NASCAR Indianapolis Brickyard 400 highlights, stage results

The Brickyard 400 is the final regular season race for the NASCAR Cup Series in 2018, and we keep you up to speed with live highlights and frequent updates from Indianapolis.

Finally. It’s been a longer wait than usual for Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series racing from the most famous track in the U.S. First, the date for the Brickyard 400, this year branded as the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard, was moved to September to make it both more important — it’s now the cutoff race for making the NASCAR Playoffs — and less ridiculously hot to watch from the grandstands.

Then race weekend finally arrived and all it brought was rain. Both the XFINITY Series and Cup Series were rained out of on-track activity for three straight days, resulting in the Brickyard 400 getting bumped to Monday afternoon.

Any fans who stuck around are loyal ones, to be sure. As for what they’ll see, it’s as big a question mark as there possibly could be. The Brickyard 400 will be the first NASCAR Cup Series race since at least 2003 with no practice or qualifying sessions held before the race. All we know for sure is that because the field was set by points, the top drivers from the season so far will start up front, with the exception of Martin Truex Jr., whose No. 78 Toyota failed pre-race inspection multiple times.

Several playoff hopefuls will have to win the race to make the postseason, and with Indianapolis already a hard place to nail the setup combined with the uncertainty and the middling starting spots they’ll have, that now looms as an unenviable task.

Stage 1

Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick, who started the race in Row 1, got out in front of the rest of the field as expected. The first bit of intrigue came right before the competition caution scheduled for lap 10, where Harvick decided to come in a lap early but Kyle Busch chose to stay out.

Rowdy was actually supposed to pit and crew chief Adam Stevens took the blame for late notice. Meanwhile, Harvick’s early stop did him no good as the 4 team was hit with an uncontrolled tire penalty, forcing him to come back in with the rest of the field.

Denny Hamlin elected not to come in during the competition caution, the only car not to do so. That paid off as the 11 led the way after the restart, and Kyle Busch had to fend off a determined challenge for second place from Clint Bowyer.

Both Harvick and his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch decided to come to the pits right before the second competition caution at lap 30. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was nailed for his second pit road penalty for speeding, perhaps out of desperation since he needs a win to make the playoffs.

This time, a number of cars took only two tires for track position. SHR teammates Bowyer and Kurt Busch battled it out for the lead on the restart with Kurt Busch prevailing in the short term. Hamlin and Kyle Busch, shuffled back a bit in the pits, both flew by Chase Elliott to return to the top five.

The first unplanned caution came from an unexpected source: Truex spun out and ended up damaging his Toyota pretty badly with just under 10 laps to go in the stage.

Despite even more shuffling around on the subsequent restart, it appeared destined for Stewart-Haas Racing to win the first stage, and that’s exactly what happened as Bowyer crossed the start-finish line first.

Stage 1 results

1. Clint Bowyer
2. Kurt Busch
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Kyle Larson
5. Kyle Busch
6. Brad Keselowski
7. Aric Almirola
8. Paul Menard
9. Chase Elliott
10. Erik Jones

Stage 2

To no one’s surprise, Kyle Busch and Harvick made their way back to the front early in Stage 2. However, trouble found some other drivers not too long after, with Bubba Wallace and several other cars involved.

Alex Bowman was the next driver to find trouble, though his position in the points is okay as long as no one outside the top 16 wins today who hasn’t won yet this season, and there had been no real signs of that during the first half of the race.

A somewhat surprising name ended up leading the way after many of the contenders decided to pit ahead of the end of the stage. Matt Kenseth took the green and white checkered flag for the first stage win for the No. 6 Ford this season.

However, Kyle Busch ran into an issue at the very last second, as he tried to pit but failed to make it past the commitment line before Kenseth claimed the stage win.

Stage 2 results

1. Matt Kenseth
2. Chase Elliott
3. Erik Jones
4. Joey Logano
5. Kurt Busch
6. Daniel Suarez
7. Brad Keselowski
8. William Byron
9. Ryan Newman
10. Jimmie Johnson

Final stage

Bowyer resumed the lead after the restart that started the final stage. Kenseth was also among the cars in the top five, as was Kyle Larson, for really the first time all day.

With less than 25 laps to go, Brad Keselowski was in the lead but the battle for the win was likely behind them between Denny Hamlin and Bowyer, who already pitted. The gap between them was just a few car lengths with 20 to go.

They weren’t going to get to battle it out between the two of them, though, as a caution for debris came out with 17 laps left.

Pit stops and the ensuing restart figured to settle the race. Larson led the cars pitting, going in from third place, but many other drivers stayed out, including the leaders and fourth-place Jamie McMurray.

The restart saw Hamlin get away but McMurray bump into Bowyer fighting for the second spot. With just 12 laps remaining, it appeared only another caution could prevent Hamlin from sailing to a big win.

It almost arrived when Austin Dillon got a flat tire, but it definitely did when Landon Cassill and Jeffrey Earnhardt got together, with both cars smashed up and Cassill’s 00 spitting some flames as well.

The restart saw Bowyer spin his tires, making the race for the win between Hamlin and Keselowski, who was on fresher tires. Keselowski and Hamlin made some contact with two laps to go, but Brad K. and Erik Jones both made their way by Hamlin. Keselowski prevailed, holding on to secure the first ever Brickyard 400 win for Team Penske.