Heim's Late Move Secures Brickyard 400 Victory

Corey Heim won the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, making the decisive move in the final stage and holding off the field on the restart sequence. The victory was Heim’s second of the 2026 season, and he did it while competing part-time for 23XI Racing. The race also featured stage wins from Ty Gibbs in Stage 1 and Ross Chastain in Stage 2 under caution, while Gibbs led much of Stage 3 before the pit cycle shuffled him back. Late cautions came from Kyle Larson’s tire failure, Daniel Dye’s crash and a restart incident involving Ryan Blaney.

The Brickyard 400 also settled the NASCAR In-Season Challenge, where Todd Gilliland finished ahead of Ryan Blaney and earned the $1 million prize. Blaney had entered the matchup as the favorite, but Gilliland took the head-to-head title at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis track. The race was held with five events left in the Cup Series regular season and was scheduled for 160 laps with stage breaks at 50 and 100 laps.

Carson Hocevar won the pole in Saturday qualifying with a 48.232-second lap at 186.598 mph. Daniel Suarez started second, followed by Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin, who entered Indianapolis as the Cup Series points leader. Hamlin led the standings after the race as well with 886 points, 84 ahead of Reddick, while Blaney was third, 120 back, and Gibbs fourth, 135 behind. The 39-car field raced for a listed purse of $11,233,037, with coverage on TNT Sports and HBO Max.