Kyle Busch started from the pole position and never looked back in the 5th Annual Lilly Diabetes 250 at Indy. The all-time Xfinity winner flew out of the gate at the wave of the green flag and established his dominance from the start. He went on to lead 62 of the 63 laps turned, leaving no doubt as to who had the fastest hot-rod. It was Busch’s second straight Xfinity Series victory at Indy and his third overall. Furthermore, it was the Sprint Cup Series defending champion’s third straight win the Xfinity Series.
Even though Kyle Busch had the best car on the track, the race at Indy was far from over. Kevin Harvick, another Sprint Cup Series mainstay, was hot on Busch’s heels in the closing laps of the event. When the race was restarted in overtime, Harvick nudged second place Kyle Larson. That provided enough room to duck to the inside, but didn’t want to risk going into Turn 1 at a bad angle.
While Kevin Harvick and fellow sprint Cup competitor Kyle Larson battled for second, Kyle Busch pulled away from the field. He crossed the finish line .411 seconds ahead of Harvick’s #88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet and celebrated in the Winner’s Circle.
What made the final dash to the finish line so impressive is that Kyle Busch did it all on old tires. The eventual race winner had elected to stay out on the track after the 50 lap mark. Harvick, the runner-up, had fresher tires and thought that could be the difference on the re-start at Indy. The Joe Gibbs Racing machine had to much horsepower and overcame the tire deficit with ease.
“The new tires for those guys were good for them but not so good for us,” Busch said. “I just dug in deep and gave it everything I had. I knew I had to get really good restarts. On the second-to-last one (on Lap 54), I got a really good one, and then the last one (on lap 62 in overtime), it was OK. I got an OK one, and I saw Harvick pull out… but he never got alongside of me. I never felt him close enough that he was going to pull alongside. … It’s a pretty awesome feeling to be able to go back to Victory Lane at Indy this year. We’re sitting on the pole tomorrow, and hopefully we can have another sweep here.”
Harvick was driving Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s #88 Hunts Brothers Pizza Chevrolet. The car was competitive throughout the whole contest, but lacked the speed of the Joe Gibbs Racing machines. Harvick got the break he needed because Jay Black Jr. and Harrison Rhodes wrecked in Turn 2.
The melee brought out the race’s second and final caution. As a result, The pack of competitors was bunched together for a re-start and Kyle Busch’s lead was nullified. Obviously, it wasn’t meant to be for Harvick but it gave the veteran a glimpse of hope before it was all said and done. Harvick was happy with the second place result at Indy and reflected that in his post race interview.
“I really thought I could beat him down the backstretch if I got off of (Turn) 2 well and could clear the 42 (Larson),” Harvick said. “I got to the inside and kind of hit the chip and decided to hold the line up a little bit and try to get a run, and the 42 got stuck on the outside and that ruined my plan. But our goal was to overachieve today, and we did that and capitalized on some situations and had a couple of good restarts and wound up second. All in all, it wasn’t a bad day.”
Fifth place finisher Justin Allgaier received a little more than a top five finish. The JR Motorsports speedster received the $100,000 dollar Dash 4 Cash bonus for his performance at Indy. Allgaier was the highest finishing Xfinity Series full-timer in the race, that qualified through he Heat races. He managed to make late passes on teammate Elliott Sadler who finished seventh and points leader Daniel Suarez who finished in sixth.
The 5th Annual Lilly Diabetes 250 took one hour and nine minutes to complete. The average speed of the field was 136.298 miles per hour and the winning margin was .411 seconds. It was a clean ran race throughout the Saturday’s beautiful afternoon. As a result, there were only two cautions totaling 10 laps. Daniel Suarez maintained his Xfinity Series points lead with his sixth place performance.
