Fantasy Recap: Kenseth becomes unsung hero

Posted on August 26, 2013 by George Winkler

On night when there were many options, the No. 20 provides biggest payoff

Entering the Bristol night race, there were a plethora of good reasons to choose several different drivers for one’s fantasy team, but apparently Matt Kenseth‘s name wasn’t one that stood out. In fact, Kenseth dropped in price by $0.25 due to a lack of demand as fantasy owners instead clamored for the Busch brothers, who both increased by $0.50 in the time leading up to the race.

Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne also saw spikes in ownership with both enjoying historical success at Bristol — Gordon as a five-time winner there and Kahne as the most recent winner before Saturday night’s outcome.

But if for some "silly" reason you were one of the few, proud owners of Kenseth, kudos to you. The No. 20 provided a substantial gain over the rest of the field.

Kenseth’s fantasy score of 190.5 points far exceeded the next-best driver on the list — Kahne, who had 113 points. Kenseth piled up 74.5 points on laps led and 36 points on quality passes.

Not even a late pit-road speeding penalty could stop Kenseth, who led all drivers with 29 points on fastest laps. In addition, Kahne was the only driver who outscored Kenseth on quality passes.

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Gordon finished a solid fourth in fantasy points, and Kyle Busch was 10th, racking up 32 points on place differential after he started from the back of the field.

Kurt Busch, meanwhile, was 27th in fantasy points after a broken wheel hub caused him to leave the race momentarily and wrecked his chance at good finishing points.

It was interesting that more people didn’t choose Kenseth. He entered the race with the second-best average finish at the track in the past eight years. But for some reason the fantasy love for Kenseth wasn’t there.

Too bad, because those who stuck with Kenseth certainly had a lot to love by late Saturday night. That’s because Kenseth owners were likely the ones carrying three extra Chase points with them into this week’s fantasy action.

Key Fantasy Moment: "Concrete" Carl Edwards looked like he had the car to beat until an engine failure doomed him to a 39th-place finish. Amazingly, Edwards still posted the 12th-best fantasy score thanks to 119 laps led. That accounted for 59.5 of his fantasy points on a night when he totaled 67.5. It was a solid effort overall, but it could have been so much better. Fantasy owners were no doubt expecting more when they saw how good the No. 99 looked through the middle part of the race.

Biggest bargain: Raise your hand if you had Paul Menard in your lineup for Bristol. OK, now put your hands down, because you’re obviously lying. Menard’s price dropped $0.25 due to a lack of demand leading up to the race, but like Kenseth he paid off for his faithful followers. Menard scored the third-most fantasy points on the night at 109, with 32 of them coming on laps led. After his top-10 finish, Menard’s average finish at Bristol is second only to how well he does at Kansas. Keep that in mind for future reference.

Biggest Bust: It was another tough week for Jimmie Johnson owners as the No. 48 ran into a bit of bad luck — as well as David Reutimann‘s spun-out car as it slid down the track. Johnson’s car took significant front-end damage in the ensuing hit and had to be taken to the garage for repairs. Johnson returned but finished 36th. Johnson scored just four fantasy points, and at a league-high $29 certainly was the bust of the night.

Tip to take forward: According to NASCAR Statistical Service’s Loop Data, the following drivers lead in the significant fantasy categories for the last eight years at Atlanta Motor Speedway: Laps led: Kurt Busch (11.3 percent); Quality passes: Brad Keselowski (40.8 average); Fastest Laps: Carl Edwards (8.9 percent); Average Finish: Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon (9.1).

Good luck this week.

READ MORE:

READ: Kenseth holds off Kahne
to win night race at Bristol

WATCH: Highlight Hub: Key moments from Bristol

READ: Recapping the Bristol tripleheader weekend

WATCH: Final Laps: Bristol battle between Kenseth, Kahne

Posted on August 25, 2013 by

Car issues plague 78 team again, but standings are still tight

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kurt Busch was in the lead at Bristol Motor Speedway, going after a race victory that would all but secure a once-unthinkable berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, when it all began to go horribly wrong.

Suddenly the black No. 78 car was not just off the pace but off the race track, rolling down pit road for what his team assumed was a loose wheel. The wheel was replaced, but the problem wasn’t fixed — if anything, it seemed to be worse. From there one thing compounded upon another, from a pit-road speeding penalty that dropped Busch to the tail of the field, to news over the radio that he wasn’t dealing with a loose wheel at all.

It was a bad wheel hub, which would require going behind the wall to replace.

“That’s awesome,” Busch deadpanned over the radio. “It’s so awesome.”

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STANDINGS *Wild Card

Pos.	Driver	Pts back	+/-
1.	Jimmie Johnson	—	—
2.	Clint Bowyer	-18	—
3.	Carl Edwards	-53	—
4.	Kevin Harvick	-61	—
5.	Kyle Busch	-82	—
6.	Matt Kenseth	-85	—
7.	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	-107	—
8.	Kasey Kahne	-120	+3
9.	Greg Biffle	-123	+1
10.	Joey Logano	-136	+3
Pos.	Driver	Pts back of 10th	Wins
11.	Brad Keselowski	-4	0
12.	Kurt Busch	-6	0
13.	Jeff Gordon	-11	0
14.	Martin Truex Jr.*	-22	1
15.	Ryan Newman*	-26	1

When it was all over, a night that started with such promise ended with a 31st-place finish, and a substantial shuffling of the drivers vying for the final positions into the Chase. Out of the top 10 fell Busch and reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski, neither of whom has a victory yet this season. And into the top 10 charged Joey Logano, who backed up his Michigan victory with a fifth-place result that vaulted him to 10th in points with two races remaining in the regular season.

“It feels good,” Logano said. “I tell you what, I’m worn out because that was a lot of work. I dug my heart out, and this whole team dug their heart out the whole day, and this is what we’ve got to do. This is the only way we’re going to make the Chase.”

Emotions were very different elsewhere in the garage. Keselowski was caught up in an eight-car accident that unfolded when Brian Vickers bounced down into Denny Hamlin, who cut a tire and ricocheted up into Kevin Harvick. Keselowski’s car was seriously damaged and finished 30th, dropping him to 11th in points and outside of Wild Card position. Heading to Atlanta Motor Speedway, those two spots belong to Martin Truex Jr. (14th in the standings) — who despite being caught up in the same crash benefited from race runner-up Kasey Kahne moving back into the top 10 — and Ryan Newman (15th in the standings).

“I’m not going to be out of the worried zone unless I make it or it’s over,” Keselowski said. “That’s my job as a race car driver. I care about my team. We’ve got two races left. I think they’ll be good race tracks for us. Obviously, today was not a great day for us. We’ve tested at the next two tracks and we’re going to be very competitive. I feel like this is going to come down to the last lap at Richmond, and I’m ready for that battle.”

No one, though, withstood a bigger blow than Busch, whose car was fast all weekend and qualified on the outside of the front row. He’s dealt with similar heartbreak before this year — he was leading the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte when he had to pit with a dead battery — but not with so much on the line. Busch’s third-place finish last week at Michigan lifted him to ninth in points, but after Saturday night’s problems he tumbled to 12th.

“I guess we had a right-rear hub fail where the studs pulled through or they weren’t tightened or assembled. I don’t know, just a right-rear hub failure,” Busch said. “Now we have to go back and diagnosis that. When you are 20 laps down, there is nothing you can do. We just rode around, and we are down, but we are not out. I guess at the end of the race we gained a bunch of points back with guys having trouble. My thoughts all through the race were we just have to go to Atlanta and Richmond and win them both.”

Busch was perhaps helped somewhat by late-race issues suffered by standings leaders Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer, as well as the eight-car accident. But it was still a setback for a single-car Furniture Row Racing team which is up against burgeoning powerhouse Stewart-Haas Racing in its bid to try and retain Busch for next season.

For now, though, the driver’s focus is making the playoff with his current team.

“We are down, but we are not out,” Busch said. “We have two races to go, and I heard we are only five points out of 10th.”

Close — it’s six. Keselowski is four points out of the top 10, while his Penske Racing teammate Logano is four points in. On a night when so many championship hopefuls battled problems, Logano was clearly fired up about overcoming issues that included having his right-front quarterpanel knocked in and getting blocked on pit road.

“They can’t put us down and can’t keep us down,” Logano said. “This team is awesome. We deserve to make this Chase, and if we keep doing this on days that they’re trying to put us down, we deserve it.”

READ MORE:

READ: Kenseth holds off Kahne
to win night race at Bristol

WATCH: Highlight Hub: Key moments from Bristol

READ: Recapping the Bristol tripleheader weekend

WATCH: Final Laps: Bristol battle between Kenseth, Kahne

Posted on August 25, 2013 by

With possibility of sweeping Bristol on line, Busch took gamble and finished 11th

BRISTOL, Tenn. — There was one moment when it seemed the sweep might actually be a possibility. Just over halfway Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch stayed out of the pits under caution to gain track position, and restarted second. Suddenly, a car that had begun the race last was dueling for the lead.

“Save fuel, bud,” crew chief Dave Rogers told his driver over the radio. “We’ve got to gamble sometime.”

And this was it, a track-position gambit with a No. 18 car that had taken a beating already, and would take plenty more before the night was done. Bidding for just the second tripleheader sweep in both his career and NASCAR history, Busch was forced to rally from a last-place starting position due to a qualifying crash, but that was only the first of the hurdles he would have to overcome on the physical half-mile track.

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In the end, it was all just too much. Although Busch clung to the top 10 for much of the race and made one awe-inspiring save to stay there, his green car faded over the event’s final run and the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was forced to settle for 11th. It was an anticlimactic evening for a driver who had won the track’s Camping World Truck Series race Wednesday night, and dominated the facility’s Nationwide Series event Saturday.

“Bittersweet,” Rogers called it afterward, as teammate Matt Kenseth celebrated in Victory Lane. “In the end I think I should be satisfied with almost a top 10, but truthfully I’m really discouraged. Because it’s still Kyle Busch, and it’s still Bristol. He’s one of the best there ever was here. Obviously, the equipment JGR is producing is good enough to win. … We just couldn’t get it done this week. Disappointed, but a good points day.”

Certainly considering where they had started. Busch’s qualifying crash forced him to start 43rd, a position from which no Sprint Cup driver has won in NASCAR’s modern era. The lowest any Bristol winner has started is 38th (Elliott Sadler in 2001), and the lowest Busch has started in any of his victories is 30th (Sonoma in 2008). Although two premier-series drivers have won from 43rd — Johnny Mantz at Darlington and Fonty Flock at Raleigh — both of those feats occurred in the 1950s, and in fields greater than 43 cars.

So Busch was up against it from the very beginning, and it showed as he struggled to avoid being lapped in the race’s opening segment. A caution for a Ryan Truex accident saved him there, and he was rescued again when leader Clint Bowyer collided with Travis Kvapil just as he was approaching the No. 18 car at the tail end of the lead lap. In between there had been a bobble up into the wall that bent the vehicle’s splitter and required two jaunts down pit road for repairs.

“We’re back there racing guys that aren’t racing on the budget we have, and don’t have the equipment we have, and we were having a really tough time passing them,” Rogers said. “I was like, wow, our car was really off. Then the 20 car (of Kenseth) got back there, and they had just as much trouble passing the same people. Track position just meant so much.”

Hence, the strategy to stay out and gamble on fuel. By skipping a pit stop Busch moved up to second, and though he didn’t maintain that position for very long, the strategy move at least gave the No. 18 a chance at a strong finish on a night where things could have easily turned the other way. That was certainly evident at one point in the second half of the race, when Busch was bumped from behind and somehow kept his vehicle pointed straight despite a massive fishtail that had everyone holding their breath.

“Wow. Great catch,” Tony Hirschman said from up on the spotter’s stand. “Deep breath, and let’s wind ‘er up again.”

“You’re the man, buddy,” Rogers added. “You’re the man.”

But there was only so much Busch could do. The fuel strategy worked, getting Busch to the checkered with gas still left in the tank. But but the car didn’t respond like Busch hoped on the final restart, and another big bobble dropped him back to 13th. The tires were getting older — Busch stayed out the final 160 laps — and all the dings and dents from all the earlier incidents were adding up. At that point it was just a matter of hanging on and salvaging the best finish possible.

“Not what we wanted to do,” Rogers said, “but it was the hand I had.”

Busch couldn’t be located for comment, but his frustration was evident over the radio during the race. “Going backward,” he said at one point. It certainly wasn’t a triumphant capper to a weekend tripleheader sweep, like the one he recorded at Bristol in the late summer of 2010. But as far as his team was concerned, it could have been much worse.

“I saw him afterwards and just talked to him briefly, but obviously he was frustrated,” team president J.D. Gibbs said, “but my fear is it would have been a lot worse. (He) kind of gathered it up, came back, and had a respectable finish. So I was proud of those guys, what he and Dave Rogers did tonight.”

READ MORE:

READ: Kenseth holds off Kahne
to win night race at Bristol

WATCH: Highlight Hub: Key moments from Bristol

READ: Recapping the Bristol tripleheader weekend

WATCH: Final Laps: Bristol battle between Kenseth, Kahne

Posted on August 25, 2013 by

Kahne was noble, but that attitude won’t win a championship

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

Nice guys don’t always finish last.

Oftentimes they finish second — but they don’t win championships.

And Kasey Kahne won’t win a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title — despite his consummate skill and the unquestioned quality of his equipment — until his level of aggression begins to approach the level of his talent.

In Saturday’s Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Kahne had the best car at the end of the race, hands-down, and failed to win. For the third time this season, Kahne chased Matt Kenseth to the start/finish line with fresher tires and/or a faster car.

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Kenseth refused to lose, driving perilously deep into the corners to prevent Kahne from clearing his car.

Kahne, on the other hand, refused to win, refraining from using his bumper to move Kenseth in the closing laps.

Had Kahne cleared Kenseth, he would have run away with the race. Kenseth knew it, and so did the fans in the stands who stood and cheered as they watched some of the most breathtaking racing we’ve seen this year.

We watched and waited for Kahne to seize the moment, but it didn’t happen. Kahne settled for second. That sort of mindset doesn’t work in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, where victories are paramount.

Just ask Carl Edwards, who took an eight-point lead into the final three races of the 2011 Chase, finished second three times and lost the championship in a tiebreaker to Tony Stewart, who won two of the last three events.

No one would have blamed Kahne for moving Kenseth out of the way on Saturday night. It was Bristol, after all, the high-speed home of the bump-and-run.

Though he doesn’t look a day older than 25, Kahne turned 33 in April. My belated birthday present to the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet is a wristband inscribed “WWDD,” as in “What would Dale (Earnhardt) do?”

Perhaps that could serve as food for thought when the Chase starts.

Wrecking ball tour
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Brian Vickers was hardly the model of restraint in his approach to Saturday night’s race — and understandably so.

Vickers had something to prove, having started the weekend with the news that his crew chief and long-time friend, Rodney Childers, was leaving Michael Waltrip Racing to work with Kevin Harvick next year at Stewart-Haas Racing.

Childers’ comments to the effect that he couldn’t pass up an opportunity to work with a driver of Harvick’s caliber had to sting Vickers, who drove on and beyond the edge at Bristol to prove a point.

Vickers was involved in the Lap 358 wreck that KO’d Jimmie Johnson. On Lap 447, he turned left into Denny Hamlin‘s Toyota, cut Hamlin’s right front tire and triggered a collision that wiped out Chase contenders Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Newman and Brad Keselowski, among others.

When the dust settled, however, Vickers finished fourth. Harvick, another victim of the Lap 447 accident, rolled home 34th, 51 laps down.

Where have you been, Juan Pablo?
It was beautiful to watch.

With a near-perfect blend of elegance and aggression, Juan Pablo Montoya was a major player at Bristol, contending for the win until the handling of his car tightened up in the closing laps.

Montoya was one of few drivers who found a racing line around the .533-mile short track that allowed him to cut through the field. Arcing his No. 42 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet high into the corners, Montoya would steer to the bottom of the track on exit, carrying momentum that allowed him to streak past cars in the outside lane.

Montoya started 16th and finished third, his fourth top-five result of the season.

One can only think that, had Montoya driven consistently with that sort of focus and intensity since making the Chase in 2009, the former Indy 500 winner might not be looking for a new job next year.

READ MORE:

READ: Kenseth holds off Kahne
to win night race at Bristol

WATCH: Highlight Hub: Key moments from Bristol

READ: Recapping the Bristol tripleheader weekend

WATCH: Final Laps: Bristol battle between Kenseth, Kahne

Posted on August 25, 2013December 8, 2017 by Zack Albert

Complexion of Chase bubble takes shape at topsy-turvy Bristol; Keselowski, Busch falter

Updated standings | Lap-by-Lap breakdown | Race highlights | Full coverage

Three up

Three down

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STANDINGS *Wild Card

Pos.	Driver	Pts back	+/-
1.	Jimmie Johnson	—	—
2.	Clint Bowyer	-18	—
3.	Carl Edwards	-53	—
4.	Kevin Harvick	-61	—
5.	Kyle Busch	-82	—
6.	Matt Kenseth	-85	—
7.	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	-107	—
8.	Kasey Kahne	-120	+3
9.	Greg Biffle	-123	+1
10.	Joey Logano	-136	+3
Pos.	Driver	Pts back of 10th	Wins
11.	Brad Keselowski	-4	0
12.	Kurt Busch	-6	0
13.	Jeff Gordon	-11	0
14.	Martin Truex Jr.*	-22	1
15.	Ryan Newman*	-26	1

IN THE GREEN

Kasey Kahne (Change: 11th to 8th)
Saturday night’s stellar drive to second place at Bristol Motor Speedway fueled a major jump in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings for Kasey Kahne, who moved from Wild-Card position just outside the top 10 to 16 points ahead of 10th place in eighth. His two victories this season make him a virtual lock for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs field, but had he passed Matt Kenseth for the victory in the Irwin Tools Night Race, a third win would have made his future even more secure.

Joey Logano (Change: 13th to 10th)
Momentum has been palpable in recent weeks for Penske Racing’s Joey Logano, who escaped Bristol with a hard-fought fifth-place run despite a beaten-up No. 22 Ford. His fifth straight finish in the top 10 helped separate him from the gaggle of one-win drivers battling for one of two Wild-Card positions in the Chase, moving him to the 10th-place bubble spot in the Sprint Cup standings.

Greg Biffle (Change: 10th to 9th)
It wasn’t a monumental change for Greg Biffle, who has been clinging to the back portion of the top 10 for several weeks now. Still, to escape the dangers of Bristol with a ninth-place finish was a change that was just positive enough. In moving up one spot in the standings, Biffle padded his cushion from four to 17 points ahead of 11th place.

IN THE RED

Brad Keselowski (Change: 8th to 11th)
The forward push of Brad Keselowski hit a road hazard in the form of Bristol Motor Speedway. After finishing sixth, second and 12th in consecutive weeks, the defending Sprint Cup champ crashed into a 30th-place finish, increasing the degree of difficulty in making the Chase. He essentially swapped places in the standings with Kahne and now sits four points behind 10th-place Logano, his Penske Racing teammate.

Kurt Busch (Change: 9th to 12th)
The “two steps forward, one step back” season of Kurt Busch crept up again Saturday night at Bristol. For the second time this year, Busch encountered trouble just one week after moving into one of the top 10 Chase qualifying spots. This time, a 31st-place finish 24 laps off the lead was the culprit after a wheel issue forced the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevy behind the wall early. Now instead of being four points ahead of 10th place, he’s facing a six-point deficit to get back into the top 10.

Martin Truex Jr. (Change: 12th to 14th)
Although Truex slipped back two spots in the Sprint Cup standings for the second consecutive week, he remains the holder of one of two Wild-Card berths based on his victory earlier this season at Sonoma Raceway. Yet after running in the top five much of the night at Bristol, a crash-related 35th place certainly left Truex’s outlook on shakier ground.

Missed chances

Carl Edwards (Remained 3rd)
Edwards left Bristol in the same spot in the standings, but missed an opportunity to gain points and confidence for the stretch run. With Jimmie Johnson finishing many laps down in 36th place and Edwards leading for 119 laps, the chance to whittle away at Johnson’s points lead was there. But a progressive engine failure relegated Edwards to 39th, keeping him from raising his stature on a night he had a car capable of winning.

Jeff Gordon (Change: 14th to 13th)
The four-time Sprint Cup champion jumped a spot in the standings, but had a clear opportunity to fare better. Gordon was third on the final restart, but faded to a seventh-place finish. While Gordon grabbed points in an effort to push into the top 10 Chase-eligible positions, a potential victory would have gone a long way toward boosting his Wild-Card stature.

READ MORE:

READ: Kenseth holds off Kahne
to win night race at Bristol

WATCH: Highlight Hub: Key moments from Bristol

READ: Recapping the Bristol tripleheader weekend

WATCH: Final Laps: Bristol battle between Kenseth, Kahne

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Nascar

Out at Earnhardt Ganassi Racing in 2014, Montoya notches another top-five

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Juan Pablo Montoya’s status for 2014 may be up in the air, but the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver isn’t slipping away quietly into the night.

Montoya, 37, scored his third top-10 finish in his past five starts Saturday night with a third-place result in the Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

That he fought his way back from a pit-road speeding penalty well past the halfway point of the race made the feat even more impressive.

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Second when the leaders pitted during the seventh caution of the race, Montoya was fourth off pit road. But then came the call from the tower, informing the team of the infraction.

No argument ensued, no complaints were lodged.

“No, no we were pushing it, playing the (timing) lines,” Montoya, 21st in points, admitted afterward.

Although he restarted the race in 26th, Montoya clearly had one of the fastest, best-handling cars. As attrition mounted and the laps clicked off, he steadily made his way back into the top five. Long green-flag runs — there were a few in spite of the 11 cautions that slowed the pace of the race — proved to be timely.

They were also destructive.

“That was our strength,” he said of the occasional caution-free runs. “The problem with that, starting at the back you use so much more of the brakes trying to pass people and it just killed the tires and the brakes there at the end.

“But we did good.”

With eventual race winner Matt Kenseth and runner-up Kasey Kahne waging a war for the lead in the closing laps, Montoya did his best to keep the two in sight.

“I was hoping they were going to wreck on the white flag (lap), to be honest,” he said.

They didn’t.

The third-place finish was Montoya’s best since a runner-up result earlier this year at Dover, and it was his fourth top-five of the season.

“We had a really good car all night,” he said. “We were a little tight at the start of the night and we made some good changes. The car had good speed.”

He said he thought the speeding penalty might have actually helped the team. By returning to pit road for fuel, it kept him from running out at the end.

“Our fuel mileage wasn’t as good as the 20 (of Kenseth),” he said. “It made it more interesting.”

Twice a winner in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series since his full-time debut in 2007, Montoya doesn’t know what the future holds — only that he won’t be returning in 2014 to drive the No. 42 EGR entry. For now, he’s simply focused on finishing out the year as strong as he can.

“I’m still running until the end of the year with (sponsor) Target, and I want to make sure I can do the best for them,” he said.

READ MORE:

READ: Kenseth holds off Kahne
to win night race at Bristol

WATCH: Highlight Hub: Key moments from Bristol

READ: Recapping the Bristol tripleheader weekend

WATCH: Final Laps: Bristol battle between Kenseth, Kahne

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Nascar

After overcoming wreck while leading, No. 15 runs out of fuel, loses top-five finish

BRISTOL, Tenn. — The disappointment was obvious.

Even though Clint Bowyer clinched a berth in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, crew chief Brian Pattie wasn’t exactly thrilled with his driver’s 14^th-place finish in the Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“We ran out,” Pattie said, explaining up Bowyer’s final-lap free fall from inside the top five to outside the top 10. “We only took two tires there (on a final stop) then we went the rest of the way and sometimes you (don’t get it) full. I was doing my best to get track position after getting dumped.”

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Bowyer finished 14^th but still managed to lock himself into one of the 10 points positions for the Chase, which will begin Sept. 15 at Chicagoland Speedway. He joins five-time series champion Jimmie Johnson, who had already sewn up one of the 10 spots, and Matt Kenseth, whose fifth win guaranteed the Joe Gibbs Racing driver no worse than a Wild Card position.

“It means a lot,” Bowyer said of the Chase berth, “but I’m really just disappointed … because we had a really good car. Absolutely nothing went our way all night.”

Bowyer led 50 laps (126-175) before contact from a lapped entry sent the No. 15 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota for a spin on lap 176. He had just put Travis Kvapil of BK Racing a lap down when Kvapil drove hard into Turn 4 and made contact with Bowyer.

After sliding along the frontstretch, Bowyer’s car was struck in the side by Bobby Labonte.

“I felt like we had a shot at winning and then I got spun out by a lapper, of all things,” he said. “When I got hit up there, it hit that left-front tire, and the car never turned the center (of the corners) as good the rest of the night.”

Bowyer restarted 26^th, mired deep in traffic and well behind the lead pack.

By lap 350 of the 500-lap race, however, he had rejoined the top 10, and was back in the top five 25 laps later.

“I’m extremely proud of the guys — they got it fixed back up,” he said. “We went out there and gave it everything we had and just came up short. Then we ran out of gas there at the end.”

“The car was fast,” Pattie said. “He hauls ass here. I’m going to put this on my to-do list for getting trophies, right next to Martinsville. We’ve run good enough the last three or four times here to get a win.”

It will be Bowyer’s fifth appearance in the Chase, and his second since moving to MWR prior to the 2012 season. His second-place points finish a year ago was a career-best.

MORE:

READ: Kenseth holds off Kahne
to win night race at Bristol

WATCH: Highlight Hub: Key moments from Bristol

READ: Recapping the Bristol tripleheader weekend

WATCH: Kyle Busch snags trucks win in wild finish

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Brad Norman

Bowyer cuts into Johnson’s lead; Kahne rises; Keselowski, Kurt Busch tumble

1. Jimmie Johnson (No. 48)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Johnson leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings with 821 points.
Last week: For the second consecutive week, Johnson finished near the bottom of the field and earned single-digit points. One week after his 40th-place effort at Michigan, Johnson struggled to get out of the back of the field at Bristol. That’s where he was when there was a wreck in front of him, and Johnson couldn’t avoid wrecking into David Reutimann. His 36th-place finish means his points lead, which was 75 two weeks ago, is down to 18.
What he said: “This racing stuff happens. Luckily, we had a big points lead that we can kind of deal with right now. We’ve locked into the Chase. We certainly want to clean things up and have some great finishes rolling into the Chase. We’ll keep after it, and be back again next week.”
Outlook: In 21 career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Johnson has three wins, 11 top-fives and 13 top-10s. In the past eight years at Atlanta, Johnson ranks first out of 53 drivers with an average place of 7.9. He finished 34th in last year’s race.

2. Clint Bowyer (No. 15)

Michael Waltrip Racing, Toyota

Where he stands: Bowyer is second in the standings with 803 points.
Last week: Bowyer clinched a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, but he wasn’t happy about it. Well, about clinching the Chase spot, Bowyer was indeed happy. About his finish at Bristol? Not so much. Bowyer led 50 laps in the early going before being spun out by a lapped Travis Kvapil. Later, after the No. 15 Toyota had rejoined the front of the field, Bowyer ran out of Sunoco fuel in the final laps, dropping him from the top five to 14th, the last driver on the lead lap.
What he said: “Man, our car was so fast. I felt like we had a shot at winning and then I got spun out there by a lapper of all things. When I got hit up there, it hit that left-front tire and the car never turned the center as good the rest of the night. Extremely proud of the guys — they got it fixed back up. We went out there and gave it everything we had and just came up short. Then we ran out of gas there at the end.”
Outlook: In 12 career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bowyer has five top-10s. In the past eight years at Atlanta, Bowyer ranks 14th out of 53 drivers with an average place of 15.5. He finished 27th in last year’s race.

3. Carl Edwards (No. 99)

Roush Fenway Racing, Ford

Where he stands: Edwards is third in the standings with 768 points.
Last week: Saturday night was a wasted opportunity for Edwards, who took his 39th-place finish in stride. Edwards could live with that showing because his No. 99 Ford was perhaps the best it had been all season. Edwards led 119 laps — second only to eventual winner Matt Kenseth — but had to take his car behind the wall with an engine problem after it didn’t fire on a restart.
What he said: “We had a great car, probably the best car we’ve had in a long time. The pit crew was great. Our strategy was good. The restarts were great. The engine ran great until it blew up, so if we run like that the rest of the year it’s gonna be awesome. We’re gonna be good.”
Outlook: In 15 career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Edwards has three wins, eight top-fives and 10 top-10s. In the past eight years at Atlanta, Edwards ranks seventh out of 53 drivers with an average place of 13.0. He finished 36th in last year’s race.

4. Kevin Harvick (No. 29)

Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Harvick is fourth in the standings with 760 points.
Last week: Harvick was involved in an eight-car wreck on Lap 447 that saw his No. 29 Chevrolet incur massive damage. That led to Harvick parking in Denny Hamlin’s pit stall to wait for the driver who collided with him, only to see Hamlin use his No. 11 Toyota to knock Harvick’s machine out of the way. The two had words, and ended on cordial terms — you can watch the video below. As for Harvick, he didn’t clinch a berth for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with his 34th-place effort.
What he said: “I just saw the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) shoot across the race track. It looked like he was trying to swerve at somebody. He said (Brian Vickers) got into him and so I just wanted to know what happened.”
Outlook: In 22 career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Harvick has one win, five top-fives and eight top-10s. In the past eight years at Atlanta, Harvick ranks 15th out of 53 drivers with an average place of 15.9. He finished fifth in last year’s race.

5. Kyle Busch (No. 18)

Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota

Where he stands: Busch is fifth in the standings with 739 points.
Last week: Busch’s attempt at a sweep turned bittersweet in qualifying, when his No. 18 Toyota spun out and scraped the wall. Starting 43rd, Rowdy didn’t have enough left to win Saturday night’s race following wins in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Still, he came from the back to finish 11th, and made several breathtaking saves along the way. He also overcame slight damage that occurred when he and Joey Logano got into each other.
What he said: “The car wasn’t perfect early, but we were fast and could actually pass people. The car just wasn’t the same after the accident. We couldn’t pass and just didn’t have any speed.”
Outlook: In 15 career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Busch has one win, three top-fives and four top-10s. In the past eight years at Atlanta, Busch ranks 10th out of 53 drivers with an average place of 13.8. He finished sixth in last year’s race.

6. Matt Kenseth (No. 20)

Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota

Where he stands: Kenseth is sixth in the standings with 736 points.
Last week: Kenseth won for the fifth time this season (and first since June 30 at Kentucky), breaking a three race skid of finishing 15th or worse with a dominant closing kick at Bristol. In the No. 20 Toyota, Kenseth led the final 126 laps after taking the lead when Carl Edwards’ car had an engine problem. He held off Kasey Kahne over the final laps — a duel you can watch below — in a dramatic conclusion, considering there was speculation over whether or not Kahne would bump Kenseth out of the way.
What he said: “It’s this race team that’s won the races, not me. I’m just the lucky guy piloting it. Just so proud of this Dollar General team — they’ve done a spectacular job really all year. The last month-and-a-half we’ve been off a little on speed. I wasn’t real happy with our car yesterday and Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) and the whole group at JGR got together and tried to tweak out what we need and what would be good in our cars to make them run. It was pretty right all night.”
Outlook: In 24 career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Kenseth has eight top-fives and 14 top-10s. In the past eight years at Atlanta, Kenseth ranks sixth out of 53 drivers with an average place of 12.5. He finished ninth in last year’s race.

7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Earnhardt Jr. is seventh in the standings with 714 points.
Last week: Earnhardt Jr. led 32 laps and ran in the top five, but essentially gave up his chance of winning when he pitted for fuel late. Without a win, the No. 88 team couldn’t gamble on running out and losing ground in the standings. So he went in, and wound up finishing 10th anyway while those on the Chase bubble struggled. Junior didn’t move up in the standings, but he’s now 33 points ahead of 11th-place Brad Keselowski.
What he said: “We had a good car especially at the end. I’m real happy with the speed we had, just we weren’t sure about making it on fuel. Just a risk we couldn’t take.”
Outlook: In 25 career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Earnhardt Jr. has one win, eight top-fives, 11 top-10s and two poles. In the past eight years at Atlanta, Earnhardt Jr. ranks eighth out of 53 drivers with an average place of 13.0. He finished seventh in last year’s race.

8. Kasey Kahne (No. 5)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Kahne is eighth in the standings with 701 points.
Last week: At the very least, Kahne cemented his reputation as a clean driver for not nudging — or wrecking — Kenseth in Saturday’s waning laps. That didn’t ease the sting of Kahne’s third runner-up finish to the No. 20 this season. The finish bumped Kahne up three spots in the standings, which is important for Chase purpose. The No. 5 team is almost certainly bound for the postseason, but Kahne will only get bonus points for his two victories when the field is reset if he finishes in the top 10.
What he said: “I was trying to get there. I would have wrecked probably both of us. It would have just been a wreck. I just tried to pass (Matt Kenseth) as clean as I could, and race him as hard as I could. … I just didn’t clear him. I just didn’t get it done and I’m upset with myself for not figuring out how to win tonight because I clearly had a better car at the end of the race.”
Outlook: In 16 career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Kahne has two wins, six top-fives, eight top-10s and two poles. In the past eight years at Atlanta, Kahne ranks 18th out of 53 drivers with an average place of 16.5. He finished 23rd in last year’s race.

9. Greg Biffle (No. 16)

Roush Fenway Racing, Ford

Where he stands: Biffle is ninth in the standings with 698 points.
Last week: On Saturday, Biffle notched his second consecutive ninth-place finish and is heading in the right direction as the postseason nears. The No. 16’s performance not only allowed Biffle to move up to ninth in the standings (from seventh), but he now has a more comfortable 17-point edge on 11th place (the top 10 drivers in the standings get automatic berths in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup). That deficit was just four points entering the weekend. | Click here to read a roundup on the six members of the Coca-Cola Racing Family
What he said: “To be honest with you, we weren’t all that great right off the truck. We were a little bit tight and I had to drive the heck out of it and run it right on the edge to get any speed out of it. Things worked out for a top-10 and some of the guys we were racing had trouble too, so it will probably end up being OK for us.”.
Outlook: In 18 career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Biffle has three top-fives, nine top-10s and one pole. In the past eight years at Atlanta, Biffle ranks ninth out of 53 drivers with an average place of 13.2. He finished 15th in last year’s race.

10. Joey Logano (No. 22)

Penske Racing, Ford

Where he stands: Logano is 10th in the standings with 685 points.
Last week: It’s hard to identify a driver who has been flat-out better than Logano during this closing stretch to this regular season. At Bristol, Logano incurred damage on his No. 22 Ford after contact with Kyle Busch and was blocked on pit road by Denny Hamlin’s No. 11. Later, he had to pit to get debris off his car. Yet there was Logano sprinting his way into the top five by the end of the race. His fifth-place showing on the heels of last week’s win at Michigan has Logano in the top 10. | Click here to read a roundup on the six members of the Coca-Cola Racing Family
What he said: “That was the hardest fought top-five I’ve ever had in my life. We had a right-front knocked in once. We got blocked in by the 11 once. We got a piece of garbage on the front. Every time this happened we had to go all the way to the back, so we came from the back three times to get a top-five finish. They can’t put us down and can’t keep us down. This team is awesome. We deserve to make this Chase and if we keep doing this on days that they’re trying to put us down, we deserve it.”
Outlook: In six career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Logano’s best finish is 18th in 2012. In the past eight years at Atlanta, Logano ranks 29th out of 53 drivers with an average place of 25.5. He finished 18th in last year’s race.

14. Martin Truex Jr. (No. 56)

Michael Waltrip Racing, Toyota

Where he stands: Truex Jr. is 14th in the standings with 663 points.
Last week: Count Truex Jr. among the drivers disappointed with Saturday’s showing, despite the Chase implications. Truex Jr. remains in the postseason picture, even after his 35th-place, 10-point effort at Bristol following his involvement in an eight-car wreck. The No. 56, though, was likely headed for a top-10 showing. Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon are all above Truex in the standings, without a win. At the bottom of the top 10 are Kasey Kahne (two wins), Greg Biffle (one win) and Joey Logano (one win). With one win himself, Truex Jr. is still firmly on the Chase bubble.
What he said: “I’m doing fine, just disappointed. Honestly, I didn’t see anything. They just started jamming up and I just tried to follow the 29 (Kevin Harvick) through and we got smashed in the fence a couple times. Just frustrating, we had a great car all night long. We ran toward the front all night, but just didn’t have enough gas to make it to the end there and had to pit. Once you get in the back here towards the end, they start wrecking and you’re an innocent victim.”
Outlook: In 14 career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Truex Jr. has one top-five, three top-10s and one pole. In the past eight years at Atlanta, Truex Jr. ranks fifth out of 53 drivers with an average place of 11.8. He finished fourth in last year’s race.

15. Ryan Newman (No. 39)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Newman is 15th in the standings with 636 points.
Last week: Saturday’s red-flag inducing wreck collected multiple Chase contenders, Newman among them. His No. 39 Chevrolet dinged up, Newman managed to keep it on the track to finish 21st, three laps back. He currently holds the last of two Wild Card spots, but he may still need another win to feel secure. | Click here to read a roundup on the six members of the Coca-Cola Racing Family
What he said: “I really don’t know what happened (to cause the wreck). Our Quicken Loans Chevrolet was damaged pretty significantly; it was a handful to drive those last 50 laps with. I basically tried to just stay out of everyone’s way and bring the car to the finish.”
Outlook: In 20 career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Newman has one top-five, six top-10s and seven poles. In the past eight years at Atlanta, Newman ranks 20th out of 53 drivers with an average place of 19.2. He finished 35th in last year’s race.

Five in the rearview mirror …

Brad Keselowski (No. 2)

Penske Racing, Ford

Where he stands: Keselowski is 11th in the standings with 681 points.
Last week: Keselowski continued to ping-pong through the standings, this time falling out of the top 10. It’s been an eventful year for the defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, who is still searching for his first win this season. Keselowski and David Reutimann collided on pit road early in the race — you can view that video below — and then the champ was swept up in a wreck, crushing the back of his No. 2 Ford. His 30th-place finish comes at a most inopportune time, but he’s just four points outside the top 10 in the standings.
Outlook: In four career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Keselowski has one top-five and two top-10s. In the past eight years at Atlanta, Keselowski ranks 12th out of 53 drivers with an average place of 14.5. He finished third in last year’s race.

Kurt Busch (No. 78)

Furniture Row Racing, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Busch is 12th in the standings with 679 points.
Last week: It took Busch months of work to get into the top 10 in the standings. It took just a few minutes for him to fall out. The Outlaw and his team thought the No. 78 Chevrolet had a problem with one of its tires, so Busch — who started second and led 54 laps — pitted out of turn. The problem, though, was with the wheel hub. When the team got that figured out, Busch had to go behind the wall. He finished 31st.
Outlook: In 22 career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Busch has three wins, four top-fives and nine top-10s. In the past eight years at Atlanta, Busch ranks 13th out of 53 drivers with an average place of 14.8. He finished 13th in last year’s race.

Jeff Gordon (No. 24)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Gordon is 13th in the standings with 674 points.
Last week: Gordon didn’t gain enough ground in points — although he did move up one place in the standings — to feel good about his Bristol result. True, Gordon finished seventh, but he was third on the final restart and in contention for a victory. Atlanta is one of Gordon’s best tracks, and he needs a win at this point.
Outlook: In 39 career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Gordon has five wins, 16 top-fives, 25 top-10s and two poles. In the past eight years at Atlanta, Gordon ranks second out of 53 drivers with an average place of 9.9. He finished second in last year’s race.
.

Jamie McMurray (No. 1)

Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, Chevrolet

Where he stands: McMurray is 16th in the standings with 647 points.
Last week: McMurray finished 19th at Bristol, making his already-slim Chase chances even more of a long shot. He’s 38 points out of 10th place and is 16th in the standings. Even if he wins at Atlanta, McMurray likely wouldn’t be in the Chase field. Looks like he’ll need to pull off back-to-back victories to have any shot of the postseason.
Outlook: In 19 career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, McMurray has four top-10s. In the past eight years at Atlanta, McMurray ranks 22nd out of 53 drivers with an average place of 19.8. He finished 24th in last year’s race.

Paul Menard (No. 27)

Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Menard is 17th in the standings with 638 points.
Last week: Surprised to see Menard finish in the top 10 at Bristol? Don’t be. Saturday’s sixth-place effort was his fourth consecutive finish in the top-10 at the .533-mile high-banked oval.
Outlook: In 11 career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Menard has one top-five and three top-10s. In the past eight years at Atlanta, Menard ranks 24th out of 53 drivers with an average place of 22.5.

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READ: Recapping the Bristol tripleheader weekend

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Posted on August 24, 2013 by

Busch will have to start from the rear after crashing in qualifyng in quest for Bristol sweep

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Only one victory stands between Kyle Busch and another tripleheader sweep. And of course, he’s saved the most difficult of those triumphs for last.

The NASCAR star moved another step closer to the sport’s second-ever tripleheader sweep on Friday night by dominating the Nationwide Series event at Bristol Motor Speedway. That win came two days after Busch kicked off the weekend by edging Timothy Peters in a slam-bang finish to the facility’s Camping World Truck Series event.

Now, only the final piece remains — Saturday night’s Sprint Cup Series race on the half-mile track, the same facility where Busch recorded his and NASCAR’s first tripleheader sweep in August of 2010. But to duplicate that feat Busch will have to overcome the handicap of starting at the rear of the 43-car field, the result of a crash in qualifying.

“It’s going to be tough (Saturday), that’s for sure,” he said. “You always save the best and the hardest one for last. But I feel like we had a good car (Friday) in practice, and there were times when we showed some speed. But a lot of cars could run the same speed. We see that all the time. Over here in the Nationwide car, I felt like I had a little bit better car in practice, and it sort of showed in the race.

“But starting deep on the field like that, you’re going to have to be patient. But you can’t be too patient, because the leaders are going to be bearing down on you if you get stuck in traffic and can’t go anywhere. But that’s what Bristol is all about. We’ll just have to continue to try to cut through traffic (Saturday).”

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Busch had the fastest car in final Sprint Cup practice Friday, setting himself up as the driver to beat for the pole. But he had issues before his qualifying attempt even started, a scrub of the wall that led him to abort his attempt, turn around, and drive back to the start/finish line for another go.

The second try turned out even worse — Busch spun and backed into the wall with the right-rear of his No. 18 car. His crew salvaged the primary vehicle, but Busch will still have to start Saturday night’s event from the rear.

“We were a little too loose, and I overdrove the corner and messed up. That was my fault,” he said. “I carry the load on that one, and I’m going to have to (Saturday) night, too. It’s not like we haven’t done it before coming from the back — I think I started 33rd or 36th or something and won here before. Certainly a lot different race track and groove, and how you’ve got to run around here from a couple of years ago. So we’ll just work hard and see if we can’t dig ourselves out.”

According to NASCAR, two drivers have started last and won a premier-series event, but never in a 43-car field. Dick Rathmann won from 26th in a 26-car field at Oakland Stadium on March 28, 1954, and Bobby Allison won from 25th in a 25-car field at Richmond on Sept. 7, 1969. Two drivers have also won from the 43rd starting position, but in fields larger than 43 cars. Johnny Mantz won from 43rd in a 75-car field in the inaugural Southern 500 at Darlington on Sept. 4, 1950, and Fonty Flock won from 43rd in a 49-car field at Raleigh Speedway on May 30, 1953.

The deepest Busch has ever started in one of his Bristol Sprint Cup victories is 20th, in the spring of 2007. The deepest he’s ever started in any Sprint Cup victory is 30th, at Sonoma in 2008. And there’s the track itself, which is a little different than it was the last time Busch swept here — the top groove was ground down last season in an attempt to stimulate more side-by-side racing.

“Hopefully, the bottom works,” Busch said. “If I get a good-handling car, I can make some hay down there. But it’s going to be a train around the top, for sure.”

Busch has made serious bids at tripleheader sweeps elsewhere — a broken water pump in a Truck Series event kept him from notching one at Dover several years ago — but Bristol so far is the only place where all the pieces have come together. Even for a driver with 120 combined national-series victories, a sweep is a very big deal.

“Yeah, it means a lot,” he said after opening Sprint Cup practice Friday. “It’s something that’s never been done in the 16 years there’s been three series, and it hasn’t been done in the three years since I did it. There could be a chance for me to do it again, but this race track’s changed so much here that it may not come here, but it can still come at other places.”

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WATCH: Kyle Busch snags trucks win in wild finish

Posted on August 24, 2013 by

Battle in final 13 laps is tight but Kenseth gets fifth win of season, clinches Chase berth

BRISTOL. Tenn. — We’ve seen this script before, Matt Kenseth holding off Kasey Kahne in the closing laps of a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

It happened in March at Las Vegas. It happened in April at Kansas. And it happened again in Saturday’s Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

On inferior tires and with a fuel tank bordering on empty, Kenseth won a heated battle against Kahne to claim victory, after Kahne moved into the second position on Lap 473 of 500.

The victory was Kenseth’s fifth of the year and it guaranteed the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at least a Wild Card spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

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Juan Pablo Montoya ran third followed by Brian Vickers and Joey Logano.

The victory was Kenseth’s third at Bristol and the 29th of his career, but it was anything but a cakewalk. Several times in the closing laps Kahne either pulled alongside or nosed ahead of Kenseth’s Toyota but was unable to complete a pass.

"I think, at the end of the day, I just don’t wreck people," Kahne said plaintively after the race, clearly disappointed that he had failed to win with possibly a superior car at the end.

Kenseth can thank Kahne for his restraint, especially in light of four incidents earlier this season in which JGR drivers have wrecked Kahne’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

"When he got there with about eight (laps) to go, I knew we had our work cut out for us," Kenseth said. "I didn’t know what would happen. The interesting thing about this track is that there’s only one really fast groove, and I knew I couldn’t let him outside of me …

"He almost cleared me into (Turn) 3 one time. I had to drive in really, really hard to make sure he couldn’t get up in front of me. That’s when I had that rubbing together off of (Turn) 4. There wasn’t a lot of extra room there. It was an intense race. Kasey’s got a great reputation. He’s a really hard racer, really talented and he’s also a really fair racer.

"I thought he was going to pass me. I thought he was going to get around me there but we had just enough to hang on."

Kahne felt he couldn’t have cleared Kenseth’s car without putting both drivers in jeopardy.

"Yeah, I thought Matt did a good job of just running as hard as he could as close to the wall as possible, which helped him a lot, and then I was just trying to gain speed," Kahne said. "I had a better car. We were on the right strategy and I just couldn’t clear him. There was a couple shots I took and I had to have been close, but I could feel him on the right side of my car and I just didn’t clear him.

"I didn’t figure out how to get by. It’s disappointing not to win here. I thought we had the best car the last 200 laps and it was a lot of work. We didn’t start the best, but (crew chief) Kenny (Francis) made a lot of good calls and our strategy was perfect at the end. It was a great night for us, good for the points and things, but yeah, I wish I could have figured out how to get by him."

Montoya, watching the battle from a safe distance in third place, was hoping for contact between the first- and second-place cars.

"I was hoping they were going to wreck on the white flag (lap), to be honest," Montoya said.

Kenseth led the field to green for a restart after a wreck in Turn 1 involving Montoya, David Stremme and Jeff Burton caused the ninth caution of the evening. By Lap 430, Kenseth had opened a lead of more than one second over Jeff Gordon.

Caution for debris on the frontstretch slowed the field for the 10th time on Lap 439. Kenseth and Gordon, both saving fuel, brought the field to green on Lap 447, but before the cars could complete the circuit, contact between the cars of Vickers and Denny Hamlin ignited a massive wreck in Turns 3 and 4 that dealt serious blows to the Chase hopes of Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski.

Truex finshed 35th and fell two spots to 14th in points but still holds a provisional Wild Card berth with two races left before the Chase field is set at Richmond. Keselowski came home 30th and fell from eighth to 11th in the standings with no victory to offer him safe haven as a Wild Card.

Logano, on the other hand, moved into the top 10, as did Kahne. Kurt Busch finished 31st thanks to a loose wheel and a lengthy stay in the garage and dropped from ninth to 12th in points.

After a stoppage of four minutes, 27 seconds for debris clean-up from the Lap 447 wreck, Montoya surged from fourth to second on the Lap 454 restart and took off in pursuit of Kenseth. With a full load of fuel and fresh tires, however, Kahne slipped past Montoya for second on Lap 473, caught Kenseth and waged an intensely competitive battle over the closing laps before falling short by .188 seconds.

Note: With a 14th-place finish, Clint Bowyer clinched a spot in the Chase. Bowyer remained second in the Cup standings and narrowed Jimmie Johnson’s lead to 18 points, after Johnson broke the radiator on his No. 48 Chevy in a Lap 358 wreck and finished 36th.

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