Bubba Wallace became the first Black driver to win on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.5-mile oval, surviving a late rain delay, two overtimes, concerns over running out of fuel and a hard-charging Kyle Larson on Sunday in the Brickyard 400.
The third NASCAR Cup victory of Wallace’s career was also his biggest. It snapped a 100-race winless streak that dated to 2022 at Kansas. He also won at Talladega in 2021. It’s his first win at one of NASCAR’s four crown jewel races.
“Unbelievable,” Wallace shouted on his radio after crossing the yard of bricks.
And while the final gap was 0.222 seconds, he didn’t reach victory lane without some consternation.
Larson trailed by 5.057 seconds with 14 laps to go, but the gap was down to about three seconds with six remaining when the yellow flag came out because of rain. The cars rolled to a stop on pit lane with four to go, giving Wallace about 20 additional minutes to think and rethink his restart strategy.
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But after beating Larson through the second turn, a crash behind the leaders forced a second overtime, extending the race even more laps as Wallace’s team thought he might run out of gas.
Wallace risked everything by staying on the track, then beat the defending race winner off the restart again to prevent Larson from becoming the fourth back-to-back winner of the Brickyard.
It also alleviated the frustration Wallace felt on Saturday when he spent most of the qualifying session on the provisional pole, only to see Chase Briscoe surpass him with one of the last runs of the session.
He made sure there was no repeat on Sunday, giving an added boost to the 23XI Racing co-owned by basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan and last week’s race winner, Denny Hamlin, as it continues to battle NASCAR in court over its charter status.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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