Bubba Wallace stepped out of his No. 23 car on Sunday with pure emotion, pumping his fists in celebration before embracing his family after clinching a historic victory in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The 31-year-old driver delivered a landmark moment, becoming the first Black driver to win a major race on the track’s 2.5-mile oval, a place steeped in motorsports history where no Black driver has ever won the Indianapolis 500 and Formula 1 has only raced on the road course. Wallace’s path to victory was anything but easy, as he battled through an 18-minute rain delay, two intense overtime restarts, fuel concerns, and a relentless charge from defending race champion Kyle Larson to finally cross the finish line first. This triumph marked Wallace’s third career NASCAR Cup Series win and his first among the series’ four crown jewel races, placing him alongside Daytona, Charlotte, and Darlington legends while also ending a 100-race winless streak dating back to his 2022 victory in Kansas.
The drama unfolded in the final laps as Wallace’s five-second lead shrank rapidly with 14 laps remaining, forcing him to hold off Larson while weather threatened to interrupt the race completely. When rain brought out a caution with just four laps to go, the field was brought to the pit lane, leaving Wallace to calculate his moves as uncertainty mounted. The restart was critical—he beat Larson coming out of Turn 2, only for a crash behind him to trigger a second overtime, putting fuel strategy into question. Refusing to pit, Wallace stayed out and outdueled Larson once again on the restart to secure the win by 0.222 seconds, dashing Larson’s chance to become the event’s fourth consecutive repeat winner. His success also helped ease the sting of a near miss in qualifying the day before, where Chase Briscoe stole the pole position late in the session. The victory was also a major boost for 23XI Racing, co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, as the team continues its legal battle with NASCAR over charter rights. Elsewhere on the track, Ty Gibbs won the In-Season Challenge championship, earning $1 million and celebrating by tossing money to fans after finishing 21st in the main race. Tire issues knocked out contenders like Austin Cindric, Joey Logano, and Erik Jones, while early crashes sidelined Ross Chastain, Austin Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Cody Ware. Even Cookie Monster, serving as the race’s grand marshal, brought levity to the day by encouraging drivers not to stop for directions. After the historic Indianapolis showdown, the Cup Series heads to Iowa next weekend as the season continues.
