RELATED: See the wreck frame-by-frame | Full race results
Matt Kenseth‘s tough luck in the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season continued at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Sunday’s Kobalt 400.
Kenseth’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota appeared to get a little loose and slid up the track on Lap 225, where rookie Chase Elliott‘s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet collided with Kenseth’s machine. The 2003 premier series champion and Elliott both took their cars to the garage from there. Both were battling for a spot in the top 10.
Kenseth wasn’t sure exactly what happened to bring an end to his day.
“I have no idea, honestly,” he said. “I went into Turn 1 and I wasn’t really hardly turning yet, and (I) just spun out before I had any idea what happened. I don’t know, after that I was just trying to save our DeWalt Toyota, and got ran into from behind.”
The start of the season has been tough for Kenseth, who led coming into the final lap at Daytona, and saw a good run at Atlanta spoiled by a pit road penalty that eventually led to him not being scored by NASCAR.
Kenseth led nine laps on the day and finished 37th, while Elliott finished 38th, despite spending much of the race in the top 10.
The Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender, who finished 37th in Daytona after a wreck there but was coming off a top 10 at Atlanta, was tough on himself after the incident.
“I feel like we made a lot of gains this weekend,” Elliott said. “Just a terrible job on my behalf. That is pitiful. We have run three races and finished one. Just a bad job on my end. I ought to know better to miss a wreck like that.”
Polesitter Kurt Busch was also involved in Sunday’s wreck, and made contact with Carl Edwards that led to damage to both cars. Busch led 31 laps before having to recover from a speeding penalty on pit road. Edwards was in a backup car after a wreck in qualifying on Friday. Busch rebounded again for ninth-place result, while Edwards finished 18th.