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Four-time Brickyard 400 winner Jimmie Johnson headlines a group of one dozen NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers scheduled to take part in a two-day organizational test Tuesday and Wednesday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.


The legendary 2.5-mile track will host the Crown Royal presents the Wounded Warrior Coalition 400 at the Brickyard NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday, July 24.


Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, captured Indy victories in 2006, ’08, ’09 and ’12. Also among the 12 drivers testing are 2003 Brickyard champ Kevin Harvick (Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet) and 2011 winner Paul Menard (Richard Childress Racing No. 27 Chevrolet).


Rounding out the list of drivers participating are Joey Logano (Team Penske No. 22 Ford), Brian Scott (Richard Petty Motorsports No. 44 Ford), Chris Buescher (Front Row Motorsports No. 34 Ford), Trevor Bayne (Roush Fenway Racing No. 6 Ford), Ryan Blaney (Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford), Kyle Larson (Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates No. 42 Chevrolet), Matt Kenseth (Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota), Martin Truex Jr. (Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota) and Clint Bowyer (HScott Motorsports No. 15 Chevrolet).


On-track activities are slated to run from 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. daily.


This week’s test is the second of five organizational tests for Sprint Cup teams in 2016. Remaining tests are slated for Watkins Glen International (July 26-27), Chicagoland Speedway (Aug. 23-24) and Homestead Miami Speedway (Oct. 18-19).


Only one team from each organization is allowed to take part in each test.


Goodyear conducted its tire test for the upcoming race on April 26-27 with three-time series champion Tony Stewart (SHR), Aric Almirola (RPM), Carl Edwards (JGR) and Chase Elliott (HMS) participating.


Last season, NASCAR unveiled a high-drag package highlighted by a nine-inch spoiler for Indianapolis and the August race at Michigan International Speedway. The package was tabled for 2016, however, and replaced by aerodynamic changes that took much more downforce and side force off the cars.


“Last year we had the big-time spoiler change … on the back and the high drag to try to draft around this place so that was a little different than having the three-inch spoiler … with much less downforce,” Elliott said during the April test. “So it seems like you require a little more brake getting into the corner, seems like it takes a little more effort to get the car slowed down for the corner than what we did here the last race.


“It’s hard to say until you come back and have a bunch of cars on the race track at the same time. This place is so big and it is really temperature-sensitive.”


According to track officials, fans will be allowed to watch this week’s test free of charge from the south terrace grandstands, the Turn 2 viewing mounds (adjacent to the speedway’s museum) as well as the B Penthouse grandstands.

Posted on by Staff Report

PHOTOS: Allmendinger’s car among many mangled Saturday night


AJ Allmendinger’s hand is “fine” after undergoing an X-ray, a JTG Daugherty Racing spokesperson confirmed on Monday. 

Allmendinger was involved in two incidents Saturday night in the Quaker State 400 Presented by Advance Auto Parts, the second a hard hit with the wall that left the Sprint Cup Series driver frustrated and with an injured hand.


In post-treatment statements outside the infield care center at Kentucky Speedway, Allmendinger displayed a wrapped hand and wrist and said an X-ray would be forthcoming.


NASCAR has cleared Allmendinger to return to competition this weekend.

The team was initially scheduled to take part in an organizational test on Tuesday and Wednesday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. However, the team will not be at the test and will instead “regroup” and focus on building race cars for upcoming events, according to a team spokesperson.


Allmendinger finished 36th in Saturday night’s race at Kentucky and is 20th in the Sprint Cup Series driver standings through 18 races.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell addressed the penalty levied against Martin Truex Jr. on pit road in Saturday night’s Sprint Cup Series race at Kentucky.

After a caution on Lap 195, Truex Jr. was ruled to have passed a car while entering pit road and forced to line up at the tail end of the first line (22nd) for a restart on Lap 200.

“It is clear in the rulebook that you can’t pass to the left. It’s also brought up in every drivers’ meeting,” O’Donnell said. “Has there been some, drivers pulling off just as they pull into their pits that kind of pull up alongside a car, sure that’s happened.

“I’d probably relate this to other sports. If you look at the three-second rule (in the NBA), you know it’s always there; it’s probably rarely called because you don’t see it blatantly. Then you’ll see a coach or some teams say, ‘Hey you got to focus on this rule because it’s getting out of hand.’ That was the case certainly for us, we saw a trend that’s getting bigger and bigger.”

Although Truex worked his way back up for a 10th-place finish, he had one of the dominant cars in Saturday’s race and was visibly upset on pit road afterward.

“Everybody does it,” Truex said after the race. “I’ve had people pass me the same way at Bristol and Martinsville. They’ll drive right by you through the pit. Everybody does it, so I don’t know why all of a sudden they’re making an example out of me.”

O’Donnell said the rule would be reiterated to the industry before this weekend at New Hampshire and clarified if needed.

O’Donnell also discussed the quality of the racing at Kentucky, which had undergone a repave and revamped the banking in two of its corners. He said there was plenty of passing and multiple leaders at Kentucky, which was a big accomplishment for a race on a new surface. And he said NASCAR and Goodyear would look into driver feedback about tires feeling too hard.

O’Donnell also left the door open for the lower-downforce package that was used at Kentucky to be seen again during the regular season. 

“There’s a slight chance, but I doubt it. We’ve got some meetings here to really sit down with the teams and talk about the direction we collectively want to go in,” O’Donnell said. “There’s been some talk of Michigan going back, but at this point our plan has always been, you know, the first Michigan, Kentucky, regroup, and really dial things in for ’17 and get the teams focused on the remainder of this season and getting ready for the Chase.”

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Watch the live stream here


From 8-11 a.m. ET on Tuesday, NASCAR.com will live stream the post-race inspection process at the Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina.

The three-hour look takes you behind the scenes as NASCAR officials inspect Sprint Cup Series vehicles following Saturday night’s race at Kentucky Speedway.

The cars at the R&D Center this week are: the No. 2 Ford of Brad Keselowski (winner of Saturday’s race), the No. 19 Toyota of Carl Edwards (finished second in Saturday’s race) and the No. 78 Toyota of Martin Truex Jr. (random car chosen, finished in 10th in Saturday’s race)

For more on what the inspection process entails, click here. 

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RELATED: Full Kentucky race results

SPARTA, Ky. — It was the Kevin Harvick – Martin Truex Jr. show for approximately 200 laps on Saturday at Kentucky Speedway as the pair battled back-and-forth inside the top two until a couple of unrelated miscues stole their limelight.

Misfortune began first for Martin Truex Jr. after Landon Cassill brought out the night’s 11th and final yellow flag on Lap 195 — matching Kentucky’s caution record. During the cycle of pit stops that followed, Truex was penalized for passing on pit road entry, forcing him to line up 22nd for the Lap 200 restart.

“Everybody does it,” a visibly disappointed Truex said on pit road. “I’ve had people pass me the same way at Bristol and Martinsville. They’ll drive right by you through the pit. Everybody does it, so I don’t know why all of a sudden they’re making an example out of me.

“It’s frustrating when you don’t win. I feel like I’ve had a lot not go the right way the last couple years, especially. It is what it is. We’ll move on.”

The Furniture Row Racing wheelman entered pit road second, behind Harvick, and won the race off pit road before receiving the infraction.

Harvick’s downfall came during the same restart where he lined up first and quickly fell to third as eventual race winner Brad Keselowski took first and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Matt Kenseth went around him for second.

At the time, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver told his crew, “I’m just trying not to wreck it’s so loose.”

As the Quaker State 400 Presented by Advance Auto Parts hit its waning laps, Harvick was then forced to pit with 16 laps to go.

“We just had to put left-side tires on there,” the 2014 Sprint Cup champion explained. “(We) couldn’t put rights on and then the car went away really bad. That was really kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“All in all it just came down to fuel mileage and we couldn’t make it till the end and some guys could and that’s just part of it.”

Following Harvick’s lead, Truex pitted — for right-side tires and fuel — with 10 laps to go. Truex had bounced back from 22nd to climb inside the top three before pitting.

Harvick and Truex collectively led the Quaker State 400 Presented by Advance Auto Parts for 174 laps in the 267-lap event, but walked away ninth and 10th, respectively, with the SHR driver leading the series in points. Truex, meanwhile, is seventh in points.

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Breaking down the full field for the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway:

 

1. Brad Keselowski , No. 2 Ford, Team Penske. Keselowski won on pure speed last week at Daytona and did the opposite Saturday night, stretching his last tank of fuel for 71 laps. Wonder what he’s going to do next week at Loudon, where he finished second last July? Grade: A+

 

2. Carl Edwards , No. 19 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Edwards almost won the fuel-mileage game. Instead he finished in the top five for the seventh time this season, equaling his top fives in each of the past two seasons — with half a season to go. Grade: A

 

3. Ryan Newman , No. 31 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Newman snagged his first top five since last September at Chicagoland. Equally important, he moved up two spots to 12th in the standings and is now 40 points ahead of 17th-place Kasey Kahne . Grade: A

 

4. Kurt Busch, No. 41 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. What a night for Busch. He had to start in the rear of the field because he was in a backup car and navigated his way to his 14th consecutive top 10 at a 1.5-mile track. It also gave him top-five finishes at every Cup track. Impressive. Grade: A

 

5. Tony Stewart , No. 14 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Big night for Stewart, too. Besides scoring a top five in his 600th start, he just missed the big wreck on Lap 93 and caught a big break when his three nearest competitors for 30th in the standings all wrecked and had DNFs. Stewart is still 30th, but he’s now 31 points to the good, a pickup of a whopping 28 points. Grade: A

 

6. Greg Biffle, No. 16 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Biffle told NBC Sports before the race his team was an 11th- to 16th-place team and needed to figure out how to get better. That didn’t take long. He has consecutive top 10s for the first time in nearly two years. Grade: A

 

7. Jamie McMurray , No. 1 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing. The top 10 moved McMurray up a spot in the standings to 15th, 16 points ahead of Kasey Kahne in 17th. Grade: A

 

8. Matt Kenseth , No. 20 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Kenseth’s fuel didn’t stretch as far as Brad Keselowski ‘s, but he contributed to the excitement at the end. Grade: A

 

9. Kevin Harvick , No. 4 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Harvick overshot his pit box on his final pit stop (under green) with 16 laps to go, but as it turned out, it only cost him a higher finish. He led a race-high 128 laps. Grade: A

 

10. Martin Truex Jr. , No. 78 Toyota, Furniture Row Racing. Truex was penalized for passing on entry to pit road and restarted 23rd on Lap 200 — after he was first off pit road for the race’s final restart. He wasn’t happy. “Say what? I do that every week,” he said when told of the penalty. He flew through the field and moved into the top five, but despite having packed his tank with fuel two laps after the leaders, he had to pit with 10 to go. What was unfortunate for Truex made for great theater. His blitz through the field was awesome. Grade: A-

 

11. Trevor Bayne , No. 6 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Bayne just avoided the big wreck on Lap 93 and moved back into the top 16 (16th) for the second time this season. Grade: B+

 

12. Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Busch ran among the leaders all night — his average running position was 6.4 — he just didn’t have a finish that reflected it. Grade: B

 

13. Dale Earnhardt Jr. , No. 88 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Jimmie Johnson spun right in front of Earnhardt on Lap 32, and Junior emerged unscathed. Then he just missed getting collected in the big wreck on Lap 93. Considering what could have been, a top 15 wasn’t bad. Grade: B

 

14. Kasey Kahne , No. 5 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Kahne moved up a spot in the standings to 17th, but Trevor Bayne (16th) finished three spots better Saturday night. Inconsequential? Kahne missed the Chase last year by 16 points. Grade: B

 

15. Denny Hamlin , No. 11 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Hamlin finished a very quiet 15th. In the first six races on 1.5-mile tracks, Hamlin has one top 10 (fourth at Charlotte) and a 17.2 average finish. Five of the 10 Chase races are on 1.5-mile tracks. Grade: B

 

16. Austin Dillon , No. 3 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Dillon dropped two spots in the standings to 14th but has a 37-point cushion on 17th-place Kasey Kahne . Grade: B

 

17. Danica Patrick , No. 10 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Danica drove through the big wreck on Lap 93 and later just avoided getting hit by Clint Bowyer when he got loose to bring out the ninth caution — which made Patrick the beneficiary. She parlayed those events into her third-best finish of the season. Grade B

 

18. Paul Menard , No. 27 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Obscure fact of the night: In the 18th race of the season, Menard finished 18th for the fourth time in 2016. Grade: C

 

19. Kyle Larson , No. 42 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing. Larson ran among the leaders early, but his car became very loose late and then fuel mileage took care of the rest. It was his worst finish since Kansas, two months ago. Grade: C

 

20. Aric Almirola , No. 43 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. The No. 43 team tried a little pit strategy, but the result was the same — another mediocre finish. Almirola is one of eight drivers to start all 18 races who has yet to finish in the top 10. Grade: C

 

21. Cole Whitt , No. 98 Chevrolet, Premium Motorsports. Whitt squirted though the big wreck on Lap 93 and was rewarded with his third-best finish of the season. Grade: B

 

22. David Ragan , No. 23 Toyota, BK Racing. Ragan was right there with Cole Whitt in avoiding the Lap 93 mess. Later he escaped being collected when Clint Bowyer got loose. Grade: B-

 

23. Clint Bowyer, No. 15 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. Speaking of Bowyer … he was running 26th, one lap down, when the air was taken off his car and he got loose, bringing out the ninth caution. He finished two laps back. Grade: C

 

24. Josh Wise , No. 30 Chevrolet, The Motorsport Group. Wise posted his best finish of the season. In fact, his best three finishes of the season have come in his past four starts. Grade: B+

 

25. Ty Dillon , No. 95 Chevrolet, Circle Sport-Leavine Family. Dillon was collected in the night’s biggest wreck but sustained minimal damage after having nowhere to go and running into the back of AJ Allmendinger. The result: Dillon keeps his RAF streak alive. He’s 15-for-15 in Cup races. Grade: B

 

26. Michael Annett , No. 46 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. Annett followed up a season-best 20th at Daytona with his second-best finish of 2016. Grade: B

 

27. Reed Sorenson , No. 55 Chevrolet, Premium Motorsports. Something must be in the water. Sorenson does the same as Annett. Sorenson finished 22nd at Daytona. Grade: B

 

28. Jeffrey Earnhardt , No. 32 Ford, GO FAS Racing. Hats off to Earnhardt, who posted the best finish of his Cup career (12 starts). Grade: B+

 

29. Landon Cassill , No. 38 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Moments after making a great save, Cassill was running 19th when he hit the outside wall on Lap 194 to bring out the final caution. Ruined a pretty good night. Grade: C

 

30. Casey Mears , No. 13 Chevrolet, Germain Racing. Mears went to the garage on Lap 29 with a brake issue. He returned to the track and finished 21 laps back. Grade: D

 

31. Chase Elliott , No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Elliott was on the outside of a three-wide after the restart on Lap 88 when Ryan Blaney got loose and collected the No. 24, causing extensive damage. That’s two wrecks in two weeks. Grade: C-

 

32. Jimmie Johnson , No. 48 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Johnson lost the car on Lap 32 and slapped the wall, forcing him into the garage for repairs. Johnson returned to log 208 laps but still suffered his third DNF because of crashes in the past five races. Grade: F

 

33. Brian Scott , No. 44 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. Scott set off the biggest wreck in the race when he got loose on Lap 93, saved the car but was hit from behind by Kyle Larson . Scott swooped wide but turned back to the middle of the track, right in front of Chris Buescher who T-boned him. It was Scott’s third DNF for crashes in the past four races Grade: F

 

34. Regan Smith , No. 7 Chevrolet, Tommy Baldwin Racing. Smith’s night ended in an instant on Lap 152 when he crashed hard into the outside wall. Smith put his night into perspective on Twitter after the race: “Kentucky… I love your people, whiskey, horses, hell basically ur whole state. Your racetrack though, we’re gonna have to work on that.” Note to Regan: In Kentucky, it’s bourbon. Grade: F

 

35. Ryan Blaney , No. 21 Ford, Wood Brothers Racing. Blaney’s night began to go south during the fifth caution when he was leaving his pit stall as Cole Witt was entering his. They made contact, and Blaney’s car suffered damage to the right front. He still restarted fifth on Lap 88, but moments later he was in the middle of a three-wide, got loose and collected Chase Elliott on the way to hitting the wall. Blaney lost three spots in the standings to 18th. Grade: F

 

36. AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Chevrolet, JTG Daugherty Racing. Allmendinger got caught up in the Lap 93 wreck, running into the back of Chris Buescher . Allmendinger was 68 laps down when he returned to the track, but he crashed hard, ending his night and injuring his thumb. He was 16 points below the Chase cut line coming into the race. He’s 31 back now. Grade: D

 

37. Chris Buescher , No. 34 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Buescher was in the wrong place at the wrong time. His night was showing promise when his car was destroyed on impact with Brian Scott . Grade: C-

 

38. Matt DiBenedetto, No. 83 Toyota, BK Racing. DiBenedetto was running 29th when he hit the wall, bringing out the fifth caution and ending his night. Grade: F

 

39. Joey Logano , No. 22 Ford, Team Penske. Logano got loose on Lap 42 and hit the wall, damaging the right-rear quarter panel and deck lid. On Lap 54 he hit it even harder, ending his night. Logano was one of a number of drivers with brake and tire issues. Grade: F

 

40. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. , No. 17 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Stenhouse completed all of nine laps before he smacked the wall twice. His Chase hopes also took a big hit; he went from 17 points behind 16th to 40. Stenhouse tweeted the culprit was his mishandling of low downforce. He had plenty of company Saturday. Grade: F

Posted on by Staff Report

Defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Kyle Busch could see his celebration of last year’s championship continue on July 13 – at the ESPY Awards.


The yearly awards show, hosted by ESPN with winners decided via fan voting, will air on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. John Cena, who had a run-in with FOX reporter Jamie Little this year at the Daytona 500 , is the host.


RELATED: Reporter literally can’t see Cena


Busch is nominated for “Best Driver” and is up against Scott Dixon (IndyCar), Lewis Hamilton (Formula One), Erica Enders-Stevens (NHRA) and Alexander Rossi (IndyCar). Fans can vote here.


Busch missed the first 11 races last season after suffering a broken right leg and broken left foot in the 2015 NASCAR XFINITY Series opener. He returned, rallied to make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, then won his first championship.


All told, “Rowdy” won five races, and logged 12 top-five and 16 top-10 finishes in a total of 25 races.


NASCAR is the defending winner in that category as well. Kevin Harvick , the 2014 champion, took home the hardware last year.

Posted on by Zack Albert

All the question marks leading into the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on the newly repaved Kentucky Speedway got answers in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 Presented by Advance Auto Parts. But the topsy-turvy event made some of the answers less clear-cut than most, with drivers’ mixed reviews expressing their quibbles about the 1.5-mile track’s treacherous conditions but their understanding about why the race played out the way it did.

 

NASCAR used a reduced downforce package as a potential preview of 2017’s aero rules for its top division, but did so on a freshly repaved and reconfigured layout. Competition and track officials took as many measures as possible to synthetically age the track, but the racing groove remained a narrow path for the duration of the 267-lap race, making passing a dicey proposition and contributing to 11 yellow flags, a figure that tied a track record.

 

Tires also played a prominent role in altering the race’s complexion. After some instances of blistering during a test last month, Goodyear changed course on the tire compound for the Kentucky race, trading grip and faster wear for more durable rubber. The harder compound became a lament for several drivers, though several acknowledged that safety was paramount in the decision.

 

“It’s really nobody’s fault,” said Tony Stewart , who secured his second top-five finish of the season in making his 600th career start Saturday night. “I mean, Goodyear’s trying to do what they can to protect themselves and make sure they don’t have tire problems. They didn’t have to worry about that — it was the hardest thing on the planet. NHL doesn’t have anything on them on a hard puck, but like every other repave, as they get laps and more races on this track, it’ll get to where they can come off the hardness of the tire and it’ll be better for everybody. This is as bad as it’s going to get; it’ll get better from here. …

 

“It’s kind of hard when you have conditions like that, but the track’s going to be fine, NASCAR did the right thing. It’s easy to point the finger at Goodyear, but they had to do what they thought was right and what was conservative for them. It’s just way too hard, and the wrecks kind of proved that.”

 

Dale Earnhardt Jr. , who faded to a 13th-place finish after his No. 88 Chevrolet sputtered out of fuel on the last lap, agreed.

 

“It’s a conservative tire. I understand why they did it because of the blistering they had in the test,” Earnhardt said. “We can’t come here and blister right-fronts (tires) and have guys pounding the fence at 190 miles an hour. And the low downforce — I don’t know if all that stuff is a great combination. … I mean, you couldn’t hustle the car at all. You’re just on pins and needles all the time on restarts, like ‘uhhhh, I don’t want to lose any ground.’ Boy, if I have a big slip, I’m going to lose all kinds of track position, which happened over and over.”

 

Race winner Brad Keselowski had a more pressing issue with saving fuel over the final green-flag stretch, but acknowledged the challenges specifically posed by the track’s new asymmetrical layout. With more banking in the speedier Turns 1 and 2 (17 degrees) than in Turns 3 and 4 (14 degrees), drivers required more brake and finesse on one end of the track than the other.

 

“I’m not sure, but it took a lot discipline to run this track tonight,” said Keselowski, who wrapped up his third Kentucky win in the Sprint Cup Series. “If you got into Turn 3 and 4 the least bit wrong, you wrecked. That’s just the way the race was, and I think that’s what we saw. There’s arguments to be made good or bad for that. I think it’s a good challenge. We’re professional race car drivers. It shouldn’t be easy. It wasn’t tonight. It was very, very difficult. You had to certainly be very smart.”

 

Scott Miller, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition, said afterward that competition officials have no plans to try the rules package again this season as a possible prelude to 2017. He said that the aerodynamic setup performed as it should, while recognizing the challenges presented by Kentucky’s new pavement.

 

“We’ve known as an industry that the repaves are very, very difficult historically,” Miller said. “This was no different. But really the action in all three of the events this weekend I thought for a repave, it turned out really well, and we had obviously tonight a lot of action, like Brad said, a little dicey getting down there in Turn 3 on the restarts especially.

 

“I think the low, low downforce package, if that’s what we’re calling it now, helped at this race on the repave. I think the corner speeds would have been extremely high, and with the higher downforce stepping out of the groove might have even had more consequences than we had tonight.”

 

The onward march of time and weather will likely help the racing groove expand for future races. Other variables will remain moving targets, but much like the Bluegrass State’s trademark bourbon, the Kentucky Speedway asphalt should only grow better with age.

 

“I think this package will work great at some other tracks with a different tire, a different surface,” Earnhardt said. “This was probably as good as they could’ve expected with a repave. They’re always nasty races, you know.”

Posted on by Staff Report

PHOTOS: Stewart through the years | All of ‘Smoke’s’ wins


Three-time champion Tony Stewart made his 600th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start Saturday night, taking the green flag for the final time at Kentucky Speedway — and he had a memorable showing in the Bluegrass State, notching a fifth-place finish to bolster his position in the Chase Grid.

Stewart, 45, started his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 22nd in the 40-car field for the Quaker State 400. He ranks 24th on NASCAR’s all-time starts list, two behind James Hylton and just ahead of active drivers Matt Kenseth (596 starts) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (595). Among active drivers, only part-time veterans Michael Waltrip (10th place at 783 starts) and Bobby Labonte (13th at 728) outrank Stewart.



“Smoke” ran in the middle of the pack for most of the evening, but excelled at the end during a late-race strategy call. As drivers pitted late during the final fuel run, crew chief Mike Bugarewicz called for Stewart to save fuel aggressively. His driver complied, as Stewart climbed from just outside the top 15 to a fifth-place finish, behind teammate Kurt Busch.



It was reminiscent of Stewart’s win at Sonoma Raceway in June, when a late-race decision to pit also paid off beautifully.



“With the way the first half of this race went, we got in survival mode there and still wanted to race hard, but you didn’t want to do anything that was going to jeopardize finishing the race and capitalizing on the misfortune of the guys that are around us in points had,” Stewart said. “You are not really going to race anywhere else the rest of the year like this, so I don’t think it’s an indication of what our season is going to be like, but we ran anywhere from 11th to 22nd, pretty much just stayed in that range all day (until the end).”

Stewart’s previous best finish on the 1.5-mile track was 11th, achieved in 2014.


Zack Albert contributed to this report


Drivers with 600 Sprint Cup starts

RANK DRIVER STARTS
1 Richard Petty 1,185
2 Ricky Rudd 906
3 Terry Labonte 890
4 Dave Marcis 883
5 Mark Martin 882
6 Kyle Petty 829
7 Bill Elliott 828
8 Darrell Waltrip 809
9 Jeff Gordon 797
10 Michael Waltrip 783
11 Ken Schrader 763
12 Sterling Marlin 748
13 Bobby Labonte 728
14 Bobby Allison 718
15 Rusty Wallace 706
16 Buddy Baker 699
17 Jeff Burton 695
18 Dale Earnhardt 676
19 Dale Jarrett 668
20 Joe Nemechek 667
21 J.D. McDuffie 653
22 Buck Baker 636
23 James Hylton 602
24 Tony Stewart 600