WINNERS
Kevin Harvick — Scored his third win in the last seven races. And got car owner Tony Stewart to climb the fence once again at Indy. Win also helps Harvick and his Stewart-Haas Racing team build momentum just in time for the playoffs.
Bubba Wallace — Finished a season-best third on Sunday. His two career top-five finishes are a second in the 2018 Daytona 500 and a third at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Clint Bowyer — Overcame bubble pressure to post top-10 finishes in each of the last three regular-season races. Could he go from one of the last in to one of the last remaining in the playoffs?
Ryan Newman — Snapped a five-race streak of finishes outside the top 10 with an eighth-place finish to secure the final playoff spot.
Jeb Burton — Matched his career high with a fourth-place finish in Saturday’s Xfinity race and was overcome with emotion afterward. Burton is running a part-time schedule and seeks to run full-time again. He’ll be back with JR Motorsports at Texas and Miami.
#NASCAR ... @JebBurtonRacing gets emotional talking about his 4th-place finish at @IMS pic.twitter.com/6a9nfaCN7M
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) September 7, 2019
LOSERS
Daniel Suarez — Hit the wall, hit a car and had other misfortune in failing to make the playoffs after entering Sunday’s race at Indianapolis in the final playoff spot.
Jimmie Johnson — His remarkable streak of 15 consecutive years in the postseason ends after a year of struggles. His wreck while racing Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron for sixth place kept Johnson from having a chance to make the playoffs Sunday.
Cup car owners — Eight cars were eliminated by accidents in Sunday’s race. That’s more cars eliminated by crashes in the last four Cup races combined. Sunday proved expensive to some teams.