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Busch leads the most laps, wins from pole at Indianapolis

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INDIANAPOLIS — With a relentless charge that forced Ryan Blaney into a mistake on the final lap, Kyle Busch grabbed the lead with a half-lap left at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and took the checkered flag in Saturday’s Lilly Diabetes 250 NASCAR XFINITY Series race.

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Blaney missed his mark in Turn 2 as Busch closed in, and with his momentum broken, the driver of the No. 22 Ford couldn’t stave off Busch’s winning pass on the backstretch. The No. 54 pulled away to win by .421 seconds, as Busch continued his white-hot run with his second XFINITY victory of the season, his second at The Brickyard and the record 72nd of his career.

Since returning to competition in May after an injury absence, Busch has won three times in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and twice on the XFINITY circuit.

Blaney led by more than .6 seconds when he crossed the stripe to complete Lap 97 of 100. But the lapped car of Derrike Cope slowed his progress on the following circuit, and Busch cut the advantage in half.

Busch had closed the gap to .279 seconds when he took the white flag, and constant pressure from the No. 54 Toyota finally forced Blaney into a mistake.

"I just got close enough to make him mess up and made him get tight off (Turn) 2, and then I was able to capitalize underneath him with him losing his momentum off of 2 and being able to get under him," Busch said. "It was the class of the field. We should have won this thing going away, but I guess we had to make it exciting."

With the XFINITY Series running a higher-drag package this weekend, Busch tried in vain — until the final circuit-to get around Blaney in the closing laps.

"I was trying to back up so I could get some clean air and keep my tires as fresh as possible, but I got too far back and got out of the draft and then I couldn’t make up any ground anymore, so I was kind of stuck back there about eight or 10 car lengths and not really going anywhere," he explained.

"Fortunately, a couple of lapped cars messed up his momentum and didn’t mess up mine as much, and I was able to get through there. Once I got back close enough to him, I pushed him into a mistake and that was all that it took."

A despondent Blaney took the blame for the loss.

"It’s my fault, obviously," Blaney said. "You saw it. I screwed up. This team doesn’t deserve that. I dropped the ball for them today, and I take full responsibility. It’s all my fault…I got tight and I got too deep and didn’t get off the long corner.

"It’s a pretty bad feeling to throw one away here at the Brickyard. There was no pressure for 24 laps, and the last one I just made a mistake."

Blaney had taken the lead from Busch on a restart on Lap 76, after Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Erik Jones, hit the wall on lap 70, and NASCAR called a caution because of fluid on the track.

Rookie Daniel Suarez ran third in his first visit to The Brickyard, collecting his third straight top-five of the season. Paul Menard finished fourth, followed by Elliott Sadler, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Larson.

Regan Smith came home eighth and claimed his second straight $100,000 bonus in the XFINITY Series Dash 4 Cash program, keeping his hopes alive for a $1-million payday. If Smith is the highest-finishing eligible driver at Bristol (Aug. 21) and Darlington (Sept. 5), he’ll earn a total of $1 million.

Blaney, Suarez, Sadler and Smith are the eligible Dash 4 Cash drivers at Bristol, having secured their spots as the top four finishing series regulars at Indianapolis.

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After Daytona accident, ‘Smoke’ first on scene to check on ‘Rowdy’

INDIANAPOLIS — A day after suffering a broken right leg and left foot in a Feb. 21 crash at Daytona International Speedway, Kyle Busch had his first hospital visitor.
 
It was Tony Stewart, who had been sidelined in August 2013 by a sprint car accident that had caused a compound fracture of his right leg.

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As Busch’s mind raced through possible dire consequences of his injuries, Stewart was there to offer support and counsel.
 
"Tony was actually the first one to the hospital," Busch said on Saturday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the site of Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Crown Royal presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at The Brickyard (3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN). "As soon as the Daytona 500 was over, he was there. He actually told everybody that was on his plane that they were going to wait. He was there for about four hours. We had a good talk.
 
"We had a good discussion about just what it was like and the process that he had to go through and how long it was probably going to be or what it was going to be. In all reality, our injuries were the same but entirely different. His was much more severe than mine. Just being able to talk with him, my mind-set was OK."
 
Stewart helped allay Busch’s fears that his injury might be career-ending.
 
"At first I was like, ‘I’m never going to race again, and I don’t know what I’m going to do’ — all those things go through your mind," Busch said. "You just continue to power through and listen to your doctors and those that are around you and, of course, my wife and the support system that I had.
 
"I wouldn’t call it painless. There was certainly a lot of pain, but it went really, really well as far as you could say any injury healing goes. I was pretty pleased with everything."
 
If recent results are any indication, Busch has returned stronger than ever. He has won three of the last four Sprint Cup events, at Sonoma, Kentucky and New Hampshire.

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JGR driver claims back-to-back poles at Loudon, Indy

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INDIANAPOLIS — If Toyota and Ford are to break the Chevrolet stranglehold on Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the two manufacturers took a positive step in that direction during NASCAR Sprint Cup Series time trials on Saturday.

Underscoring the recent resurgence of Joe Gibbs Racing, Carl Edwards toured the 2.5-mile track in 49.056 seconds (183.464 mph) to put his No. 19 Toyota on the pole for Sunday’s Crown Royal presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at The Brickyard (3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, IMS, SiriusXM), edging Joey Logano‘s Team Penske Ford (183.139 mph) by .087 seconds.
 
David Ragan (182.886 mph) qualified third in the No. 55 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota. Fourth-place qualifier Tony Stewart (182.823 mph) had the fastest Chevrolet in the final round. Chevrolets have won the last 12 Sprint Cup races at Indianapolis.
 
Stewart, though, had the fastest lap of the afternoon (185.547 mph) in the first round of time trials, which trimmed the number of drivers eligible for the pole from 46 to 12.
 
The Coors Light Pole Award was Edwards’ first at the Brickyard, his second of the season, his second in a row and the 15th of his career.
 
"After yesterday, this is amazing," Edwards said. "We started so slow yesterday and we struggled. I think at one point (crew chief) Darian (Grubb) and I were looking at each other going, ‘What are we going to do here?’
 
"It was a struggle, and everybody buckled down, worked hard — I’m so proud of my guys. TRD and Toyota have been putting so much effort into this whole program. Stanley has been behind us 100 percent — not just me, but Matt Kenseth and our whole team. This is big. It will be neat to start up front."
 
Kyle Busch, Edwards’ JGR teammate, will start ninth on Sunday in search of his third consecutive victory in the Sprint Cup Series. Sidelined for the first 11 events of the season by injuries sustained in an accident at Daytona in February, Busch has won three of the last four races and has seven races left in which to regain eligibility for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup by finishing the regular season in the top 30 in the series standings.
 
Entering Sunday’s race, Busch is 33rd in points, 58 behind David Gilliland in 30th place.
 
Behind Stewart, Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will line up fifth through eighth on the grid.
 
After qualifying, Logano and Ragan were quick to point out an unusual coincidence. Edwards, Logano and Ragan started 1-2-3, in that order, a week before at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, a one-mile flat track.
 
The Sprint Cup cars are running a completely different high-drag aerodynamic package this week, with a nine-inch-tall rear spoiler and a one-inch wicker. Last week at Loudon, the cars featured the regular 2015 rules package with a six-inch spoiler.
 
"David and I were just laughing up here that these are the same three race cars that started up front at Loudon," Logano said. "A completely different race track, different package and the same cars are fast. It’s good for us. We’re close. Second always hurts, but it’s nice to be up toward the front, especially here."
 
Jeff Gordon‘s final run at Indianapolis as a full-time driver didn’t start the way the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet would have hoped.
 
"I really think our 3M Chevrolet is really good," said Gordon, who qualified 19th. "It’s been good all weekend. I feel like I underestimated the grip. I had a little wiggle out of three coming to the green and that concerned me slightly. The grip was there in Turn 4, and I was aggressive into Turn 1, but not aggressive enough.
 
"That’s what’s disappointing; it wasn’t a balance issue or a speed issue. I didn’t get enough speed through (Turn) 1. It adds up with this new package. Yeah, I’m pretty disappointed to start back there."
 
Notes: Josh Wise, Jeb Burton and Reed Sorenson failed to make the 43-car field. … Ryan Newman’s time was disallowed because he ran his lap without the mandatory right-side window in his car. Newman will start 43rd on Sunday on a provisional.

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High temperatures lead to driver dehydration in XFINITY Series race

Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series Lilly Diabetes 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway saw high speeds and even higher temperatures. 

Race winner Kyle Busch along with Ty Dillon and Elliott Sadler were taken to the infield care center post-race, where the drivers were all treated and released.

"It’s a hot day," Sadler said, noting his air conditioning wasn’t working for 80 percent of the race. "I got hot. With like 30 (laps) to go I was like, ‘Man, this is a lot hotter than I’ve been in a race car in a long time.’ I had to stick it out."

A few drivers even took to Twitter to comment on the heat. 

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Carl Edwards gets first pick after winning pole in Saturday’s qualifying

The pit stall assignments are out for Sunday’s Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard (3:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN/Live Extra, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR) with pole sitter Carl Edwards getting his pick of the spots on pit road for the second week in a row.

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The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota will be serviced in the first pit stall leading into Turn 1. Second-place qualifier Joey Logano chose the second pit stall on the side closest to the exit of pit road heading into Turn 1.

David Ragan (starting third), Tony Stewart (starting fourth) and Paul Menard‘s (starting 11th) pit stalls all have openings in front of them.

Ragan, in the No. 55 Toyota, has the pit stall even with the start-finish line at the Brickyard.

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Kyle Busch gets prime pick after topping the qualifying leaderboard

The pit stall assignments are out for Saturday’s Lilly Diabetes 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (4 p.m. ET, NBC, IMS, SiriusXM) with pole sitter Kyle Busch getting his pick of the spots on pit road.

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Busch chose the pit stall closest to the exit of pit road heading into Turn 1. The driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the XFINITY Series will have an opening in front of him leaving pit road. He is not the only driver with this advantage.

Busch’s teammate Daniel Suarez (starting second), Brendand Gaughan (starting fourth), Brian Scott (starting seventh) and Kevin Harvick (starting 16th) all have openings in front of them.

Gaughan, in the No. 62 Chevrolet, has the pit stall even with the start-finish line at the Brickyard.

 

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Driver will lead field to green in Lilly Diabetes 250 (4 p.m. ET, NBC)

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Kyle Busch set a record for NASCAR XFINITY Series Coors Light Qualifying at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, pacing the field at a clip of 180.527 mph to pick up his first pole of the season.

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Busch will start the Lilly Diabetes 250 (4 p.m. ET, NBC, IMS, SiriusXM) on the front row alongside teammate Daniel Suarez (180.415 mph). Fellow Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Erik Jones was third on the docket at 179.928 mph and will start next to Richard Childress Racing’s Brendan Gaughan (179.087 mph).

The record ‘Rowdy’ broke was his own, set last year at 179.888 mph.

Former Brickyard 400 winner Paul Menard paced the first session at 180.411 mph but slipped to 178.873 mph in the second session to qualify fifth.

All three JR Motorsports cars did not advance to the second and final round. Chase Elliott, Regan Smith and Kevin Harvick will start 13th, 14th and 16th, respectively. Alex Bowman, filling in for an ailing John Wes Townley in the No. 25, will start in between Smith and Harvick at 15th.

Tune in Saturday afternoon for the Lilly Diabetes 250 from Indy. Coverage begins on NBC at 3 p.m. ET.

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Chevrolet has a 12-win streak going at Indianapolis

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Chevrolet NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams have owned Indianapolis Motor Speedway, lock, stock and four-barrel.

They may no longer run carburetors in the series, but the switch to electronic fuel ignition has thus far failed to stymie the strength of the bowtie gang. Not when it comes to competing on the legendary 2.5-mile track. The past 12 trips here (this year it’s known as the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard, 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday on NBCSN, IMS, SiriusXM) have ended with a Chevrolet driver in the winner’s circle.

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That may be about to change.

Toyota teams are rumbling. For just the second time here, a Toyota driver and team will start on the pole. Three others are sprinkled throughout the top 10. And Kyle Busch won Saturday’s XFINITY race from the pole in a Toyota.

"We started so slow yesterday (in practice) and we struggled," Joe Gibbs Racing driver Carl Edwards explained after winning the pole with a speed of 183.464 mph.

It was bad enough, he said, that at one point during the day he and crew chief Darian Grubb could only look at each other and shrug their shoulders.

"We were looking at each other going, ‘What are we going to do here?’" Edwards, 35, said. "I’m so proud of my guys. … This is big."

Of course, it’s only the pole. Four hundred miles sit between Edwards and a potential trip to Victory Lane. The No. 1 qualifying spot comes with no guarantees.

Surprising David Ragan (Michael Waltrip Racing) will start third in a Toyota; teammate Clint Bowyer will go off seventh and Kyle Busch (JGR), winner of three of the past four Sprint Cup races, will start ninth.

Joey Logano, one of two Team Penske Fords in the field, will start alongside Edwards. Logano has his own incentives – the Daytona 500 winner has a shot to become just the second driver to sweep both the 500 and the Brickyard in the same season.

Toyota teams have won at 22 of the 23 tracks currently hosting Sprint Cup events. Indy has yet to be conquered. The manufacturer has won here before in open-wheel competition, but it is 0-for-NASCAR where Sprint Cup is concerned.

"I think (for) most drivers, manufacturers and teams there are two races that you would circle … as the biggest," David Wilson, President and General Manager, Toyota Racing Development, USA, said Saturday.

"It starts with the Daytona 500 and then I would have to say the Brickyard is next, if not on the same level."

From an engineering standpoint, Wilson said he puts more stock in the Brickyard.

"I’d say a win here is a greater achievement because of the nature of (restrictor) plate racing, you marginalize so much of the technology that goes into that race," he said. "Not to suggest I wouldn’t love to have a Daytona 500 win and hopefully one day we will, but to win here at the Brickyard it would be difficult to express how big that would be for Toyota."

Wilson has heard the numbers. He knows Chevrolet’s sterling record at Indy.

"Whether we win or not … what’s clear is that we are bringing cars that can win. Last year we finished second, third and fourth. There was one car that was better than us. But it was a lot better to us.

"I feel like, heading into tomorrow we can race with anybody out there on the race track and I don’t know that we’ve come here before with that level of confidence."

Edwards knows all about confidence. Posting only one top-10 through this season’s first 11 races wasn’t how he envisioned his start with JGR.

"This sounds kind of silly in hindsight, but I planned on going out and winning the Daytona 500, then going and winning Atlanta — I was on a mission and I think I got a little bit ahead of myself.

"Darian and I, to be completely honest, we just didn’t settle for running seventh where we probably should have ran that week; I was out there driving like a maniac and then we had a little bit of bad luck there with flat tires and all of a sudden here we are with no good finishes.

"Disappointed is a fine word; I don’t know if that’s a strong enough word for how I felt maybe 10 or 12 weeks into the season."

The No. 19 team enjoyed a breakthrough at Charlotte Motor Speedway, winning the Coca-Cola 600 and putting Edwards in line for one of this year’s 16 Chase for the Sprint Cup spots. Although his next five starts were 12th or worse, for the past two he’s finished inside the top 10.

"It allowed us all to relax," he said of the win, "and from that point … I think that has really helped us and given us a little more confidence and calm and it’s been good. …

"It has been a trial; I think in a way it’s been really good for me because I’ve had to dig deep and lean on my teammates and get back to the basics to get what needs to get done."

No other manufacturer enjoys such a stellar track record as Chevrolet at Indy. Edwards would be more than happy to see the streak come to an end.

"To be able to win here would be huge," he said. "Toyota hasn’t won one (here) yet. The JGR stable, which includes Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth as well as Edwards and Busch, "is fast," according to Edwards.

And obviously "our car is really fast," he said.

"It definitely could happen."

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Winningnest owner at IMS yet to have driver win Brickyard 400

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — There are very few racing achievements still left on Roger Penske’s to-do list. 

But Sunday’s Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard represents a rare opportunity for Penske to accomplish one of the greatest feats in auto racing. A victory by one of his drivers Brad Keselowski or Joey Logano would give the legendary team owner the motorsports "triple crown" — also counting wins in the Daytona 500 (Logano) and Indianapolis 500 (Juan Pablo Montoya) earlier this year.

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Of course a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway would be special, triple crown or not.

Penske is the winningest Indianapolis Motor Speedway team owner (16 Indy 500 victories) in history but has amazingly been 0-fer at the track when it comes to NASCAR’s Brickyard 400.

Three times Penske was a runner-up with Hall of Fame driver Rusty Wallace (1995, 2000 and 2002), but the closest he’s been lately is Logano’s fifth place last season.

"Anytime we hear Indy coming up we start getting the calls from Roger," Logano said Friday between practice sessions at Indy.

"We really want to win this race. This is the one on his bucket list that he hasn’t gotten yet and we talk about it a lot. It would be very special to give him a Brickyard 400, along with the Indy 500 he won earlier this year up here and the Daytona 500 we won earlier, too. So this could be quite the trifecta if we could make it happen."

Keselowski actually delivered Penske his first NASCAR win on the famed Indy 2.5-miler — a 1-2 finish with then teammate Sam Hornish Jr. — in the inaugural XFINITY Series race in 2012.

Ironically, Penske was travelling and unable to attend the event — something Keselowski vowed to tease him about at the time.

The significance of Keselowski’s day was not lost on him.

"The Brickyard means so much to all of us as race car drivers and to the sport in general, and it transcends three different forms of auto racing, whether it’s IndyCar in the United States, F1 and their history here, and then obviously with stock cars and their initial time here to the current date, from ’94 on, it transcends into a special victory or a special place to race I should probably say," Keselowski said during his winner’s press conference.

Racing’s "triple crown" has only been achieved one time — in 2010 by Chip Ganassi, Penske’s longtime and well-respected rival in both NASCAR and IndyCar series. And it’s obviously very seldom even a possibility with the difficulty of winning both the Daytona and Indy 500-mile races.

Keselowski’s No. 2 Miller Lite Ford was second fastest in Friday’s second practice — the most promising of the two cars. Logano’s No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford finished 14th in the final practice, preparing for Saturday’s pole qualifying.

Both drivers were optimistic about their chances on Sunday. Motivation won’t be a problem.

"I don’t think you need any more incentive besides giving Roger Penske another win at Indy," Logano said. "You want to add your name to the list of guys that have won here for him. Every time I walk into the shop the first thing you see is all these Indy 500 trophies and the helmets that they wore when they won that race and the picture.

"We all want to come up here and give our best effort and try to execute the race the best we know how to and build the fastest cars we know how to before we get there, but we do that every week.

We do that for every single race track, but there’s just a little bit added for this one. It’s like going down to Daytona. You really wan to win the Daytona 500 because it’s one of the biggest races of the year. This is the same story, but it’s even a little bit more special I think for Team Penske than it is for everyone else."

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Driver expects to be with Hendrick beyond 2015 season

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Insisting with a big smile that he was "home" for good, Jimmie Johnson told reporters Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that he fully expected to remain at Hendrick Motorsports with crew chief Chad Knaus and sponsor Lowe’s.

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In fact, Johnson was so confident in the final outcome of his current contract negotiations, he wasn’t even sure of all the details.

"We still have, is it next year on our contract? I don’t even know. … We are obviously not concerned," Johnson said.

"We have been getting things buttoned up with Lowe’s, with Hendrick, with Chad and myself, all of that. Like I said, I think last week, I’m home, it’s just a formality at this point to get everything kind of finished up and done."

Johnson last signed a contract extension with Hendrick in 2009 that would carry him through the 2015 season. This new one will be the fourth contract he’s had with the team since his Cup series debut in 2001, and it’s the only organization he’s ever driven for at NASCAR’s elite level.

Lowe’s has been with him as a sponsor for the long haul as well, signing a two-year extension in 2013 to coincide with Johnson’s contract terms.

When Johnson signed his last contract, team owner Hendrick proclaimed, "We’ve caught lighting in a bottle with this combination" and promised more success.

He was correct in his prediction as Johnson went on to win his fifth and sixth Cup titles (in 2010 and 2013), leaving him one shy of Hall of Famers Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most championships all-time.

Johnson currently leads the series with four victories through 19 races this season and sits fourth in the points standings entering Sunday’s Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard, where he has four wins and finished first (2012) or second (2013) in two of the last three years.