Kyle Larson settles for 2nd at Indianapolis

Despite leading laps in the Brickyard 400, Kyle Larson had to settle for second-place Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Larson dueled with Bubba Wallace on the front row for the final two restarts in NASCAR Overtime, with Wallace holding off the defending NASCAR Cup Series Indianapolis winner to capture his third career win and first since 2022.

“There’s nothing you can do here to pass, so no, I don’t really think there was anything I could do differently,” Larson said of the late-race restarts. “I was second gear on the first restart, and honestly, that one worked out a little bit better, but he almost got clear of me down the front stretch.

“And then on the second restart, he brought the pace down a little bit slower, so I needed to be first gear. It was kind of the same thing with me last year – he had the preferred lane on the inside and it’s really hard to beat that.”

Larson captured his second consecutive Top-5 finish and his 11th Top-5 of the season, tied for a series high with Denny Hamlin.

The Hendrick Motorsports teammate is ranked third in driver’s standings, 15 points behind the lead, only trailing his HMS teammates for the top spot.

Chase Elliott holds a four-point lead with four races to go in the regular season with William Byron second, Larson third (-15 points) and Hamlin fourth (-20 points).

The next race for the Cup Series is scheduled for Sunday, August 3, at Iowa Speedway.