Edwards, Kenseth and more experience Chase woes
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JOLIET, Ill. -- His broken No. 43 Ford parked in front of the team hauler, Aric Almirola climbed out of the window net with his afternoon finished 37 laps before he wanted it to. Team owner Richard Petty was there to great his driver, and 'The King' wore a smile.
Almirola did not. At least not at first.
After Petty put his arm around the driver's shoulders and pulled him in for a brief hug, Almirola was able to flash some whites. Meanwhile, his No. 43 team popped the hood and tried to diagnose a busted engine that had previously shown no problematic signs, and was in fact healthy enough for Almirola to be in sixth place when it suddenly let go following a pit stop.
It all contributed to an aura that was equal parts desolation and optimism, with one of the biggest underdogs in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup balancing the feeling of knowing he was one of the best cars on the track with the reality that was his 41st-place finish.
"Heartbroken I think is the easiest way to describe it," Almirola said, before saying in the next breath the team had "nothing to hang our heads about. We drove from 23rd up to the top 10, running sixth with just over 30 to go and it just wasn't meant to be. We will regroup and go to Loudon and Dover and try to be spectacular."
The team will have to be. Following his four-point day, Almirola is last on the 16-driver Chase Grid with 2,007 points. He is 23 points behind 12th-place Carl Edwards.
New Hampshire and Dover are the final two races of the Challenger Round, before the Chase field gets trimmed to 12 for the Contender Round.
"We know we are capable of running in the top-10," Almirola said. "Everyone else might not think so, the rest of the world thinks we are underdogs and we will gladly accept that tag, but what we've shown today and these last two weeks is exactly what we are capable of.
"We have to win. That is it. There is no other option. We have to go and figure out how we can win one of the next two races."
Almirola and crew aren't the only ones looking for a win -- or the very least, to be in contention for a win -- following Sunday's postseason opener at Chicagoland Speedway.
Here's who else ran into trouble, and what it meant for them:
• Ryan Newman. Two laps down late in the race, Newman somehow rallied for a lead-lap finish and crossed the start/finish line in 15th place.
A blown tire on Lap 99 necessitated two stops down pit road and put Newman 23rd as the final car on the lead lap. A tire rub on Lap 155 brought him down pit road again and put the No. 31 two laps down.
"Find out why that tire started rubbing again and make sure it doesn't happen again, please," Newman said tersely over the radio.
Three cautions in the final 35 laps were enough to get Newman back on the lead lap by virtue of being the beneficiary. He restarted 19th on Lap 259 and finished 15th.
He is 13th in the standings, one point behind Edwards.
• Carl Edwards. Edwards started third but finished 20th, thanks in part to a shredded tire that brought out the yellow flag on Lap 232. Even before that incident, though, Edwards simply had a slow No. 99 Ford.
He consistently fell throughout the race and finished 20th, one lap down.
"We had a flat tire and got fortunate that didn't hurt us," Edwards said. "Our day was not good. We've got to be a little faster and we have to continue to have good luck. For us to advance we are going to have to rely on other people making some mistakes."
• Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch. Both of these drivers had the exact same error, and both recovered.
On Lap 46, Busch spun entering pit road and lost lots of position. He also knocked over the commitment cone and had to serve a pass-through penalty, but later got back on the lead lap and finished eighth.
Kenseth, too, took a solo spin when coming fast into pit road. His snafu was on Lap 148, but he rallied to finish 10th.
"I'll never fault you for being aggressive," crew chief Jason Ratcliff said over the radio.
Busch is ninth in the standings (2,039 points) and Kenseth is 10th (2,034 points).
• Greg Biffle, AJ Allmendinger. Like Kenseth and Busch, these two had related issues. Unlike Kenseth and Busch, neither driver recovered.
The problem? Being slow.
Allmendinger continually used the word "hate" to describe his No. 47 Chevrolet over the radio, and Biffle's No. 16 Ford underscored that Roush Fenway Racing is still off on speed. Allmendinger finished 22nd and Biffle was 23rd, both two laps down.
Allmendinger is 14th in the standings (2,025 points) and Biffle is 15th, four points behind him.
| No. | Chase driver | Issue |
|---|---|---|
| 41 | Kurt Busch | Lap 46: Spun entering pit road |
| 5 | Kasey Kahne | Two pit-road speeding penalties |
| 4 | Kevin Harvick | Lap 70: Loose left rear tire |
| 31 | Ryan Newman | Lap 99: Blown left rear tire |
| 20 | Matt Kenseth | Lap 148: Spun entering pit road |
| 2 | Brad Keselowski | Lap 183: Right front loose tire |
| 99 | Carl Edwards | Lap 231: Blown left rear tire |
| 43 | Aric Almirola | Lap 231: Blown engine |
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