It was a really big moment for Bubba Wallace and his whole No. 23 team when he crossed the start/finish line 0.222 seconds ahead of Kyle Larson to win the crown jewel Brickyard 400 race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Wallace had assumed the lead on Lap 143, and even after Larson overtook Tyler Reddick for second two laps later, the No. 5 Chevrolet still trailed the race leader by 5.9 seconds.
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Though Larson clawed back some ground, trimming the gap to 4.719 seconds over the next three laps, Wallace held firm and sealed the win with a small margin at the finish line.
After the race, Larson shared his perspective, admitting to the challenge of overtaking at Indy and his defeat. “There’s nothing you can do here (at Indianapolis Motor Speedway) to pass,” he said.
“So no, I don’t really think there was anything I could do differently. I was second gear on the first restart, and honestly, that one worked out a little bit better, but he almost got clear of me down the frontstretch. And then on the second restart, he brought the pace down a little bit slower, so I needed to be first gear.”
He recalled last year’s race, noting that Wallace had the preferred inside lane back then too, which made it difficult to gain an advantage. Still, Larson praised his team’s execution. He acknowledged that they weren’t able to pass a lot of cars on track, but their pit crew and everyone on the team nailed the strategy.
Larson’s runner-up finish capped a strong comeback effort. At the green flag, his chances of a second consecutive top-five looked slim as he slipped to mid-pack during the opening stage. However, a well-timed pit strategy, staying out for a late dash to the Stage 2 checkered, kept him within close distance of the lead and allowed him to maintain track position until the final lap.
The closing moments were intense. On the first overtime restart, Larson had to line up on the outside of the No. 23 driver and held side-by-side through Turn 1. But the 23XI Racing driver gained the edge exiting Turn 2 before a multi-car crash on the backstretch instigated a second overtime. Then, on the final restart, Wallace started clean into Turn 1 and never looked back, snapping a 100-race winless streak.
The finish has now narrowed the battle for the regular-season title with just four races left before the playoffs. While Larson‘s No. 48 teammate, Alex Bowman, managed to finish P9, his other two teammates, Chase Elliott and William Byron, finished outside the top-10 at Indianapolis. Byron, who ran inside the top five on the last restart, ran out of fuel before the checkered flag.
Now, the three Hendrick Motorsports drivers, with Elliott leading Byron (2nd) and Larson, are separated by just 15 points in the fight for the regular-season championship and its 15 playoff points as the Cup Series heads to Iowa Speedway next Sunday.
