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Brexton Busch. Courtesy of BTM
Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick just can’t seem to decide who is the best driver between them. On Saturday Hamlin won two stages and dominated once he took the lead taking the checkered flag for his sixth win of the season. Harvick never really got going as his team could never get the track bar adjusted to be competitive, but was still able to finish fourth
On Sunday The #4 team had the car in top form as Harvick stayed near the top for most of the day. The race was red flagged for about 30 minutes as the track crew had to replace a patch on the track that had broken loose. It seemed Harvick and Hamlin were once again going to duel each other to the last lap, but a loose wheel had Hamlin going to the pits late. A late restart saw #48 Jimmie Johnson gamble taking only two tires and coming out in first place. Harvick starting second on the inside lane made his move coming out of turn two staying low and taking the lead from Johnson. He never looked back as he held the top position the last 16 laps picking up his seventh win of the season and the 700th win for Ford Racing.
The big race of the day was the running of the 114th Indianapolis 500 which was moved from earlier in the year in hopes fans would be able to attend. Roger Penske now owns the track so it will be interesting to see what changes he makes to the venue over coming years. Marco Andretti started on the pole and that was the last time he would be in the lead for the race. Scott Dixon had a great start and quickly separated himself from the field. Ed Carpenter didn’t even make it past the first few laps as he was tagged and shot up the track into the wall. There were quite a few wrecks as drivers tried to swerve in and around traffic at full speed and most of them broke out into a fire probably the most I have seen since watching the Indy 500. The end of the race was very disappointing as #45 Spencer Pigot had a hard crash into the end of the wall heading into pit road. With pieces of car and barrier all over the track the race stayed yellow. Emergency personnel had Pigot lying on the track waiting for a stretcher then NBC cut to a commercial with three laps left in the race. When the broadcast came back on, the pace car was leading, the field still under caution and that is the way the race ended, with Takuma Sato winning his second 500 in three years. Scott Dixon finished second and Graham Rahal was third. As a viewer, I felt cheated by this ending and feel the race should have been red flagged. Somebody upstairs in the tower really made a stupid decision that made it feel like you wasted your time even watching the first 197 laps. This is definitely not the way to grow the fan base for Indy car.
KyleBusch Motorsports (KBM) is reporting on their website that the #18B of Brexton Busch has reached a deal for sponsorship with Servepro, Far Out Toys and Crash Circuit. Brexton, the son of Kyle Busch, is five years old and drives in the Beginner Box Stock cars.