Ryan Newman was excited for his hometown race and Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday and he used that to snap a 49-race winless drought to take the checkered flag, keeping favorite Jimmie Johnson at bay to win the Sprint Cup series event as the Chase draw closer to starting.
Newman got to take part in the tradition of kissing the bricks and along with Johnson the two led the field for over 115 of the 160 laps and the they finished ahead of Kasey Kahne and Tony Stewart to make the top four finishers all Chevrolet cars. Matt Kenseth finished sixth on the day in front of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon, who came in sixth and seventh. Joey Logano finished in eighth place, while Juan Pablo Montoya and Kyle Busch rounded out the top 10.
The race was the 20th running of the Brickyard 400 and should be quite the memorable moment for Newman, who was able to win the race in front of numerous friends and family. There wasn't much excitement in the race and just three cautions and no accidents, but things got hot at the end for Newman and Johnson continues to perform strongly as the Chase gets closer. The next race on the schedule is the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Pocono at Pocono Raceway next Sunday followed by the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Watkins Glen at Watkins Glen International on August 11.
"Overall I thought it was an exciting race," said Kenseth. "I thought there was a lot of different strategies there at the end and the two fastest cars ended up battling for the win. It wasn't any harder (to pass) than normal. It's just always hard to pass here."
