of screwed him. I was trying to push him, just mistimed it. It’s hard to see the lines down there when you are behind a guy. 

"I just totally forgot to ask my spotter for help and a heads up when we were getting 5-10 feet from that line. I feel bad I messed him up a bit there. I kind of messed Kyle (Busch) up on the last one too and he still won."

To the suggestion that the accident may have provided additional impetus to his comeback, Kyle Busch replied, "I just think that maybe I’ve found my happy place.

"Happy Gilmore (a movie character) – he found his happy place and he just dominated at the end, so maybe I’ve found that, too. Nothing better than being in Victory Lane. Nothing better than being in Victory Lane for one of the biggest wins of my career.

"I just want to celebrate with my team, my wife and my family."

A quick inventory of Busch’s accomplishments shows that the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota:

— He is the first to sweep both the Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series races at Indianapolis. Busch won the Lilly Diabetes 250 XFINITY race on Saturday with a last-lap pass of Ryan Blaney.

— He gave Toyota its first victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, breaking a string of 12 straight wins by Chevrolet at the 2.5-mile track.

— He won the 33rd NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of his career.

— He continued his relentless advance toward the top 30 in the standings and consequent eligibility for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs. In what now seems a foregone conclusion, Busch has six races to overcome a 23-point deficit to 30th-place Justin Allgaier.

"We’re a championship contending team," Busch asserted. "We just have to be championship eligible. Thank the good Lord for bringing me back when he did. Obviously, thanking him for all the success I’ve had in my life, where I’m at and all my blessings.

"To get me back as quick as he did, to persevere through that and that deficit. We’re still continuing on. We can’t have bad days. I don’t know that any of that matters—we’re going to bask in this moment here."

Perhaps most astounding is Busch’s ability to win three straight races at three different race tracks using three different competition packages: low-downforce at Kentucky with a 3.5-inch spoiler; standard 2015 rules at New Hampshire with a six-inch spoiler; and high-drag at Indianapolis with a nine-inch spoiler and one-inch wicker.

Logano fell just short of giving team owner Roger Penske, a 16-time Indianapolis 500 winner, his first Sprint Cup victory at The Brickyard.

RELATED: Logano says, ‘I’m glad he’s back, but geez’

"You come to Indy, and it’s all about the win," said Logano, who took the checkered flag in the season-opening Daytona 500 this year. "You either win or finish last. It doesn’t really matter anywhere in-between. At least that’s the way I race when I come to a track like this. I feel like, at Daytona and Indy, it’s all about getting trophies and rings and making out with bricks.

"Overall, it was a good day, but second hurts. It always does."

Jeff Gordon‘s last race at The Brickyard as a full-time Cup driver—and his hopes for an unprecedented sixth victory at the 2.5-mile track—suffered an irreparable blow on Lap 50. Racing to the inside of Harvick, Bowyer’s Toyota got loose and spun.

Gordon checked up, trying to avoid Bowyer’s car, but the No. 24 Chevrolet swerved out of control into the outside wall in Turn 3. The resulting damage ended any hope of another Brickyard trophy for the four-time Sprint Cup champion.

"I was underneath Kasey Kahne and we were just racing for position," Gordon said as his crew worked feverishly in the garage to repair the car. "I saw Bowyer get sideways. I don’t know what caused it. Me and Kasey were trying to check up to avoid it. I don’t know if he got loose or we just both got loose together. Then I just lost control and got in the wall."

Gordon finished 42nd and lost one spot to 11th in the series standings. Without a win this season, Gordon is in jeopardy of missing the Chase and can ill-afford another day like Sunday.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED: The beat goes on for Busch, who won for the fourth time in five races, taking the Crown Royal Presents the Brickyard 400 in overtime on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Busch held off Joey Logano on the final restart during a green-white-checkered finish to get his first Cup win at the famed 2.5-mile superspeedway. Busch led only 19 of the 164 laps, but he was perfect on the late restarts en route to his 33rd win in the premier series and fourth since returning from injuries sustained in the season-opening NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

WHAT HE NEEDS: With four wins this season, Busch still needs to finish in the top 30 in the standings and be able to start the remaining regular-season races to be eligible for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. With six races to go before Chicagoland, Busch is unofficially 23 points behind Justin Allgaier, who is in 30th place. At his current pace, Busch needs 19.68 points per remaining event or an average finish of 24th place.



WHAT’S NEXT: The Sprint Cup Series heads to Pocono Raceway for the Windows 10 400 at 1:30 p.m. ET on Aug. 2 (NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM). Busch finished ninth earlier this season at the Tricky Triangle in his third race since returning from injuries. It was his best finish in his comeback until he won two races later at Sonoma. For his career, Busch has eight top-10 finishes in 21 Cup starts at Pocono. He has an average finish of 18.3 and a driver rating of 84.6.



WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:

Really hurts to be so close to this one. Wanted it bad for RP. Had awesome restarts. Tired of finishing second. @KyleBusch is on fire

— Joey Logano (@joeylogano) July 27, 2015

If you love cars you have to love @ToyotaRacing and @KyleBusch They build them he drives them. Congrats!

— Michael Waltrip (@mw55) July 26, 2015

Pucker Up! @KyleBusch @CoachJoeGibbs JD Gibbs and the @Skittles crew are kissing the bricks at Indy! #Brickyard400 pic.twitter.com/luNe90JjHx

— Joe Gibbs Racing (@JoeGibbsRacing) July 26, 2015

Seeing JD Gibbs today around the track made my day. He is a Great man and I miss seeing him more.

— Steve Letarte (@SteveLetarte) July 27, 2015

RETWEET to congratulate @JoeGibbsRacing! They swept both poles & races this weekend at @IMS, 2nd week in a row! pic.twitter.com/KGUnVLLHxJ

— Toyota Racing (@ToyotaRacing) July 27, 2015

The full-time driver in both the Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series proved his stamina after May’s Coca-Cola 600, running 14 miles to the NASCAR Hall of Fame following NASCAR’s longest race of the season. He also qualified to compete in next month’s Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Austria.

As he braved temperatures that saw one in-car thermometer in Casey Mears‘ car reach at least 131 degrees, Cassill had a query: How much weight would a driver lose over 400 miles in a race?

See the results of his experiment below.

Science experiment! My pre race weight, I’m planning on taking in 80oz of fluids in the race, we’ll see what I lose. pic.twitter.com/QJ0W071Yz3

— landon cassill (@landoncassill) July 26, 2015

Consumed 110oz fluids & 1100 calories->post race 147.4lbs. That’s -15lbs, replaced 7 of it with fluids, net loss 8lbs pic.twitter.com/WsXq6rsvO0

— landon cassill (@landoncassill) July 26, 2015

That’s a 10% gross loss of body weight, getting it back to 5% with fluid replacement. I think I’d like to see closer to 3%.

— landon cassill (@landoncassill) July 26, 2015

I few more stats from the 110oz of fluids I took in…1,100 Cal, 1,978mg of sodium, 264g Carbs, 572mg Potassium

— landon cassill (@landoncassill) July 26, 2015

On the front row | See full starting lineup
The Indianapolis front row should look very familiar to NASCAR fans as pole-winner Carl Edwards and outside polesitter Joey Logano started in the same positions last week at New Hampshire. Edwards’ pole-winning speed of 183.464 mph in the No. 19 Toyota earned the Joe Gibbs Racing driver his first front row start at the iconic Indy track and it is the first NASCAR pole position for Toyota at Indy. Logano’s second place qualifying effort will mean his eighth front row start in 19 races. He has four poles.

Fastest in practice
First practice: Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota (182.208 mph) | Full practice results
Second practice: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet (181.466 mph) | Full practice results
Final practice: Kurt Busch, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Chevrolet (181.987 mph) | Full practice results

Last year’s winner: The event’s inaugural winner Jeff Gordon won his record fifth Brickyard 400 last July, tying him with Formula One’s Michael Schumacher for the most victories at the famous speedway. After passing Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne on a late restart Gordon pulled away to a hefty 2.3-second win over JGR teammates Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth. It marked Gordon’s 90th career Cup win.

On the line: Seven races remain to set the 16-car Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field, and you have to go back six races to Truex’s June 7 win at Pocono to find the last driver to automatically punch his winning ticket into the Chase. Kyle Busch has won three of the last four races, but still sits 58 points out of 30th place — the cutoff points position to qualify for the Chase. The recent schedule has been dominated by repeat winners while preseason favorites such as Clint Bowyer, three-time Cup champ Tony Stewart, Ganassi Racing teammates Jamie McMuray and Kyle Larson and Hendrick drivers Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne are among the A-list names still looking for a victory.

Home cooking: Just listening to the cheers from the crowd, there’s no doubt that Indianapolis loves its homegrown drivers. That was apparent with every qualifying attempt on Saturday and will be evident in Sunday’s race. Of course it’s easy to cheer for your own when that includes four-time Cup champion Gordon, of Pittsboro, Indiana, three-time champion Tony Stewart from nearby, Columbus, Indiana, and former Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 winner Ryan Newman, of South Bend, Indiana.

And the three account for eight Brickyard 400 wins (Gordon, 5; Stewart 2, Newman 1).

"That’s huge, when you come home, that’s what you want,” Stewart said of the reception he received after posting the fastest lap in the first round of Saturday’s qualifying.

Gordon was equally appreciative.

"It’s amazing and I love that,” said the retiring Gordon, whose hometown Pittsboro honored him with a parade Thursday afternoon on a day the governor declared "Jeff Gordon Day."

"When I’m in the car I’m focused on doing my job, but when I’m out of it, I feel the support here and not just this weekend, it’s over the years."

New package: The loudest buzz in the garage centered on NASCAR’s new aerodynamic package being used Sunday at Indianapolis (and again at Michigan next month). Cars have been outfitted with a 9-inch spoiler that sits three inches higher than used at the 1.5-mile tracks and 6-inches taller than used at the 1-mile New Hampshire oval last week.

The hope is the higher drag created by the spoiler will increase passing on the 2.5-mile speedway. A different variation to the cars — a lower downforce package — used at Kentucky two weeks ago produced a track record 22 green-flag passes for the lead. After three practice sessions Friday, the verdict was still unclear on what to expect Sunday.

"I’m extremely happy with NASCAR’s ability to make some changes and really experiment and try new things,” said Gordon, who qualified 19th for his final Brickyard start. "But, it’s going to be really crazy out there. So, I don’t know for sure. For the little bit of time I spent behind other cars, it was a handful through the corners. So, restarts are going to be wild and crazy; so everybody needs to stay tuned-in."

RELATED: See what the new spoiler looks like

Nuts and Bolts
Kyle Busch has eight top-10 finishes at Indianapolis — including runner-up finishes two of the last three years — despite having only one top-10 start at the track. … Toyota has won its first pole for the Brickyard 400 but Chevrolet holds a 12-year winning streak in the race — the longest current streak for a manufacturer. … Amazingly 17 of 21 Brickyard 400 races have been won by Sprint Cup Series champions including, Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Bill Elliott, Dale Jarrett, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Bobby Labonte and Stewart.

They said it
"Well, I mean it could go and be a natural disaster tomorrow. It could all be for nothing. It’s the way you want to start the weekend for sure is to have two good runs in qualifying and have a decent starting spot. That is definitely what we were looking for today." — Tony Stewart, driver of No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevy after his fourth-place qualifying effort.

"Regardless of how this race turns out, as a group we’ve been working really good together and I’m hoping it continues to build. Kyle Busch coming back, although it is making us look a little bad the last few weeks, I think it’s been really good. He’s hauling the mail, going really fast and doing a good job. We’re going to keep building on that. It’s neat to be competitive within your own group in a productive way." —Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 19 Stanley Tools Toyota, after earning himself and the car manufacturer its first NASCAR pole position at Indianapolis.