Brickyard 400 results: Kasey Kahne wins NASCAR race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

INDIANAPOLIS — The wildest Brickyard 400 in NASCAR history featured innumerable twists and turns, a controversial double-overtime finish and a surprise winner in Kasey Kahne taking the checkered flag in near-darkness Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Kahne got the better of Brad Keselowski on a second overtime restart, then pulled away to win his first Monster Energy Cup Series race since 2014, snapping a 102-race winless streak. Ryan Newman finished third, with Joey Logano fourth and Matt Kenseth fifth.

“To win at this track is unreal,” Kahne said. “I’m exhausted. But, an unbelievable win. The team just kept working. We had great pit stops.

“To win at Indy is unbelievable. I wish my son, Tanner, was here.”

For much of the day, pole-sitter Kyle Busch appeared well on his way to becoming the first driver to win three consecutive Brickyard 400s. Routinely Busch built up a sizeable advantage over second-place in leading 87 of the first 110 laps.

But Busch’s bid to make history ended when he and Martin Truex Jr. tangled on a restart with 49 laps remaining. Busch was second to Truex and on his outside as they came to the green flag, but Truex bobbled and clipped Busch sending both crashing hard into the outside Turn 1 wall.

Both cars sustained considerable damage and neither driver was able to continue. Truex took responsibility for the accident, admitting he lost control and slid up the track.

“I just got loose and wrecked him,” Truex said. “Totally my fault. Didn’t really know what to expect in that position and didn’t really realize that he was going to drive in that deep and suck me around. I will take the blame for that and obviously it was my fault. I hate it for Kyle. He had a great car and we did as well, but that’s racing.”

Once Busch was eliminated, the race changed dramatically. A long stretch of green-flag racing shook up the running order with teams employing various strategies, followed by a rash of cautions that turned one of NASCAR’s signature races into complete chaos.

In a brazen move driving a car leaking oil, Jimmie Johnson crashed after attempting a three-wide pass of Kahne and Keselowski on the second-to-last lap. Johnson as unsure if he spun because of the oil from an engine blowing up, or because he couldn’t keep control of his Chevrolet as tried to go by the two leaders.

Johnson’s setup the first overtime restart, but as the race resumed the field stacked up just past the start-finish line. In the aftermath several cars were damaged with the frontstretch blocked, necessitating a red flag to clean up the mess.

“I got real loose and don’t know if I spun in my own oil or it was an aero situation, but so close to getting a fifth win here at the Brickyard.”

On the next decisive restart, Keselowski was the leader but Kahne was better. He powered out front down the backstretch and was ahead when a multi-car crash happened mid pack. NASCAR initially waited to throw the caution, which would’ve setup another overtime restart, but finally called for the caution just after Kahne had passed the marker that made the race official if another caution occurred.

“The [restart] before just didn’t work, everything went wrong,” Kahne said. On the final one, everything went right. And once I got to Turn 1, I had good power and was able to clear him. I’m exhausted. And, it’s pretty crazy.”

A thunderstorm caused a one hour, 47 minute delay after 17 laps were completed. Overall, 14 cautions slowed the race for 55 laps.