Moments that changed the course of the 27th race of the 2014 season
KESELOWSKI SPLITS HARVICK, LARSON FOR WINNING PASS
Brad Keselowski won the first race of the 2014 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, splitting leader Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick with 16 laps left before going on to claim the MyAFibStory.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday.
Keselowski's win of the first race of the Challenger Round assures him a spot in the Contender Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
Keselowski, who entered the Chase as the top seed, worked his way up from a 25th-place start. He led 62 laps for his fifth win of 2014 and his second straight win in the Sprint Cup Series.
Jeff Gordon finished second and Larson, a rookie who started at the back of the field after going to a backup car, took third; Joey Logano and Harvick rounded out the top five.
Harvick, who started 12th, led a race-high 79 laps (out of 267) on the 1.5-mile tri-oval track.
Chicagoland is the start of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, a 10-race playoff between the 16 qualifying teams.
ALMIROLA'S ENGINE BLOWS WHILE RUNNING IN TOP 10
A promising day for Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup underdog Aric Almirola was cut short at Chicagoland by an engine blowing up.
Almirola spent part of the race running in the top 10 and even led two laps of the MyAFibStory.com 400.
The Richard Petty Motorsports driver suffered an engine issue on Lap 231 that sent him and his No. 43 team to the garage.
When asked to describe how he was feeling after the incident, Almirola said, "Heartbroken I think is the easiest way to describe it. I am really proud of my guys. We have nothing to hang our heads about. They brought me an awesome race car. 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."
Almirola had two straight top-10 finishes entering the Chase and was looking strong at Chicagoland.
"I think the motor just let go," Almirola said. "My hat goes off to Trent Owens and all the guys on the Eckrich team. Our Fusion was really fast and it just wasn't meant to be today. The motor let go. Doug Yates builds awesome horsepower for us every week and we rarely have any engine issues at all. It happened but we had a lot of horsepower while it lasted."
PATRICK, STENHOUSE JR. COLLIDE, HIT WALL
With 10 laps to go in the MyAFibStory.com 400, the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup opener at Chicagoland Speedway, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and his girlfriend, Danica Patrick, made contact and both got into the Turn 4 wall.
Stenhouse Jr., Patrick and Tony Stewart were running three-wide when Stenhouse got into Patrick's left rear quarterpanel, bringing out the sixth caution of the race on Lap 257.
"The 17 hit me," Patrick said on her radio as she and Stenhouse Jr. came to pit road. Stenhouse Jr. finished 17th, and Patrick finished 19th, the last car on the lead lap.
"I heard my spotter (Brandon Benesch) say that the 14 (Stewart) was below me on track, and I didn't know the 17 (Stenhouse Jr.) was there on the high side of the track," Patrick said. "My spotter took the blame on that one. I just didn’t know Ricky was up there, and I obviously don't want to hit his car or anyone else with 10 laps to go.
"I talked with Ricky afterward and we're fine. It's just a tough deal. We finished 19th even with the damage so it was a decent run. We just had a tight car all day."
The caution benefitted Chase driver Ryan Newman, who returned to the lead lap as the beneficiary of the free pass.
"That was our best effort," he said. "That's all I had. That's all we had as a race team. We put it all out there, and still, we were just third best."