There’s been so much going on in the world of Bubba Wallace in 2025, both personally and professionally, but on Sunday at Indianapolis, Wallace put it all aside to earn himself a victory in the Brickyard 400.
The 31-year-old driver was able to extract every last drop of gasoline from his No. 23 Chumba Casino Toyota Camry XSE in the final laps of the crown jewel event, as the race went eight laps past its scheduled distance courtesy of a double-overtime finish.
Wallace paced the field for a total of 30 laps in Sunday’s event, taking the lead away from buddy Ryan Blaney with 18 laps remaining in regulation (and 26 laps remaining in the extended event), when the No. 12 Ford Mustang was forced to make his final pit stop.
After everybody had made their final pit stop of the afternoon, Wallace cycled into the race – after the original effective leader, Joey Logano, suffered a flat right-rear tire during the final run of the race. At that point in the run, the No. 23 had a four-second lead over defending Brickyard 400 winner Kyle Larson.
RESULTS: Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Just when it looked like things were going to be alright for Wallace, the caution was displayed for a rain shower in the first corner, which forced NASCAR to red flag the event with only four laps to go. That delay allowed the intensity to ramp up for a final shootout to the finish.
Larson had two shots at making the pass on Wallace on the restarts, but the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion was unable to finesse the No. 23 and take over the lead, allowing Wallace to retain the lead and stretch his advantage over the last five miles of the race.
“I’m worn out. I thought things every which way besides driving a race car during that red flag. So proud of this Chumba Casino team. The adrenaline rush is crazy. I want to thank all of these people behind me, all the men and women of Airspeed for making this possible,” Wallace said. “To overcome so much and to put these people in Victory Lane, that’s what it’s all about. These people keep pushing me, believing in me. Man, just so proud.”
Larson was forced to settle for a second-place finish, unable to make a run at the 23XI Racing vehicle ahead of him on the final lap. After starting dead last, Denny Hamlin, in a backup car, recovered to finish in third. RFK Racing teammates Ryan Preece and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five.
Todd Gilliland recorded an impressive sixth-place result for Front Row Motorsports while Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, and Carson Hocevar completed the top-10.
William Byron spent the majority of the afternoon in the top five once again on Sunday but ran out of fuel on the final lap coming to the checkered flag, which relegated him to a 16th-place finish. Similarly, Josh Berry also ran out of gas, and a potential top-five run turned into a 22nd-place finish.
Katherine Legge recorded a career-best 17th-place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, exceeding her previous best result in the NASCAR Cup Series for Live Fast Motorsports. Legge has started in the Indianapolis 500 four times with a best finish of 22nd.
The NASCAR Cup Series will now head to Iowa Speedway for the first event of the NBC Sports broadcasting schedule. Coverage of the Iowa Corn 350 will take place at 3:30 pm ET on USA Network, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
