Kevin Harvick clearly came to play Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  He led the most laps for the second straight year, but more or less lucked into victory after Denny Hamlin's crash.  With his win, Harvick's lead has expanded to 85 points, the largest lead of the season.  That margin is over Chase Elliott, who gained two places after tying (with Harvick) for the most stage points (16) and finishing 11th.  Brad Keselowski remains in third after finishing fourth.  Ryan Blaney is down two places to fourth after a terrible day.  First, one of his crewmembers was pinned against the car during the pit road pile-up.  Then, Blaney crashed in Turn 3 and was unable to reach minimum speed afterwards.

Hamlin was in very good position to win Sunday, but his right front tire blew on Lap 154 and ended his day.  He is still fifth in points, but very dejected.  Joey Logano has sole possession of sixth in points, but had to bite and scratch to finish 10th.  Martin Truex Jr. had engine issues almost from the green flag, dropped from eighth to 29th, then got eliminated in the pit road pile-up.  He is still seventh, but lost a bunch of ground.  Alex Bowman crashed late and lost nearly 50 points while holding onto eighth.

Aric Almirola finished third, his fifth straight top five finish.  It did not move him up in the standings, but he's now only six points behind Bowman.  Kyle Busch moved up one place to 10th after finishing sixth.  Older brother Kurt Busch celebrated his 700th start Sunday, but ended up stuck a lap down for much of the race.  He eventually got it back and finished 13th, dropping back to 11th in points.  Matt DiBenedetto is up two places to 12th despite crashing on the final lap and finishing 19th.

Clint Bowyer remains in 13th after getting caught out with a late caution during stops.  William Byron, despite crashing just after halfway and finishing 27th, moved up one place to 14th.  Jimmie Johnson, who missed Sunday's race due to his COVID-19 diagnosis, dropped three places to 15th.  Austin Dillon raced back into the top 16 after earning 14 stage points despite crashing with DiBenedetto on the final lap.

Dillon is the last man in the playoffs at the moment.  His margin is six points over Erik Jones, who crashed out of the race from 10th.  Tyler Reddick finished eighth Sunday, but still remains in 18th.  Bubba Wallace finished ninth and moved up to 19th, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. dropped to 20th after being eliminated due to the pit road pile-up.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 637, 2) Chase Elliott -85, 3) Brad Keselowski -88, 4) Ryan Blaney -103, 5) Denny Hamlin -109, 6) Joey Logano -110, 7) Martin Truex Jr. -136, 8) Alex Bowman -166, 9) Aric Almirola -172, 10) Kyle Busch -176, 11) Kurt Busch -180, 12) Matt DiBenedetto -224, 13) Clint Bowyer -227, 14) William Byron -245, 15) Jimmie Johnson -247, 16) Austin Dillon -277.

Note No. 1: Drivers in Bold have locked into the playoffs.

Playoff Points: 1) Denny Hamlin 23, 2) Kevin Harvick -1, 3) Joey Logano -9, 4) Brad Keselowski -10, 5) Chase Elliott -13, 6) Alex Bowman -14, 7) Martin Truex Jr. -16, 8) Ryan Blaney -17, t-9) Clint Bowyer -21, t-9) William Byron -21, t-11) Aric Almirola -22, t-11) Kurt Busch -22, t-11) Jimmie Johnson -22, t-11) Tyler Reddick -22, t-11) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -22.

Stage Points: 1) Chase Elliott 158, 2) Ryan Blaney -6, 3) Joey Logano -17, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -20, 5) Alex Bowman -23, 6) Kevin Harvick -28, 7) Kyle Busch -54, 8) Brad Keselowski -59, 9) Denny Hamlin -65, 10) Aric Almirola -74, 11) William Byron -86, 12) Matt DiBenedetto -96, 13) Jimmie Johnson -105, 14) Clint Bowyer -106, t-15) Kurt Busch -110, t-15) Tyler Reddick -110.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 573, 2) Brad Keselowski -50, 3) Denny Hamlin -66, 4) Kurt Busch -103, 5) Chase Elliott -115, 6) Aric Almirola -123, 7) Joey Logano -129, 8) Ryan Blaney -131, 9) Martin Truex Jr. -146, 10) Kyle Busch -149, 11) Matt DiBenedetto -156, 12) Clint Bowyer -159, 13) Alex Bowman -174, t-14) William Byron -195, t-14) Jimmie Johnson -195, t-14) Austin Dillon -195.

Race Winners: Denny Hamlin (Daytona, Darlington-2, Homestead, Pocono-2), Joey Logano (Las Vegas, Phoenix), Alex Bowman (Fontana), Kevin Harvick (Darlington-1, Atlanta, Pocono-1, Indianapolis), Brad Keselowski (Charlotte-1, Bristol), Chase Elliott (Charlotte-2), Ryan Blaney (Talladega)

 
Note: Race wins in Italics do not count towards playoff eligibility.

Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.  Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.

Chase Briscoe is still on a roll.  After pulling off a spectacular victory Saturday afternoon, Briscoe expanded his lead up to 21 points over Noah Gragson.  Gragson finished in a strong third, but earned only five stage points to Briscoe's 17.  Ross Chastain remains in third after finishing sixth.  Austin Cindric was the odds-on favorite to win, but ended up fifth.  He remains in fourth, just over a full race behind Briscoe.

Justin Haley moved up to fifth in points after charging to second in the closing laps Saturday.  Justin Allgaier gained a place after earning 18 stage points and finishing seventh.  Harrison Burton dropped two places to seventh after having mechanical issues and finishing 25th.  Brandon Jones' No. 19 burst into flames, ending his day early.  That didn't cost him a place in the standings, but he's 38 points out of seventh.

Michael Annett is still in ninth after finishing in ninth.  Ryan Sieg led a couple of laps, but finished 17th and lost some points to his competitors.  He is still in 10th.  Riley Herbst had a miserable day, finishing five laps down in 33rd.  He's still 11th, but lost a lot of ground to Sieg.  Brandon Brown finished 11th and moved back up to 12th, the final playoff spot.

Brown has a six-point advantage over Myatt Snider, who ran in the top 10 late Saturday before fading to 16th.  Daniel Hemric is now 14th after sitting out Indianapolis, while a top 10 finish puts Alex Labbe just one point behind Hemric.  Jeremy Clements moved up to 16th.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Briscoe 556, 2) Noah Gragson -21, 3) Ross Chastain -55, 4) Austin Cindric -61, 5) Justin Haley -105, 6) Justin Allgaier -122, 7) Harrison Burton -135, 8) Brandon Jones -173, 9) Michael Annett -183, 10) Ryan Sieg -227, 11) Riley Herbst -258, 12) Brandon Brown -271, 13) Myatt Snider -277, 14) Daniel Hemric -302, 15) Alex Labbe -303, 16) Jeremy Clements -320.

Note No. 1: Drivers in Bold have locked into the playoffs.
Note No. 2: Drivers in italics in the point standing sections are currently outside of the playoffs.

Playoff Points: 1) Chase Briscoe 28, 2) Noah Gragson -13, 3) Harrison Burton -18, 4) Brandon Jones -21, 5) Justin Haley -22, t-6) AJ Allmendinger -23, t-6) Justin Allgaier -23, 8) Austin Cindric -24, 9) Ryan Sieg -26, 10) Jeb Burton -27.

Stage Points: 1) Austin Cindric 162, t-2) Chase Briscoe -16, t-2) Noah Gragson -16, 4) Justin Allgaier -19, 5) Ross Chastain -24, 6) Justin Haley -64, 7) Brandon Jones -67, 8) Michael Annett -90, 9) Daniel Hemric -92, t-10) Harrison Burton -95, t-10) Ryan Sieg -95, 12) Riley Herbst -125, 13) Jeb Burton -140, 14) Myatt Snider -141, 15) Anthony Alfredo -148, 16) Brandon Brown -150.

Note: If he were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be 12th in stage points.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Briscoe 468, 2) Noah Gragson -15, 3) Ross Chastain -44, t-4) Harrison Burton -60, t-4) Justin Haley -60, 6) Austin Cindric -72, 7) Michael Annett -113, 8) Justin Allgaier -114, 9) Brandon Jones -125, 10) Brandon Brown -142, 11) Ryan Sieg -149, 12) Myatt Snider -153, 13) Riley Herbst -159, 14) Alex Labbe -172, 15) Jeremy Clements -182, 16) Josh Williams -187.

Note: If everyone were eligible for points, Brett Moffitt would be 16th in the old point standings.

Race Winners: Noah Gragson (Daytona, Bristol), Chase Briscoe (Las Vegas, Darlington, Homestead-2, Pocono, Indianapolis), Harrison Burton (Fontana, Homestead-1), Brandon Jones (Phoenix), Kyle Busch (Charlotte), AJ Allmendinger (Atlanta), Justin Haley (Talladega)

Note: Race wins in Italics do not count towards playoff eligibility.

Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.  Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.

"We knew [Denny Hamlin] was gonna be really close on tires and Rodney [Childers] told me on the radio he said, ‘Just make sure you keep the pressure on him,’ and that was all the pressure I could give.

"I didn’t have any more room [when going for the lead]. That was for sure, but it’s the Brickyard. This is what I grew up wanting to do as a kid, win at the Brickyard and to be able to come here and have won for the third time is something that I could have never dreamed of. I want to say hi to my family at home. I know Keelan will be jacked up. Piper is probably asleep. If not, hello. But just really, really proud of all these guys on this team." - Kevin Harvick, race winner

"It was a great day for the 42 team today. It’s always nice to be up front and be in contention late in the race. Chad did a great job on the box with his calls today. We had a really good strategy and the best tires coming to the end of the race, lining up fourth behind the leader late in the race, but just couldn’t get it done to take the lead. I tried everything to get to the front, but just didn’t have quite enough to get around the No. 4 car. If we had gotten to the lead though, I know we would have been hard to beat. All in all, though, a great race for us. It felt good to run up front and was a confidence booster for all of us. Looking forward to getting to Kentucky and carrying that momentum forward." - Matt Kenseth, finished second

"We had such a great Smithfield Ford Mustang, but we kept having to get off-sequence on our pit strategy because we kept having tires come apart. They’d start to come apart and they would vibrate and shake so bad that I could hardly see where I was going, so we kept having to pit for that and it kept messing us up on our strategy and getting us off-sequence, but fortunately there at the end the caution came out when we needed it to and things finally went our way and we knocked out another top-five, so just really proud of all the guys on this team. We’re doing such a good job of being consistent. We’re bringing great race cars and we’re being really consistent running up front, so just really proud of this team and just want to keep it going. It’s fun to run up front like that." - Aric Almirola, finished third

"I think we were kind of up and down. We started ninth or 10th and just kind of hung around sixth or seventh and couldn’t quite make the pass. Our car was really, really fast in clean air, but I couldn’t run in traffic. We’d run up to cars and get stopped and would kind of ride. Then we started to see the tire issues and tried to be really smart about that and try not to beat ourselves, keep tires on the car. Of course, every time we pitted to put tires on the car we’d cycle to the back, but we were just really mindful to not beat ourselves and that paid off. It gave us a good finish. If I’d have had clean air all day and not had to worry about the tires, we were as good as anybody, but worrying about the tires and not being spectacular in dirty air we kind of had to play it straight with the way it was and ended up with a top five and a fourth-place finish. We’ll take that and move forward." - Brad Keselowski, finished fourth

"Oh yeah. You are always hoping that you can kind of clear it and go. It is awesome to have all of SHR running well here at Indy. It is Tony’s (Stewart) backyard so it is a huge race for us. For us, our team, this package has been exactly the opposite of what I am used to driving. For it to all come together today means a lot. Thanks to all the guys at SHR for bringing great race cars. HaasTooling.com went national this week, so check them out. I am psyched. I am really happy we finally had it all come together." - Cole Custer, finished fifth

"We just kept getting off on pit strategy with the Skittles America Mix Camry. We had a valve stem come out fo the left rear on a stop and that put us in the back. Then we had vibrations at various points throughout the race with different sets of tires so we had to stay on top of that and make sure we changed those. Each time, that would put us on the back. I struggled to pass anybody most of the day, but somehow got spots on restarts. I was able to salvage a sixth-place finish and will head to Kentucky next week." - Kyle Busch, finished sixth

"Another great finish for us. Another solid top 10. It’s such a big run for us. I’m so proud of everybody at Front Row and Bob Jenkins for giving me this opportunity. It’s taken so long to be this competitive and I’m so thankful to have the opportunity. To have CarParts.com and Power Stop and Love’s Travel Stops and FR8 Auctions and all our partners throughout the year, Speedco — so many great people that make this possible and we’re doing it. We’re doing it every week. We’re definitely way more competitive than we’ve ever been and it’s a lot of fun." - Michael McDowell, finished seventh

"We had a great No. 8 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet when we could run in clean air and record some good lap times, but unfortunately we struggled in dirty air, like a lot of our competitors today. Any time we were battling someone side by side or from behind them, our car would just build way too tight and make it tough to gain or hold track position. We just had an up-and-down day, falling back early and then playing some strategy to stay out to start Stage 3 from the fifth spot. Once the race restarted for Stage 3, we were able to hold on to that position for a while before having to make our final green flag stop of the day. Unfortunately, a yellow came our when our pit stops were cycling through, trapping us a lap down and forcing us to take the wave-around and get shuffled back in traffic again. When that final yellow flag came out and set us up for a green-white-checkered finish, my crew chief Randall Burnett made the call to come in for four fresh tires and put us 16th for the restart. I was able to capitalize on the final restart with fresher tires and race up to eighth place, which is a great finish for our day. We had to grind it out today, but it turned out in our favor." - Tyler Reddick, finished eighth

"I guess it is good to be frustrated when you finish in the ninth-place. All-in-all, it was a good day for this No. 43 World Wide Technology (WWT) Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. It was fast. We just did not have the handling underneath us. It was good down the straightaways. It did not want to turn very well – specially behind traffic. One of the more frustrating days being behind cars and just trying to maneuver. So, coming out of there with a top 10 finish is good momentum going to the Kentucky Speedway – another good track for us. We will continue the good vibes and keep staying on Jerry (Baxter, crew chief) to produce good finishes for us." - Bubba Wallace, finished ninth

"Our Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE was super-fast today. It just sucks because we have had a lot of these things happen this year. It’s not a fault of anyone, it just happens and it’s a bummer for sure. We’ve had fast cars and it feels like we always have bad luck when we do. That’s what hurts even more. We just need to bring that same speed to Kentucky and hopefully we won’t have any issues there. To be leading the race like that and have a tire issue is, I guess, a good way to go out. We’ll just see what we can do in Kentucky." - William Byron, finished 27th

"It’s just tough. I hate it for the FedEx team. We didn’t do what we needed to do and it didn’t work out for us today. I had a fast car obviously and was stretching it out there but wasn’t pushing right front at all. It’s kind of roulette if you’re going to get one that will stay together or not and mine didn’t. You saw the end result. These big races — things don’t go my way all the time. We’re still going to go next week and try to win the next one. We’ll do all we can." - Denny Hamlin, finished 28th (Crashed out)

"The Stanley Camry was pretty quick. We were kind of just trying to move to the front and get some track position and I guess we had a right front go down. I felt it pop, and I was kind of along for the ride. It was a pretty hard hit. It’s a shame. The Stanley Camry was fast. I think we just needed to get up front a little more and we could have contended. It’s a shame; it’s kind of the story of our season. We’ve just had a rough year, and things are just not going our way. Hopefully, we can just turn it around, keep bringing fast cars and have things turn around for us." - Erik Jones, finished 33rd (Crashed out)

"Kind of like it always has been in the past here. Starting in the back trying to go forward, the No. 15 (Brennan Poole) actually got in the back of me. I didn’t know if I got (hit) the gentleman on the No. 12 (Ryan Blaney’s crew member) or not. Once the wreck started happening in front of us and we all got bottled-up there, one car after another were getting run into. It’s just a shame. I hate it for these guys on this Ally No. 48. They’ve done such a great job. They’ve prepared so well for the circumstances. Obviously, our hearts and thoughts are for Jimmie (Johnson) and his family right now. That’s the most important piece of all this is getting him back to the race track soon. And, I wanted to do well for them today and it’s disappointing to be standing here talking to you (TV interviewer) unfortunately. But we’ll go on. I don’t know what next week looks like yet. We’ll go run the Xfinity Series race and go have a good shot at it. It’s a disappointing way to end the Brickyard 400." - Justin Allgaier, finished 37th (Crashed out)

"Terrible. Disappointing. We really only ran one lap up to speed, then we ended up having that engine deal, so it’s just disappointing. Our Auto Owners Camry felt amazing. I thought that we were going to have a great day. We ran a lap and a half, I guess, and it was feeling really good and then engine went down. The deal on pit road, that kind of happened to us last year. I almost aborted. I almost said I’m going to wait and come around the next lap, but the guys really wanted to get under the hood and assess the engine, and come to find out it was just a spark plug problem, so we could have easily fixed it and had a really good day. Thanks to Auto Owners and Toyota and everyone that supports us. We will come back strong and hopefully get them next week." - Martin Truex Jr., finished 38th (Crashed out)

Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.  Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.