The 2017 Winston Cup Series: Indy proves unpredictable

Kyle Busch leads Martin Truex Jr. in the Brickyard 400. The two dominated until crashing out of the race together on lap 111

     With all the talk of how boring the Brickyard 400 has become to watch, this year's edition was pretty wild. Kyle Busch dominated and looked unstoppable, until the last thing I expected, him and Martin Truex Jr. crashed while battling for the lead. As much as I don't like Kyle Busch, I legitimately felt bad to see him robbed of a win like that. The best two cars in the field were suddenly gone... What followed was a battle of everyone else, a series of crashes, and a surprise win for Kasey Kahne. It's his first trip to victory lane since 2014, and his first win at Indianapolis.

Kasey Kahne led 12 laps at Indianapolis en route to his first Brickyard 400. It's his first win since August 2014, and only his 4th top-10 this year

     Several other front-runners did not finish the race. While Chase Elliott had an engine failure early on, Earnhardt Jr's bad luck continued, blowing a radiator when he plowed into a car in turn two. Kurt Busch, and Clint Bowyer had their cars destroyed in a spectacular crash, and Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Larson, and Ricky Stenhouse wrecked out in separate incidents. Only 20 cars were running at the finish, and a few underfunded teams had a surprisingly good finish. Matt Dibenedetto came home in 8th, Cole Whitt finished 12th, and Timmy Hill came in 14th. Jeffrey Earnhardt tied his season best of 26th.
     It was disappointing to see the grandstands at Indianapolis so empty for a NASCAR event. Only an estimated 35,000 fans were in attendance. It will be interesting to see if the Cup series adopts a new rules package, and tries to improve competition. If not for an untimely wreck, Kyle Busch was well on his way to driving away with another race at the Brickyard, and putting the few fans there to sleep...

     The jumbled results played into this week's "classic" points. Kyle Larson gained virtually nothing on Truex Jr., but Harvick gained on both with his sixth place finish. This puts the three of them only seven points apart. Brad Keselowski's good finish helped him jump from ninth in points to sixth. Off to Pocono!