The 2016 Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a milestone race in NASCAR’s history. It was the final time Cup Series legends Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart took to the track for the crown jewel event. The 170 laps that were raced led to Kyle Busch, then a driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, shattering the hopes of the field with the dominance he displayed.
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The weekend kicked off on the best foot as he qualified in pole position for Saturday’s Xfinity Series race. He ended up winning the second-tier event and qualifying in pole for the Brickyard 400 on Sunday. The echoes of history waiting to be made resounded through the iconic venue, for no driver had won races in both Xfinity and Cup on the same weekend on the same track from the pole.
Busch won the race in 2015 and had the advantage of momentum. However, his contention wasn’t without challenge. Every top driver had the chance to go for the win as multiple restarts spread through the race. But Busch managed to get ahead of the crowd every single time. He ended up leading 149 laps of the 170-lap race before reaching the checkered flag in pole position.
“I had (Matt) Kenseth on my outside, I had (Martin Truex Jr.) on my outside, I think I had Carl (Edwards) on my outside, and then Joey Logano on my outside, so there was a lot of different characters we had to deal with on the restarts,” he told the press after the race. “Just glad everything worked out for us.” He had a lead of 2.126 seconds over Matt Kenseth, who finished runner-up.
Can Busch repeat 2016 magic this weekend at the Brickyard?
Busch recently reminisced to the media on his yesteryear achievement, “Being able to win the pole and the race for both the Xfinity and Cup Series races just showed our strength as a team, but also my strength as a driver in figuring out what it takes to be good at Indy. That was certainly a highlight for me on the track during that period of time.” The question that remains is can he conjure the trick again?
Eight years on, Busch is no longer the driver he used to be. He hasn’t won a race in 2024 yet and faces an exceptionally bleak chance of qualifying for the playoffs. Five of his last seven races have ended in DNFs. The best he can realistically hope for going to the 2.5-mile oval this Sunday is a decent finish in the top 10. Even that might be hard to come by in Richard Childress Racing’s No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro.
