2017 Brickyard 400 – The Rise of the Underdogs

The 2017 Brickyard 400 had a little bit of everything for fans of NASCAR racing. And surprisingly, the race was good for many of the race’s underdogs.

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Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series was one of the wildest and craziest races at IMS in recent memory. While often we are used to talking about surprising finishers in May’s Indy 500, this week the story is about many of the drivers who finished in the top 15.

Thanks to an unusually high amount of carnage and a record number of cautions in the delayed race, many drivers who may not have been in contention were near the front at the finish. Kasey Kahne broke a 102-race winless streak in order to lock himself into the playoffs for the first time since 2014. But he was not the only one who surprised fans on Sunday.

Late in the running of the 167-lap race, it looked as if Trevor Bayne could snap his winless streak, which dates back to the 2011 Daytona 500. Michael McDowell had Leavine Family Racing near the front as well. Sadly, both drivers were eliminated thanks to wrecks before overtime.

Multiple attempts at an overtime finish and the controversial use of the overtime line to end the race meant there were some unusual names in the top 10 and top 15. Matt DiBenedetto earned his best finish with Go FAS Racing in 8th, while Chris Buescher earned his best finish of the year in 9th and A.J. Allmendinger finished in 10th, earning the first double top 10 finish for JTG-Daugherty Racing.

Perhaps the biggest stories, however, involved the drivers in 12th and 14th place. Cole Whitt earned Tri-Star Motorsports their best ever finish in the Cup Series despite being involved in a late-race wreck and damaging his #72 Chevy. Timmy Hill, meanwhile, earned team owner Carl Long his first ever top 15 finish, just a few weeks after his team returned to the Cup level. Racing has now come full circle for Long and MBM Racing, from seeing his team suspended in 2009 to returning to top competition in 2017.

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It is rare to see such strong finishes from smaller and often underfunded operations, especially outside of the high-banked superspeedways. However, with Indianapolis driving more and more like a restrictor-plate track than anything else, perhaps these types of results will become more of the norm.