Brickyard 400 results: Kasey Kahne wins, shakes up playoffs
A wreck up front opened the path for Kasey Kahne to pick up the win at the 2017 Brickyard 400.
Sometimes an opportunity will present itself amid chaos. On Sunday, one of the more chaotic Brickyard 400 races ever took place from Indianapolis. After rain took a toll early on and forced the race to come to a halt for a couple of hours, cautions ruled the day. Kasey Kahne was the driver left rolling and in one piece when the smoke finally cleared, earning a playoff-clinching and perhaps job-saving victory.
Kyle Busch swept the first two stages of the race and faced the man that had been taking them all year, Martin Truex Jr. up front. The two drivers would end up wrecking with each other and that immediately opened up the race for every driver. No one was safe from wrecks, whether it was those two, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Larson, Kurt Busch and others.
It was more bad luck for Busch, but that gave a new driver a chance at the winning and punching their ticket to the chase. In overtime, Kasey Kahne held the lead to start with Brad Keselowski next to him. Before anyone could get going a massive pileup occurred on the track.
To provide a reference point, a rain delay and three red flags made sure this event was brought to a halt. A race that is beloved, felt like a strenuous marathon.
The first overtime attempt didn’t even see the field make it close to the cutoff line before another caution — and another red flag — came out for a wreck. It was beginning to look like whoever was left without major damage would get a chance to race for the win.
However, it was Kahne and Keselowski who ended up with the only real shot, leading the field out of the second overtime restart. Yet another wreck occurred on a day that broke the Indy record for cautions, but this time, Kahne made it past the overtime line before the yellow came out.
Kahne’s victory was his first in more than 100 races, dating back to Atlanta in 2014. Considering he never even finished second in any race during that stretch, that’s a long stretch of futility. But all of a sudden, he’s in the 2017 NASCAR Cup series playoffs, a fittingly strange turn of events in what’s been a wild season.
2017 Brickyard 400 finishing order
- Kasey Kahne
- Brad Keselowski
- Ryan Newman
- Joey Logano
- Matt Kenseth
- Kevin Harvick
- Daniel Suarez
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Chris Buescher
- A.J. Allmendinger
- Danica Patrick
- Cole Whitt
- Aric Almirola
- Timmy Hill
- Jamie McMurray
- Paul Menard
- Denny Hamlin
- Michael McDowell
- Ty Dillon
- Trevor Bayne
- Austin Dillon
- Landon Cassill
- Ryan Blaney
- Gray Gaulding
- Joey Gase
- Jeffrey Eanrhardt
- Jimmie Johnson
- Kyle Larson
- Kurt Busch
- Clint Bowyer
- Erik Jones
- B.J. McLeod
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Kyle Busch
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- J.J. Yeley
- David Ragan
- Chase Elliott
- Corey LaJoie