Start of the 2016 Lilly Diabetes 250 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. [John Wiedemann Photo]
It was looking like an easy win for Kyle Busch in today’s Lilly Diabetes 250 NASCAR XFINITY race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A victory burn-out seemed to be near. Other than an early pit stop he had led for 55 laps from the pole and was cruising.
But two late-race cautions on laps 50 and 56 set up a green-white-checker finish that looked like doom for the worn out tires of Busch’s Joe Gibbs Toyota.
“Those restarts, especially the last one, weren’t good for us on old tires,” admitted Busch who was looking to score his 83rd XFINITY Series win.
The first caution on lap 50, when Erik Jones spun, brought strategy into the race as Busch and second-place Daniel Suarez chose to stay out on old tires while challengers Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick and others put on new Goodyears.
Busch held off the field on that restart however, as Suarez spun in turn two and Busch stretched his lead until the second caution on lap 55.
With Larson next to Busch and Harvick on his back bumper it looked like the two might just get together and stop the dominant Gibbs Toyota.
“I thought the #2 (Paul Menard) might give me a shove,” Larson said. “and that would give me a shot to beat him into turn one. But Kyle’s car takes-off better than anybody, even on worn tires.”
Harvick had a better view of the restart from the second row and hoped that on newer tires he, too, could forge ahead. “I didn’t get a good restart and then my first turn didn’t go well and that was that. I thought I could get him on the backstretch but the 48 car blocked my way.”
Even on very worn tires Busch stretched his lead as his challengers squabbled behind him. “I saw Harvick battle Larson behind me and got a pretty good jump. Harvick gave me a little shove but I had my way in turn one and that sealed it,” said Busch who won both Brickyard weekend races a year ago and was just 0.411 sec. ahead at today’s flag.
Menard hustled to third while Larson and Allgaier rounded-out the top five.
The Dash 4 Cash battle for the $100,000 prize went to Jason Allgaier as first Erik Jones and later Suarez eliminated themselves, allowing Allgaier to pass teammate Elliot Sadler on that last restart and claim the bonus cash. All Allgaier could say about the pass that cinched the $$,” I have no idea how that happened.”
So Busch did get to do a smoky burn-out and Allgaier was counting his Cash, the winner was also thinking about Sunday and another Brickyard sweep. “I’ll be starting up front tomorrow and you know what that means here.”
And so do his competitors.
Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.
Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.
The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.
Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.
He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.
Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”
FeaturedIndianapolis Motor SpeedwayJustin AllgaierKyle busch