INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Corey Heim passed team co-owner Denny Hamlin on the final restart Sunday and then held off the hard-charging cars of Christopher Bell and Joey Logano to capture his first Brickyard 400 crown.
The 24-year-old has won twice this season, even though he won't be driving full-time in NASCAR's Cup series until next season. He's the first Cup driver to win twice in his first 15 career starts since A.J. Foyt in 1965.
And he did it this time with a daring outside move to overtake Hamlin, then leading the final 35 laps and holding off Bell by 0.287 seconds on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's historic 2.5-mile oval. Logano, last week's winner, finished third, 0.972 seconds behind, again keeping team owner Roger Penske out of victory lane.
“That was a damn handful,” Heim said. “I was hanging on for dear life once the shade went down and the pace picked up, my car got really loose and I never really got a lot of clean air throughout the day, so that was the hardest I've ever fought in my life to make sure I focused on the exits and get through dirty air.”
Hamlin, who is part of Michael Jordan's ownership group with 23XI Racing, made his second straight trip to victory lane as a team owner. Bubba Wallace, Heim's teammate, won the 2025 title. But Hamlin finished fifth, more than six seconds back, as he tried to add the only missing link in a career sweep of NASCAR's four crown jewel races. He's now 0 for 18 all-time at Indy.
Todd Gilliland of Front Row Motorsports surprised everyone by collecting the $1 million In-Season Challenge despite qualifying 36th and spending most of the day behind 2023 Cup champ Ryan Blaney. He also finished second in the second stage.
But the payoff came after 2023 Cup champ Ryan Blaney was collected in a nine-car crash with 41 laps to go. Team Penske's crew members tried to get Blaney's No. 12 Ford back in cotention, but he couldn't pass Gilliland, who finished 24th. Blaney was 26th.
Ty Gibbs won stage one and finished third in stage two before getting shuffled back to 14th during a pit stop in stage three. Ross Chastain won the second stage.
Kyle Larson and Daniel Dye were knocked out of the race early when blown tires sent them into the wall before the end of stage two. Chase Elliott also was knocked out early when he hit the wall and the right rear wheel went flat.
It was another tough weekend for Larson, the defending Cup champ whose winless streak reached 46 races as he finished last in the 39-car field late in stage one.
First, Larson qualified 10th with a lap time more than 0.3 seconds behind pole winner Carson Hocevar. Then Sunday, he was ready to cycle into the lead when a left rear blew, sending him hard into the wall coming out of Turn 3 and making him the first car out of the race.
“We just had a tire let go. I wouldn’t say pushing had anything to do with it," he said. “Just a little bit of bad luck, I guess.”
He's won 26 races and two series crowns since joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2021. But even though the No. 5 Chevrolet last reached victory lane in May 2025 at Kansas, the longest drought in Larson's Hendricks tenure may not deter him from defending his Cup title.
After 16 straight weeks of racing, the Cup drivers will get a break to open August. The series then heads to Iowa's 0.875-mile oval Aug. 9. William Byron is the defending race winner. Blaney was the 2024 winner, a night race marred by tire problems.
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/apf-AutoRacing
Ty Gibbs (54) leads the field on a restart during the NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Sunday, July 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Carson Hocevar (77) leads the field on the start of a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Sunday, July 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Corey Heim heads into the first turn during the NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Sunday, July 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
