Winners and losers from a strategy-dominated Brickyard 400

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The Brickyard 400 is now in the rearview, and NASCAR teams have one final off-weekend before 14 consecutive races to end the season. The pressure is on for teams around the cut-line, while the favorites try to better position themselves for the Chase reset in just over a month.

But despite all that, it was a part-timer kissing the bricks as Corey Heim earned his second win of the year in just his eighth start of the 2026 season. With a helpful push, Heim cleared his boss on the final restart, denying Denny Hamlin the one crown jewel win he has yet to claim.

23XI Racing has now won back-to-back Brickyard 400s, and Heim continues to stun the NASCAR world despite his lack of Cup experience.

Now, here’s the biggest winners and losers from the Brickyard 400:

WINNER: Team No. 67 as it’s Heim Time at the Yard of Bricks

Watch: Heim hangs on to win Indy: ‘That was a damn handful!’

Corey Heim has done it again. In just 15 career starts, he managed to win the inaugural running of the San Diego street course race on an active military base, and collected a crown jewel win via the Brickyard 400. He passed his veteran teammate Tyler Reddick for the first win, and his 23XI boss Denny Hamlin for the second. Heim is a truly exceptional talent, and if he was collecting points, he would be ahead of two full-time drivers despite only running eight of 22 races this year. He is one of just six drivers with a multi-win season, and is the first part-time driver to do so since Tim Richmond and Davey Allison in 1987. But he’s not the only winner here, of course. Everyone on that No. 67 car deserves some praise, especially crew chief Bootie Barker, who has been atop the pit box for over 600 races before winning his first crown jewel race.

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Corey Heim stuns NASCAR with Brickyard 400 win as part-time Cup driver

Corey’s time is now and 23XI think they already have a superstar

LOSER: Denny Hamlin lets another Indy win slip through his fingers

Watch: Mixed emotions for Hamlin after Indy P5 finish

18 attempts, and still zero wins as a driver. Hamlin was leading on the final restart at IMS, but once again, the Brickyard 400 slipped through his fingertips. It’s the missing jewel in an otherwise spectacular NASCAR career, and if Hamlin keeps to his plan to exit the sport after 2027, he has just one more chance to win the Brickyard 400. While he had to lift for Heim after an aggressive block, Hamlin blamed the loss on the restart moments prior. Despite having three Joe Gibbs Racing cars lined up on the bottom, they all became disconnected, allowing the top to surge forward.

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Denny Hamlin points to team moment that lost him the Brickyard 400

WINNER: Todd Gilliland with the underdog win in the In-Season Challenge

Watch: Gilliland proud to win 2026 In-Season Challenge: ‘We made the most of it’

Gilly has won the Milly! Two Spire drivers, two Hendrick drivers, and a Penske star all fell as Gilliland made his unlikely march to the In-Season Challenge crown. He and Front Row Motorsports have won the $1 million prize, and he was of course thrilled about it after the checkered flag flew. In fact, several drivers congratulated him on the cool-down lap as if he had won the race itself! It was an awesome ‘win’ for an underdog team and the No. 25 seed in the 32-driver tournament. Once again, this fun competition did a great job shining a spotlight on drivers who normally wouldn’t be getting so much attention, and Gilliland certainly earned it. In the end, he beat Ryan Blaney by just two positions, claiming the big prize.

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“My heart was pounding” as Todd Gilliland earns $1 million in huge NASCAR upset

LOSER: Kyle Larson simply can’t catch a break, and is losing valuable points

Okay, maybe he is cursed? Ever since the infamous Indy 500/Coke 600 Double attempt in 2025, which ended with a double DNF, Larson has not visited Victory Lane in the Cup Series. He even won a championship between then and now, but no race wins. At Indianapolis, he started tenth, but an early pit stop helped to vault him up the running order and he was in position to win Stage 1. However, five laps before the stage end, a left-rear tire blew and Larson slammed the wall. Instead of contending for the win, Larson finished dead last, and it’s just shocking to see how many things have gone wrong for him since his last Cup win 14 months ago. They are competitive and yet, too many race wins have passed them by. The No. 5 team simply cannot catch a break, and now, he is losing valuable points as he drops two positions in the standings to eighth. Why is that important? When the Chase reset happens, a driver’s ranking in the top 16 will be the sole factor in how many points they start with in the the ten-race battle for the championship.

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Kyle Larson crashes out of Brickyard 400, finishing last

WINNER: Josh Berry has something to smile about despite uncertain future

Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford

Berry is without a ride for the 2027 season, and the 2026 season has not been kind to him. In the past 14 races before Indy, he finished 25th or worse in 13 of them. It’s been brutal. But Sunday at the Brickyard was Berry’s best finish of the entire year, placing seventh in the Wood Brothers No. 21 machine. We don’t know where Berry will end up next year, but finishes like that will go a long way to getting him a new ride.

LOSER: Cup aero package as passing for the lead remains nearly impossible at IMS

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing

While Indianapolis produced some great story lines, the racing itself left a lot to be desired. Now, this is not a new topic for the Brickyard 400, as the race has never been the best when it came to passing. But these days, it just feels impossible once the field gets single-file after restarts. I don’t believe there was a single green-flag pass for the lead in the Brickyard 400 that wasn’t because of restarts or pit stops. In contrast, we watched Carson Kvapil run down and pass Ross Chastain for the NASCAR O’Reilly IMS win on Saturday, but it just did not seem possible in the Cup race. Even deep in the pack, drivers struggled to make any moves once everyone got in line. It’s a tired argument at at this point and it’s not just a problem at Indy, but Indianapolis really exposed how difficult it is. Bell and Logano were clearly faster than Heim in the closing laps, but they had no chance of passing him unless he made a mistake. That’s problematic, and needs looking into by far smarter technical minds.

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