Denny Hamlin’s 2025 Brickyard 400 was nothing short of remarkable. After crashing in qualifying, Hamlin started from the rear, yet battled through the pack to finish third, closing within 1.254 seconds of race winner Bubba Wallace in his backup car! With Kyle Larson directly ahead on the final restarts, Hamlin found himself in the heart of a strategic showdown, where fuel calculations and caution calls would decide the outcome of a crown jewel race.

As the race entered two overtime restarts following a rain delay, the finale turned into a high-wire act of resource management. And when Denny Hamlin realized his driver for 23XI Racing, Bubba Wallace, was running on the edge of an empty tank, he admitted to praying for the white flag as soon as possible, fearing the worst with Kyle Larson hot on Wallace’s heels.

Denny Hamlin raises his concerns about the fuel strategy amidst overtime chaos

Fuel strategy in NASCAR is a delicate balance: saving enough fuel to finish while maintaining competitive space. Drivers must monitor consumption, adjust the throttle, and trust the pit crew calculations. A few laps can mean the difference between victory and sitting in the garage. Experienced drivers like Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano have learned to stretch fuel, scrub tires, and judge when it is worth tightening the margin or sacrificing track position. And at Indianapolis this year, fuel gambits reached their apex. Numerous teams undercut each other by pitting early, trying to gain a lap-saving position but risking running dry during a race that extended beyond its planned distance.

Denny Hamlin, never one to mince words, weighed in on the situation. When asked if he knew Bubba Wallace’s fuel situation in overtime, Hamlin said, “I don’t know. They told me from the data that they saw that the 24 [William Byron] and the 23 [Bubba Wallace] were in very similar positions. And then when the 24 ran out in front of me on the last lap, I’m thinking, ‘Oh no, like hang on 23‘… I knew that it was going to hand the win to the 5 [Kyle Larson] that was in a better fuel situation than the 23. So, I don’t know how close they were. Um, I can assure you one more green-white checker, I don’t know. It probably more than likely wouldn’t have made that.”

Denny Hamlin emphasized how one more green-white checkered likely would have left Bubba Wallace potentially out of fuel, just like William Byron on the previous restart and even Byron at Michigan earlier this season, a race that Hamlin went on to win. Wallace, however, paced his fuel perfectly. Even after a rain stoppage and two overtime restarts, he held just enough to complete the full distance, pulling away on both restarts. But the tenacity of those restarts is what put fuel plans in jeopardy more than anything, and Hamlin highlighted how NASCAR’s overtime concept leads to such fuel mileage fiascos.

The No. 11 added, “So everyone’s just cutting their throats as deep as they can to try to get to the end and run out right when the checkered flag falls. And so then when you have these situations in overtimes, it just puts it in a precarious position, and then they start dropping like flies.” The most infamous yet notable example of a seemingly never-ending overtime was in the 2024 Cup Series race at Nashville.

In last year’s Ally 400, Joey Logano prevailed after five overtime restarts to stretch his fuel and win his only regular season race of the season en route to an eventual championship. With two laps to go, Logano was running 14th, but a spin from teammate Austin Cindric set up an overtime restart. Logano moved up to sixth, and after a series of cautions forced the leaders to pit, Logano assumed the lead and led the field to the checkered flag.

However, Hamlin had nothing to worry about at Indy as two overtimes were enough. His 3rd place finish, coupled with Wallace’s win for 23XI Racing, was far from a dream come true. But this was a different story for Kyle Larson, who almost conquered Indy again while seeking redemption.

Kyle Larson falls short of back-to-back Brickyard 400 wins

Kyle Larson arrived at Indianapolis looking to defend his 2024 Brickyard 400 crown and join the short list of back-to-back winners. However, there as also a bigger motivator at play, one that Larson admitted he would be glad to hear everyone stop talking about after the race today. His 2025 ‘Double’ attempt. The last time Larson raced at the Brickyard, his day ended in a crash in the Indy 500 and was followed by a crash in the Coca-Cola 600, and ever since he’s been winless and on a slump. This race was the perfect chance to defend his NASCAR crown and add another jewel to it.

Starting in the 13th position, his day began rocky; Larson admitted saying, “The beginning of the race didn’t go well… I didn’t have a good start,” but the No. 5 team recalibrated, nailing strategy to move Larson into second place by the final stage. Late race rain and two overtime restarts gave Larson his shot at Bubba Wallace. As the last round of pit stops cycled out between laps 117 and 121, Larson emerged in second, sitting behind Wallace with a shrinking gap. He had a slightly deeper fuel window and was, in his words, “Praying that he’d run out of fuel, but I didn’t want to run out myself either.” Larson attacked hard through each restart, trying to edge past Wallace, but the 23 ran perfect lines and kept the lead.

Larson goes on to say, “I had the (best) momentum I could’ve had on the first restart and still couldn’t clear him, so it was going to be hard no matter what. But that’s just Indy, and it’s just a difficult place to pass, but it’s also kind of fun because the team comes into play and the strategy and pit crew, all that matters.” In the end, Larson settled for second, missing the history books by one spot. But for a driver coming off a summer slump, the result signaled a turnaround, proving that Larson and the No. 5 team are back in form, even if Wallace stole the crown jewel moment from him.