SPEEDWAY, Ind. — As the laps ticked down during Sunday’s (July 21) 2024 Brickyard 400, NASCAR’s return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval was shaping up to be a showdown between Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson, with all three drivers on separate pit strategies.
Keselowski led, but he was running dangerously low on fuel; with the difficulties in passing all day, he was hoping for just enough fuel in the tank to score his second Brickyard 400 crown.
Blaney was second and had more fuel than Keselowski, but he still had to save fuel within the final 20 laps to make it to the finish. Third was Larson, who had no questions about fuel and roared from outside the top 15 and up to third, blowing by the cars that were forced to make an economy run to the finish.
The top three were all nose-to-tail and going all-out with two laps to go, but a Kyle Busch crash forced overtime and bunched the field right back together.
As the field entered the pivotal choose zone, Blaney elected to go to the outside of Keselowski, while Larson decided to tuck behind the No. 6 car in the second row. But Keselowski ran out of gas moments before the field took the green flag, and his exit to pit road promoted Larson to the front row of the restart.
It was a sequence of events that Blaney — who would have restarted on the inside had Keselowski pitted one lap earlier — was absolutely furious about.
Now with the preferred inside line, Larson capitalized on the sudden fortune and cleared Blaney into turn 1 for the lead. The process repeated for a second overtime attempt, and Larson scored his first Brickyard 400 crown and his fourth win of the 2024 Cup Series season.
Meanwhile, Blaney was saddled with a third-place finish in an absolutely crushing defeat. Had Keselowski run out of fuel after the restart or…
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