Moments that changed the course of the fourth race in the 2013 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup
THREE INCIDENTS FOR KYLE BUSCH AT KANSAS
A long day at the end of a long weekend for Kyle Busch culminated in a Lap 201 wreck that knocked him out of the Hollywood Casino 400, and possibly out of the championship picture.
In a dinged-up No. 18 Toyota, Busch was involved in his third incident of the day in a wreck with Brian Vickers, sending his machine hard into the high wall and strewing pieces of his fender across Turn 2.
Busch had started from the back in his backup car after wrecking in Saturday's first practice session. He narrowly avoided a wreck with Danica Patrick on the first lap, and spun out after contact with Juan Pablo Montoya on Lap 188.
The performance continued a Kansas curse for the driver, who will finish outside the top 30 for the third consecutive time at the 1.5-mile oval.
"This race track is the worst race track ever, these tires are the worst tires ever," Busch said after getting cleared at the infield medical center.
KEVIN HARVICK'S POLE LEADS TO WIN
The fourth race in the Chase ended as it began, with Kevin Harvick out front. The driver of the No. 29 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet crossed the finish line more than a football field ahead of runner-up Kurt Busch, with Jeff Gordon trailing Busch in third.
Joey Logano, Carl Edwards and Johnson ran third through sixth, respectively, allowing Johnson to trim Kenseth’s advantage in the championship standings from eight to three points.
The victory was Harvick’s third of the season, his first at Kansas and the 22nd of his career. With the win, Harvick moved into third place in the standings, 25 points behind Kenseth.
MATT KENSETH RETAINS POINTS LEAD WITH LATE RUN
With a bizarre power failure in the last two laps, Jimmie Johnson failed to cash in decisively on Matt Kenseth’s skittishness with the new tire combination Goodyear brought to Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.
Johnson felt a strong vibration in his car with two laps left, but the car regained power on the backstretch of the final lap and Johnson held sixth at the finish. With a loose handling condition that plagued him throughout the race, Kenseth salvaged an 11th-place run that kept him at the top of the standings -- barely.
Throughout the weekend, Kenseth expressed uneasiness with a lack of grip he felt with the dual-tread right-side tire Goodyear provided for the race.
Nevertheless, with a manic drive through traffic during the final 19-lap green-flag run, Kenseth gained four positions after the final restart to retain his points lead.
The NASCAR Wire Service and NASCAR.com's Brad Norman contributed to this report.