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Wallace wins double-overtime Brickyard 400 thriller

Mother Nature wasn’t going to deprive Bubba Wallace of the most important win of his career, not on this Sunday afternoon. 

Unsure of the amount of fuel left in his No. 23 Toyota, Wallace survived a rain shower and two overtime restarts at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to win the Brickyard 400 presented by PPG in two overtimes he punched his ticket to the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Wallace was comfortably ahead of runner-up Kyle Larson with four laps left in regulation, but the sudden shower forced NASCAR to call the fifth caution of the afternoon.  

The rain was gone almost as quickly as it appeared, and after a short stoppage to dry the track, Wallace pulled ahead of Larson on the first overtime restart. A five-car accident on the backstretch, however, sent the race to a second extra period.

Wallace stayed on track for the next restart – hoping his fuel would last – again pulled away from Larson and this time took the white flag without incident. After one more circuit, he crossed the finish line 0.222s ahead of Larson to claim the trophy in the Crown Jewel event.

The third victory of Wallace’s career ended a 100-race dry spell dating to Sept. 11, 2022 at Kansas Speedway. He led 30 laps, including the last 26, as the race went eight circuits beyond the scheduled 160.

“Oh, my gosh, I’m just so proud of this team,” Wallace said. “That adrenaline rush is crazy, ‘cause I’m coming off that right now, and I’m worn out.”

After pausing to hug wife Amanda and hold his 10-month-old son Becks aloft in front of the cheering crowd in the grandstands, Wallace continued.

“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “To win here at the Brickyard, knowing how big this race is, knowing all the noise that’s going on in the background, to set that all aside is a testament to these people here on this No. 23 team. It’s been getting old right around the cut line (for the Playoffs).”

Wallace, who started on the front row beside pole winner Chase Briscoe, ran consistently in the top five but didn’t take control of the race until after he pitted on lap 119 during a cycle of green-flag stops early in the final stage.

He took the lead for good when Ryan Blaney pitted on lap 142 and enjoyed an advantage of more than 5s after the stops cycled out. Though Larson made inroads into Wallace’s advantage, he wasn’t in positi on to challenge for the victory until the rain came.

After the shower, Wallace prevailed on the restarts against one of the top drivers in motorsports.

“There’s nothing you can do here to pass, so, no, I don’t really think there was anything I could do differently,” said Larson, the defending Brickyard 400 winner. “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. It was kind of the same thing with me last year – he had the preferred lane on the inside, and it’s really hard to beat that.”

Denny Hamlin, who co-owns Wallace’s 23XI Racing car with former NBA superstar Michael Jordan, finished third after crashing in Turn 2 during qualifying and starting the race from the rear in a backup car.

In the finals of the NASCAR Cup Series In-Season Challenge, Ty Gibbs claimed the $1-million prize by finishing 21st to Ty Dillon’s 28th. The battle wasn’t as close as the respective finishing positions might suggest.

Dillon went a lap down to then-leader Austin Cindric on lap 78, sustained damage to the nose of this No. 10 Chevrolet during a restart and finished three laps in arrears.

“One million is a lot of money, so I’m going to donate $10,000 to whichever charity Ty Dillon wants to give to,” Gibbs said. “It’s his choice.”

“But we had a fast SAIA LTL Freight Toyota Camry. Didn’t end up where we wanted to in the end. We just lost track position and [were out of the running] to win the race.” 

Ryan Preece finished fourth on Sunday but remains 42 points below the current elimination line for the Playoffs with four races left in the regular season. Brad Keselowski was fifth, posting his third top-five result of the season.

Todd Gilliland, Blaney, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman and Carson Hocevar completed the top 10.

Cindric led a race-high 40 laps to 34 for Briscoe.

William Byron saw his bid to retake the series lead from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott fall apart on the final lap. Byron took the green flag for the final overtime restart in third but ran out of fuel and fell to 16th at the finish.

Byron trails Elliott by four points in the chase for the regular-season championship. Larson is 15 points back in third.

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