Michael McDowell celebrates after winning Sunday’s Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, clinching a spot in the playoffs. Michael Conroy/Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS — Michael McDowell knelt down at Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s yard of bricks and delivered the sweetest kisses of his racing career Sunday.

The 38-year-old Arizona driver became a Brickyard champ – and a member of an elite club.

McDowell inherited the lead on Lap 53 and never trailed again as he drove the most dominant race of his career, beating Chase Elliott to the yard of bricks by 0.937 seconds for his second NASCAR crown jewel victory while securing a playoff spot.

Pole-winner Daniel Suarez was third.

McDowell’s only other Cup Series win was the 2021 Daytona 500.

“That’s a big deal,” he said when asked about his second playoff appearance in three years. “When we won the Daytona 500, that was one of the coolest moments we ever had. We cherry pick the races, my family comes to the ones we think we can win, and we thought we could win this one.”

As a result, McDowell’s wife and children also celebrated by kissing the bricks after his 453rd career Cup start. They weren’t at Daytona for his first win.

While his first win came by navigating through traffic following a crash at Daytona, there was no doubt Sunday. McDowell won the first stage, finished behind only Denny Hamlin in Stage 2, and closed it out by leading a career-high 54 laps to give Front Row Motorsports its fourth Cup win.

McDowell’s victory put him on the short list of Cup drivers to reach Victory Lane at Daytona and Indy, a list that includes names such as the late Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Jarrett, who introduced the kissing tradition.

And on the annual crossover weekend with the IndyCar Series, McDowell also fittingly joined two of IndyCar’s greatest drivers on the list – Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt, the only winners of both the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500.

The significance struck McDowell almost immediately as he finished the 82-lap race on Indy’s 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course.

“We did it, we won Indy,” he shouted into the radio. “We had the fastest car. I don’t know if it was dominant, but it felt dominant.”

Elliott, the 2020 series champion, spent the final 20 laps trying to chase McDowell. He trimmed the deficit from nearly three seconds to less than one but couldn’t close enough to mount a charge.

So he settled for a runner-up finish that gave him some extra points – but not a playoff-clinching win. He’ll have two more chances to as the regular season winds to a close.

“I just lost too much ground in that mid-cycle,” Elliott said.

Suarez also spent most of the afternoon up front in a race that had only one yellow flag and 77 laps of green flag racing. He finished 5.75 seconds behind McDowell, the byproduct of a hose getting caught underneath the car’s left front tire during a pit stop.

Defending champion Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman finished fourth and fifth.

Shane van Gisbergen was 10th in his second career Cup start, failing to become the first driver to win his first two starts. Van Gisbergen won in his NASCAR debut in the inaugural Chicago race last month but had a more challenging weekend this time, running his first oval in Friday’s truck race and contending with a field of drivers who have years of data regarding Indy’s course.

“Oh, it’s aggressive,” the New Zealander said. “It was fine. I really enjoyed it. You make a move on someone and that gives you the room and then they expect it back, so really cool.”

McDowell felt the same way for a very different reason.

“After winning the Daytona 500, there aren’t many things that can top that, but this was a close second,” he said. “To have it all come together, it’s super special.”

LARSON’S DOUBLE

Kyle Larson’s late-night arrival after winning the Knoxville Nationals sprint car race Saturday in Iowa, didn’t make any difference to the 2021 series champ. He still made it to a scheduled news conference before noon to unveil Arrow McLaren’s No. 17 car for next May’s Indianapolis 500.

Larson is scheduled to attempt the IndyCar/NASCAR double, and the two cars will feature familiar colors – the traditional blue and white paint scheme with a touch of papaya for the 600-mile Charlotte race, and papaya, blue and white for the Indy 500.

Larson finished eighth.

BYRON’S SLIDE

William Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet started from the back of the field after failing inspection three times Friday. Then he was forced to do a drive-thru penalty at the end of his first lap.

The only four-time winner this season snaked his way through the field to finish 14th. It wasn’t enough to help him in the standings, as Byron slid one spot to third, behind Denny Hamlin.

Martin Truex Jr. finished seventh to maintain his lead.