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JGR driver earns first victory at Darlington

Results | Race RePlay | Darlington hub page | Interim chief comes through

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Unsinkable.

Unsinkable Matt Kenseth capped a banner week for unsinkable Joe Gibbs Racing with a victory in Saturday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway with a substitute crew chief on his pit box — the unsinkable Wally Brown.

The past four days could hardly have been better for JGR, with Wednesday bringing a substantial reduction in penalties on appeal for an engine infraction Apr, 21 at Kansas. On Friday, Gibbs cars ran 1-2-3 in the Nationwide Series race at Darlington, and the organization followed that Saturday with a 1-2 finish from Kenseth and Denny Hamlin in the 11th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of the season.

Kenseth took the lead from JGR teammate Kyle Busch on Lap 355 of 367 and pulled away to win by 3.155 seconds over Hamlin, as Busch faded to sixth. Hamlin also had much to celebrate in his first full race back from a compression fracture to his first lumbar vertebra, sustained during a last-lap crash at Fontana, Calif., in late March.

It was a race of significant numbers. Jeff Gordon finished third in his 700th Cup start, all consecutive. Jimmie Johnson ran fourth and extended his series lead to a massive 44 points over seventh-place finisher Carl Edwards. In a race that saw just four drivers pace the field, Kyle Busch led 265 laps but faded to sixth at the finish, thanks to a cut tire on the final 30-lap green-flag run.

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Journeyman Brown won his first race as a Cup crew chief, after serving with four different drivers before his one-week shot on the pit box with Kenseth, who will get regular crew chief Jason Ratcliff back next week at Charlotte after Ratcliff’s six-race suspension for an underweight connecting rod was reduced to one event on appeal. 

But the day belonged to Kenseth, whose resilience under trying circumstances was emblematic of the organization he joined this season.

"Honestly, I’ve only dreamed about winning the Southern 500," said Kenseth, who notched his first victory at Darlington, his third of the season and the 27th of his career. "This to me probably feels bigger than any win in my career. I really feel bad that Jason isn’t here. This is obviously his team and his effort, but Wally did a great job filling in.

"We had a fifth- or sixth-place car, fighting loose, (and) those last two adjustments (on pit road) were just awesome."

For Hamlin, second place was the best he could have hoped for, given the strength of Kenseth’s car in the closing laps.

"For me, we kept grinding away," Hamlin said, clearly tired from the effort of his first race back at one of NASCAR racing’s most demanding tracks. "Pit crew picked us up some spots, obviously, throughout the night. 

"It was one of those days where we got our car better, pit crew picked us up positions, took us to the most optimum spot we could get to — and that was second."

From a physical standpoint, Hamlin admitted the race took its toll.

"Really, it’s just like starting your season over," he said. "To start it back over at Darlington for 500 miles, there’s some muscles that have gotten weak. I’ve gotten pretty sore and tired, mentally tired as well. We’ll have a couple of weeks really to rest until the next long event (Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte), and we’ll be good to go then."

A caution for Regan Smith‘s spin off Turn 2 on Lap 302 of 367 — only the second yellow of the race — interrupted a cycle of green-flag pit stops. After Juan Pablo Montoya took a free pass as the highest scored lap car, and Harvick availed himself of a wave-around, there were 11 cars on the lead lap for a restart on Lap 309.

By then, Kyle Busch had led 218 laps and had dominated the race ever since he wrested the lead from his brother, polesitter Kurt Busch on Lap 74. But the pit stops on Lap 303 put the lead-lap cars on the edge of their fuel windows.

They need not have worried. On Lap 311, Casey Mears tangled with Kurt Busch and reigning series champion Brad Keselowski off Turn 4 to cause the third caution. All but the top-four cars came to pit road for fuel under the yellow, leaving Kyle Busch, Kenseth, Kasey Kahne and Gordon out front on slightly older tires.

Johnson was first off pit road with new tires and quickly moved to third. Busch fended off a challenge from Kahne right after the restart and held a lead of .850 seconds when an accident involving David Reutimann and Josh Wise brought out the fourth caution and gave the lead-lappers a chance to pit for tires.

Kahne briefly took the lead after a restart on Lap 333, but one lap later, Kahne’s Chevy slapped the wall near the apex of Turns 1 and 2 and the race went yellow for the fifth time.

The result was the same. Busch pulled away after the restart and opened a comfortable advantage, this time over Kenseth, only to have Kenseth run him down and pass him on Lap 355.

 

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race – Bojangles’ Southern 500

Darlington Raceway

Darlington, South Carolina

Saturday, May 11, 2013

 

                   1. (7) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 367, $309666.

                   2. (6) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 367, $211465.

                   3. (8) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 367, $200026.

                   4. (2) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 367, $178876.

                   5. (10) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 367, $165976.

                   6. (3) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 367, $169323.

                   7. (17) Carl Edwards, Ford, 367, $142065.

                   8. (12) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 367, $131429.

                   9. (16) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 367, $115265.

                   10. (21) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 367, $140423.

                   11. (13) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 367, $137188.

                   12. (5) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 367, $130205.

                   13. (9) Greg Biffle, Ford, 367, $111505.

                   14. (1) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 367, $122975.

                   15. (20) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 367, $139855.

                   16. (25) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 367, $121375.

                   17. (4) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 367, $108230.

                   18. (14) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. #, Ford, 366, $139741.

                   19. (15) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 366, $122871.

                   20. (18) Aric Almirola, Ford, 366, $130141.

                   21. (11) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 365, $99205.

                   22. (30) Joey Logano, Ford, 365, $118388.

                   23. (28) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, 364, $115863.

                   24. (27) Regan Smith(i), Chevrolet, 363, $113063.

                   25. (22) Mark Martin, Toyota, 363, $96755.

                   26. (23) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 363, $109588.

                   27. (37) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, 362, $98388.

                   28. (40) Danica Patrick #, Chevrolet, 362, $82980.

                   29. (29) David Gilliland, Ford, 362, $95327.

                   30. (32) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 360, $87105.

                   31. (43) Joe Nemechek(i), Toyota, 359, $82330.

                   32. (26) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 358, $135596.

                   33. (41) Timmy Hill #, Ford, 358, $84480.

                   34. (24) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 358, $109069.

                   35. (42) JJ Yeley, Chevrolet, 354, $81605.

                   36. (33) David Reutimann, Toyota, Accident, 327, $81480.

                   37. (19) Casey Mears, Ford, Accident, 327, $89289.

                   38. (34) Josh Wise(i), Ford, Accident, 326, $75685.

                   39. (31) David Ragan, Ford, Engine, 318, $79685.

                   40. (39) David Stremme, Toyota, Engine, 230, $67685.

                   41. (36) Scott Speed, Ford, Brakes, 77, $63685.

                   42. (35) Michael McDowell, Ford, Brakes, 58, $59685.

                   43. (38) Mike Bliss(i), Toyota, Overheating, 18, $56185.

 

Average Speed of Race Winner:  141.383 mph.

Time of Race:  3 Hrs, 32 Mins, 45 Secs. Margin of Victory:  3.155 Seconds.

Caution Flags:  5 for 25 laps.

Lead Changes:  9 among 4 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   Kurt Busch 1-51; Kyle Busch 52-53; M. Kenseth 54-55; Kurt Busch 56-73; Kyle Busch 74-105; M. Kenseth 106-107; Kyle Busch 108-185; J. Gordon 186-201; Kyle Busch 202-354; M. Kenseth 355-367.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Kyle Busch 4 times for 265 laps; Kurt Busch 2 times for 69 laps; M. Kenseth 3 times for 17 laps; J. Gordon 1 time for 16 laps.

Top 12 in Points: J. Johnson – 423; C. Edwards – 379; M. Kenseth – 364; D. Earnhardt Jr. – 359; C. Bowyer – 349; K. Kahne – 326; Brad Keselowski – 326; Kyle Busch – 325; A. Almirola – 317; K. Harvick – 315; P. Menard – 315; J. Gordon – 311.

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700th start

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Kenseth appeal helps Hamlin; Menard close to extension; Gordon chasing history

DARLINGTON, S.C. — When Matt Kenseth and his Joe Gibbs Racing team won a significant reduction of penalties on appeal, the benefits for Kenseth were obvious.

But the National Stock Car Racing Appeals Panel’s ruling also helped Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin, who needs every edge he can find in a long-shot attempt to make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Where Kenseth is concerned, the reduction of his points penalty from 50 to 12 vaulted the driver of the No. 20 Toyota to fourth in the Cup standings, solidly in a Chase-eligible position. The original 50-point penalty — the result of an underweight connecting rod NASCAR discovered in Kenseth’s race-winning car after the Apr. 21 event at Kansas — had knocked Kenseth outside the top 10.

Hamlin missed four races after suffering a compression fracture of his first lumbar vertebra in a last-lap crash at Fontana, Calif., in late March. Last week at Talladega, he gave way to relief driver Brian Vickers after 23 laps and earned 10 points after Vickers finished 34th.

That left Hamlin 31st in the points, needing to win at least one race and improve 11 positions in the standings to compete for a Wild Card spot in the Chase.

"Honestly, until I win races, I’ve got to root on all the frontrunners to win the next few weeks at least."

— Denny Hamlin

If Kenseth, who has won twice, remains in the top 10, that’s one potential Wild Card driver Hamlin won’t have to beat. (The two Wild Card positions in the Chase go to the two drivers in positions 11-20 in the standings with the most victories. If drivers have an equal number of wins, the tiebreaker is position in the standings.)

In Hamlin’s view, the reduction of Kenseth’s points penalty opened up a Wild Card spot.

"It now puts him (Kenseth) solidly inside the top-10, so that was big," Hamlin told the NASCAR Wire Service on Friday at Darlington Raceway. "Honestly, until I win races, I’ve got to root on all the frontrunners to win the next few weeks at least. 

"So it was big for us because Matt has had a win on record, and he was outside the top-10, so that was big. The rescinding really helped us a ton also."

Staying put

Paul Menard says he’s close to a contract extension with Richard Childress Racing and hopes to have an announcement to that effect shortly.

"We don’t have anything to announce yet," Menard told FoxSports.com on Friday at Darlington. "I haven’t signed anything. Hopefully, we do that soon. We’re just going to work hard to get the deal done, and when we do, we’ll let you know."

Menard’s crew chief, Richard "Slugger" Labbe, already has signed an extension with RCR, and he and Menard have been an inseparable and successful pair for the past four seasons, the past three with Childress.

Since coming to RCR with Labbe in 2011, Menard has enjoyed his three most productive seasons. Through 10 races this year he’s ninth in the standings and happy to be with the Childress organization.

"It’s a great place," Menard said. "We’re making a lot of improvements also. When I came in we were running real good. It seemed like last year we took a step back, but Richard has invested a lot in making the company better, and we’re seeing that right now. It’s a very exciting place to be."

Eye on a record?

Saturday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington marked Jeff Gordon‘s 700th start in the Sprint Cup Series, all consecutive.

That’s the longest consecutive-game streak in any of the major sports, but Gordon isn’t ready to contemplate breaking Ricky Rudd’s Cup mark of 788 — not yet. Assuming a 36-event schedule and no break in action for Gordon, the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet would break Rudd’s record in the 28th race of 2015.

"Never say never, but that to me is like David Pearson’s 105 wins," said Gordon, who with 87 Cup victories is third behind Pearson on the all-time list. "It’s too far out there. You have to get closer before you can think realistically about those things. I never dreamed I’d make 700 consecutive starts.

"It’s just an amazing thing for me to try to swallow right now, because it’s been an amazing run of great teams and cars and going from like 28 races my first year now to 36. So a lot of things happened over the years. I’m just enjoying the moment right now of those 700 and not thinking ahead too much."

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Matt Kenseth wins Bojangles’ Southern 500: Results | Blog | Video

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series traveled to Darlington Raceway this week on the heels of two thrilling races at Talladega Superspeedway.

Check back here for the latest coverage on NASCAR.com.

Gordon savors No. 700

Jeff Gordon reflects on his 700th straight start in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Find out what he said to NASCAR.com’s Zack Albert following Saturday night’s race at Darlington. | Read the full story

One big win for Brown

Interim crew chief Wally Brown made the most of his one-race stint filling in for the suspended Jason Ratcliff. Find out how Brown impacted Matt Kenseth’s victory at Darlington. | Read the full story

Kenseth wins Southern 500

Matt Kenseth foiled teammate Kyle Busch with a nifty pass with 13 laps left Saturday night, surviving a late rash of caution periods to win the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. | Read the full story

Video: Victory Lane

Matt Kenseth makes his move late to overtake Kyle Busch and win the Bojangles’ Southern 500, his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at Darlington. | Watch the Video

Full-time is just fine

Denny Hamlin’s first full-time race since injuring his back in March at Auto Club Speedway could not have worked out better. Hamlin finishes third at Darlington Raceway. | Read the full story

Kahne, Busch clash again

For the third time this season Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch have a run-in on the track. Hear what Kahne has to say after Saturday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500. | Read the full story

Minute-by-Minute

Relive the Bojangles’ Southern 500 with our new Minute-by-Minute blog. We culled through the most interesting content throughout the race. It’s the closest thing to experiencing race-day excitement without actually being there. | Read the full story

Ten Days of Giving

On Day 4 of its tour, The NASCAR Foundation and Darlington Raceway honored Stephanie Decker and her family with an all-inclusive VIP race experience. Decker, a mother of three, lost both her legs after a tornado ripped through Henryville, Ind., in 2012 and leveled the Decker’s home. The Stephanie Decker Foundation’s mission is to assist children in need of prosthetics and to help others gain access to leading edge prosthetics. Decker was part of the traditional recognition of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers’ mothers during pre-race festivities. While on stage, The NASCAR Foundation presented The Stephanie Decker Foundation with a $5,000 donation. | Read the full story

Finding her comfort zone

Danica Patrick talks one-on-one with our David Caraviello on the challenges of Darlington, her relationship with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and more. | Read the full story

Kurt Busch wins Sprint Cup pole

Kurt Busch bested Jimmie Johnson and his brother Kyle to win the Coors Light Pole for the Bojangles’ Southern 500. Kurt’s accomplishment came on the heels of his brother winning the Coors Light pole for Friday’s Nationwide race. | Read the full story

Kyle Busch wins Nationwide race

Kyle Busch wins from the pole position in the VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway. It’s Busch’s fifth Nationwide Series win this season and the 56th of his career. | Read the full story

Darlington appropriate for Gordon’s 700th

Jeff Gordon made his 700th start on Saturday at Darlington Raceway. It was a fitting location, as Gordon has seven victories at the famed egg-shaped track. | Read the full story

Kenseth pleased with appeal

Matt Kenseth was out of the country when team owner Joe Gibbs texted him the results from Wednesday’s appeals process. At Darlington the driver was thrilled to get back on the track and put this entire process behind him. | Read the full story

Pit box shuffle

Even though both Joe Gibbs Racing and Penske Racing saw recent penalties by NASCAR softened, the teams are still without their crew chiefs this weekend. Find out who was sitting atop the pit boxes for the cars of Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth. | Read the full story

A finish to remember

Ten years after Ricky Craven stole a win from Kurt Busch at Darlington Raceway, the finish is still remembered as the most exciting in NASCAR history. It also marks the closest finish since the start of electronic timing. | Read the full story

Power Rankings

Each week, NASCAR.com writers vote on who they think should be at the top of the fantasy standings. This week, Matt Kenseth took a jump to the highest spot he’s seen in the our rankings so far this season. | See the full rankings

Paint scheme preview

Some colorful cars took to the track at Darlington this weekend, including Jimmie Johnson’s #Emerald48. Get a glimpse of this weekend’s paint schemes. | See the paint schemes

Driver Reports

Check out NASCAR.com’s weekly Driver Reports feature, which gives news and notes on the top 12 drivers, plus five in the rearview mirror. | Read the full story

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Lone Penske driver breaks up Kyle Busch, Elliott Sadler, Matt Kenseth and Brian Vickers

Related: Kyle Busch wins from pole | Nationwide results | More from Darlington

DARLINGTON, S.C. — For Joey Logano, the shoe was finally on the other foot.

After notching 18 NASCAR Nationwide Series victories with Joe Gibbs Racing over the last five seasons, Logano knows all too well the embarrassment of riches that the team possesses on the circuit — even more so, the near-monopoly it has at Darlington Raceway.

Friday night, the Penske Racing convert was the only non-Gibbs driver in the top five, trying to make an uphill climb against his former team at one of its best tracks.

"It ticks me off," Logano said with a trademark laugh. "I saw all four of ’em up front all day and we’re working our guts out trying to catch up to them right now."

The whole field shared the same sentiment in the VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200, where Joe Gibbs-owned cars took four of the top five spots at the checkered flag. Kyle Busch was smiling in Victory Lane after his fifth win in nine races this season, with teammates Elliott Sadler and Brian Vickers second and third to complete an all-JGR podium. Only Logano in fourth place broke up the Gibbs stranglehold, just ahead of Matt Kenseth‘s JGR Toyota.

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There was an overwhelming sense it would be a Gibbs type of night after Friday afternoon qualifying. Once time trials were over, a full sweep of the first two rows was complete with Busch, Sadler, Kenseth and Vickers sitting 1-2-3-4.

The Gibbs teams battled some adversity during the 200.8-mile sprint, most notably a mid-race spin for Sadler and a botched pit stop for Vickers, but at the end of the night, the finishing order was remarkably similar to the starting lineup in the seventh Joe Gibbs Racing victory in the series in the last eight Darlington races.

"I think JGR’s stats really speak for themselves. They’ve won I don’t know how many races they’ve won in a row and run up front all the time," said Sadler, who has adjusted to the team’s set-ups after joining the Toyota organization in the offseason. "They do drive a little bit different, to be honest with you. I just think that’s between me and the race team. I sure as hell wouldn’t tell you if I knew exactly what the difference was."

If anyone notices the difference a year makes, it’s Busch. The winningest driver in the Nationwide Series returned to the JGR fold after one season as an owner-driver with his Kyle Busch Motorsports outfit. The drop-off was dramatic: after seasons of (in order) 10, nine, 13 and eight wins primarily in Gibbs’ equipment, Busch went winless in 22 races last year under the KBM banner.

This season for Busch, it’s been a matter of if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

"It’s kind of deceiving when you’re driving the (Gibbs) stuff just exactly how good it is and how smart these guys are," Busch said Friday after his 56th career Nationwide victory. "When I’m racing the car around there I’m like, ‘Oh, this ain’t bad, it can’t be that hard to up-start an organization and come out here and beat JGR.’ Obviously, that’s not the case. Certainly these guys are pretty smart and do an awful lot of great things to make cars go fast.

"It was an unfortunate year last year and I led a lot of laps, I was competitive, especially toward the end of the year — my worst finish was 10th and that was at Montreal through the wreckfest — just unfortunately never made it to Victory Lane. That was sort of demoralizing if you will. It’s great to be back this year, it’s great to be working with Adam (Stevens, crew chief) and being in a JGR car with JGR engines and everything like that."

JR Motorsports driver Regan Smith, last weekend’s winner at Talladega Superspeedway, remained the Nationwide points leader after a seventh-place finish Friday night, but admitted that his team still had its work cut out for it to gain on the Gibbs operation at Darlington.

"I think that our car was as good as a couple of their cars throughout the course of the night, but when it all boiled down to it at the end of the race, they were able to pour it on there and all four of their cars finished ahead of us," Smith said.

"It’s a solid night for those guys and we’re going to keep digging. It’s nights like this where we can sit back and say we’re going to keep working hard because we’ve obviously got some things at different tracks that we can figure out."

 

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No. 24 driver has rich history with track deemed "too tough to tame"

DARLINGTON, S.C. — As a seven-time winner at Darlington Raceway, Jeff Gordon is used to earning accolades for how he finishes at the oldest major speedway in NASCAR. But Saturday night, he’ll receive plenty of recognition for just rolling off the starting grid.

Darlington will mark Gordon’s 700th career start in the sport’s premier series, a marathon span of consecutive races that began with his debut at Atlanta on the final day of the 1992 season. It’s an appropriate location, given Gordon’s success on the quirky, egg-shaped oval, where he was dominant in the late 1990s and most recently won in 2007. His seven victories here tie a personal mark with the same amount at Martinsville for his most at any track.

“I’m excited it’s happening here at Darlington,” Gordon said Friday. “I’ve known for a while that this is the location for that to happen. Everything went right. This has been such a special track to me over the years. And I feel like that just showing up here today, even though the tires still may be a little too hard for the track. The track is starting to get like old Darlington was, and I like that. I like slipping and sliding around. I’d like to see the tires wear a little bit more. But it’s such a great weekend for me, personally, to accomplish that.”

"…I’m just enjoying the moment right now of those 700 and not thinking ahead too much."

— Jeff Gordon

Gordon’s stretch of consecutive starts is the longest active streak in NASCAR, and at least within striking range of the sport’s all-time record: 788, set by “Ironman” Ricky Rudd, who reached that mark at the end of the 2005 season and retired two years later. If the schedule remains the same length, Gordon would hit that mark at Dover in the 29th race of the 2015 campaign, and surpass it the following week at Kansas.

“Never say never,” said Gordon, 41, owner of four titles and 87 career wins. “But that to me is like David Pearson’s 105 wins. It’s too far out there. You have to get closer before you can think realistically about those things. I never dreamed I’d make 700 consecutive starts. It’s just an amazing thing for me to try to swallow right now because it’s been an amazing run of great teams and cars and going from like, 28 races my first year now to 36. So a lot of things happened over the years. So, I’m just enjoying the moment right now of those 700 and not thinking ahead too much.”

Much has changed in NASCAR over the course of Gordon’s 700 starts, which began as Richard Petty competed in the final race of his illustrious career. A driver who started as a somewhat reckless young gun and polarizing poster boy over time developed into an established champion, a spokesman for the sport and an inspiration to those who once watched him from the grandstands — even if they didn’t like him very much at the time.

“I always liked it when he got wrecked. I wasn’t a huge Jeff Gordon fan growing up, although I did show him my mom signed me up for the Jeff Gordon Fan Club in 1994, I think it was. So, I’ve still got my Jeff Gordon Fan Club membership card. He said he would renew it for me no charge if I wanted,” said Denny Hamlin, 32, who as a youngster would sit in the grandstands at his hometown track in Richmond and watch Gordon compete.

“I just remember in the stands every time he got wrecked, everyone was so happy, and I never understood that,” Hamlin added. “… More than likely, they were Dale Earnhardt fans or whatever back then. He’s obviously changed this sport dramatically. Honestly, a lot of the reason we’re getting paid what we are right now is because of Jeff Gordon. I think that he’s kind of brought that whole new hospitality, entertaining the sponsors, bringing new sponsors in, looking for the young guys. He really opened up the door for a lot of us drivers that got here. Like him or not, he’s changed our sport for the better over those 700 starts.”

Five-time series champion Jimmie Johnson, now Gordon’s teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, remembers buying die-casts of the No. 24 car from Toys ‘R Us, and displaying them on his dresser at home. Although the two are only four years apart in age, Johnson has nearly 300 fewer career starts because Gordon’s career in NASCAR’s big league began so early.

“It’s amazing that the number is that big,” said Johnson, 37. “He got such an early start. He is not all that much older than I am, but clearly a lot more starts. I remember watching him all the way back to the ‘Thursday Night Thunder’ days when he was running a midget and being a fan. … When I got the call to drive for him, it was a very surreal moment. To have the friendship and the years go by and working together, being a teammate, I’m happy for him. I am very thankful for the opportunity for starters, but very happy that he has had such an amazing career. It was tough to be a Gordon fan for a period of time there. People were all against him. I was proudly cheering him on, and still (am) today.”

How much longer will Gordon keep going? Gordon has long said he wants his two young children to experience seeing him winning races, and maybe another title. Given that he has a lifetime contract with Hendrick, he doesn’t think about such things like other drivers might. “How many races will I be at at the end of this season?” he asked. “That’s the only thing I’m looking at right now. I just never have been one to look that far ahead.”

But he has been one to pride himself on maintaining a certain level of performance throughout the arc of his career. Gordon has qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup for seven consecutive seasons — although he barely made it last year, squeezing past Kyle Busch by three points — and won as recently as the final race of 2012. He currently ranks 13th in the standings, and wants to go out strong regardless of when his career concludes.

“I remember watching Darrell (Waltrip) and other guys run in the back in their last year or two, and I think every driver at a young age says, ‘I don’t want to end my career like that. I want to go out on top,’” Gordon said. “You either want to be able to walk away from it as a champion, or winning that race, or at least being competitive, if you could choose. But that’s not always the way it happens.”

 

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Patrick has come a long way over the course of the past year

Related: Darlington coverage | Race lineup | Viewer’s guide

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Danica Patrick was prepared for the worst.

She came to Darlington Raceway a year ago for her first genuine Sprint Cup race weekend, her splashy debut in the Daytona 500 months in the rearview mirror, and bracing for what she thought would be the Friday from hell. With good reason, given that at the time she was also running in the Nationwide Series, and her schedule had her jumping between race cars from early morning until late at night.

“I imagined it to be absolutely horrible,” she remembered. “And then once I got through with it … I was like, ‘That wasn’t so bad. I can do this.’”

It could have been the beginning of her NASCAR journey in microcosm, an often-trying experience punctuated by moments of promise. That was certainly the case here a year ago, when she finished 12th in the Nationwide event and was running competitive times in the Southern 500 despite being laps down to the leaders. A season later, much has changed, personally and professionally, but the challenge remains the same — as evidenced by a collision with the Turn 2 wall Friday that forced her to a backup car.

Daytona, where she was introduced to the Sprint Cup Series a year ago and won the pole earlier this season, will always be as closely identified with Patrick as her bright green firesuit. But Darlington is where the grunt work began in earnest, the cornerstone of a brutal indoctrination designed by car owner Tony Stewart, who wanted to put her through the crucible early in the hopes of making everything seem easier later on.

"It’s a challenging track, and when the car doesn’t feel right, challenging tracks get really, really challenging."

— Danica Patrick

Talk about adjustments. Sitting on the couch of her motorhome, Patrick ticks off the challenges of that first trip through the grinder. There was the goal of just being respectable on the race track, of not being in other drivers’ way. And going from the shorter Nationwide events — which from a time perspective more closely mirrored what she had been accustomed to in IndyCar — to a four-hour marathon at Darlington was a wake-up call.

“When you go from a 147-lap race to a 367-lap race, I was like, ‘Huh?’ I think my mind was a little bit distracted by going over 200 laps more than the night before,” she said. “… All of the sudden you come to Cup, and things are like twice as long. It’s a big adjustment, at least in your head. Now, I’m fine. I’ve kind of wrapped my head around it better and feel more comfortable, and have a better feel for things.”

There’s no question, one year later, Patrick is more comfortable in the NASCAR arena — it’s evident in things like her body language, and the ease with which she talks about boyfriend and fellow Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Back in Darlington, she’s clearly more relaxed. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not a little worried,” she said a few hours before earning a Darlington stripe dark enough to park her primary car.

“It’s a challenging track, and when the car doesn’t feel right, challenging tracks get really, really challenging,” she added. “It still very much matters what the car feels like, and that very much dictates your weekend. … You just get to a comfort transition of where you know you’re OK all the time, and it’s just a matter of trying to be great. I’m not there yet.”

At Darlington and elsewhere, the journey continues. Patrick’s first full Sprint Cup season has had its share of taxing moments, and the cumulative effect is a 27th-place standing in points. No question, she has progress still to make in qualifying. She’s trying to maintain speed in her car throughout the course of an event. Like the other members of her Stewart-Haas Racing team, she’s playing catch-up on the development of the new Generation-6 car. And she and crew chief Tony Gibson continue to search for ways to make her more comfortable behind the wheel.

“As a team we need to improve, and Gibson and I just need to figure out what makes me happy when I’m out there, and what makes me comfortable, and unload closer and quicker every weekend so that we can just have better weekends,” she said. “There’s not a lot of time to move mountains around here. What you arrive with is generally what you arrive with. Every now and again, and it happens every other weekend or so, maybe you have one good change to start practice, and you’re like, ‘That’s it!’ … But that doesn’t happen every time, and sometimes you learn things you don’t want to do.”

So much of it is a work in progress. Patrick said she’s still unsure of what her strengths and weaknesses are, still learning. She and Gibson tested for two days earlier this week at Nashville, have more tests coming up at Dover, at Pocono and Virginia International Raceway. The goal is to make the No. 10 a top-20 car, which is where Patrick feels it needs to be.

“I feel like that’s where we were last year, almost,” she said. “And we’re not there right now sometimes because we just have this new car and don’t have a good grasp on the balance that I need. Sometimes it’s been luck. … At least result-wise, there’s lots of times that we should have been better off than we are, but that’s the name of the game. Consistency is the hardest thing, because here are so many things. So many cars, and so many variables.”

That much was on display last week at Talladega, when Patrick’s attempt to build on her restrictor-plate success from Daytona was thwarted by a 12-car crash. But if there’s anything for her to hang her helmet on thus far in her NASCAR education, it may be an interesting by-product of the rigorous introductory schedule Stewart set up for her. Patrick has enjoyed some of her better moments on some of the sport’s more difficult tracks, a pattern repeated in her 12th-place run on her first visit to Martinsville earlier this year.

She was en route to a potential top-20 finish at Bristol before being caught up in a crash, and her clean Nationwide race last year at Darlington raised eyebrows. Asked about her penchant for exceeding expectations when they’re at their lowest, Patrick laughs. Yes, she’s noticed.

“I don’t know why that is. I think that I tend to thrive in high-pressure situations,” said a former open-wheel driver who was often at her best in the Indianapolis 500. “I have no idea what it does to me. I wish I knew. I wish I could recreate it every weekend. But I don’t know if it has to do with more questions, more attention, more tension from me. I don’t know. I’m not really sure. But it does seem to happen.”

Whatever it is, she could have used a little of it Friday, when she hit the wall on sticker tires in practice, and then qualified 40th in her backup car. But those professional headaches seem offset by the giddiness Patrick exudes over her personal life, and a relationship with the always-on-the-go Stenhouse that’s added plenty of new twists to her daily routine. She still works out, still cooks what she wants, still enjoys her wine. But so much else has changed.

“Now I go shooting clays at Kansas, or I go play golf one night. Or we go hang out with parents in the bus lot, or I’m sleeping over in that bus or this bus. There’s much less of a routine,” she said. “But that’s fine for me. I think that it’s all about kind of being happy and having fun, especially with how big the season is and how long it is. It’s fun sometimes when we get away from the track. It really feels like I’m not racing right then. It feels like I’m out doing an activity and I don’t feel like I’m on a race weekend. … I’m not used to doing that, when it really feels like you get away. It’s nice to break up the weekend sometimes like that, because this is such a familiar environment.”

She just needed a push — before Stenhouse, she admitted, she wouldn’t have even thought of getting away from the track and doing things like horsing around on a driving range. Now, she thrives on it. No, Danica Patrick’s performance in the race car isn’t quite where she wants it to be. But as the Month of May begins in that other series she used to drive in, it’s clear she’s never been more comfortable in NASCAR. So much has changed since that first hectic Friday at Darlington Raceway, one long season ago.

“You just kind of adapt and try not to think too much,” she said. “Try not to take things too seriously. Try not to worry so much. Just get on with life.

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NASCAR President Mike Helton: "If there’s a way for us to be more precise… the sport benefits from that"

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Decisions in recent appeals may prompt NASCAR to clarify language in its rule book, in order to provide competitors with a better understanding of regulations.

“I don’t know that we know exactly what the appeal members were thinking,” NASCAR President Mike Helton said Friday at Darlington Raceway. “But from the experience, if there’s a way for us to be more precise in changing wording or adding wording to a rule so that the clarity of what we feel like our responsibility is [can be] translated to the member, and is obvious to anybody on the outside looking at it, I think that’s where we benefit, and I think the sport benefits from that.”

"I think the members that are involved in the sport — the team owners, the suppliers, the manufacturers and everything — understand our responsibility and how seriously we take it."

—NASCAR President Mike Helton

Helton’s comments come after two recent penalties were amended by the sport’s appeals process. On Wednesday, three members of the National Stock Car Racing Appeals Panel overturned some of the harshest penalties levied against Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 team for a connecting rod in Matt Kenseth’s winning Kansas engine that was found to be too light in post-race inspection. Last week, Chief Appellate Officer John Middlebrook slashed suspensions to seven Penske Racing crewmen for rear-end housing violations discovered at Texas.

In the Penske case, the seven team members involved. Paul Wolfe and Todd Gordon — crew chiefs for Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, respectively — had their suspensions cut from six points races to two, although Middlebrook left intact 25-point deductions to the drivers. After losing his initial appeal, Roger Penske said his team was working in undefined areas of the rule book.

NASCAR may now work to provide those areas with more definition. “We do learn from the appeal process as to how we may be able to write or be more clear so that you can show a third party why we reacted the way we reacted. It’s part of our process. The appeal process has been a part of our sport just like the officiating and regulating has been ever since its existence,” Helton said.

“I think there is evidence of NASCAR, particularly in the last decade or so, to try to be more clear with things, and every experience we go through gives us the ability to understand what ‘more clear’ means.”

The Gibbs penalty involved a connecting rod supplied by a vendor, and placed in an engine made by Toyota Racing Development. The appeals board cut a points penalty to Kenseth from 50 to 12 points, reinstated Gibbs’ owners’ license, restored Kenseth’s victory toward Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup qualification, and reduced a suspension to crew chief Jason Ratcliff from six points races to one — Saturday night at Darlington.

Helton said NASCAR would react the same way in the same circumstance. “Across the board, we put a lot of thought into our reaction to start with, and every time something like this occurs, we put a lot of thought into it,” he said. “The circumstances of each element are so different, it’s due that respect. But when we do make a decision, it’s well thought-out, and we’ll stick by our decisions, also understanding the due process has the ability to change it.”

That rigid stance especially applies to engines, an area in which NASCAR has always taken a hard line, and engines are an element officials cannot inspect until after the race weekend is complete.

“I think all of motorsports, from go-karts to the weekly tracks to the grass-roots level to all the national series that exist, engines are understood to be in that holy grail bucket, and we need to make sure we maintain the responsibility around the engine to be shared by the competitors,” Helton said. “Because it’s not realistic for us to take a motor down in advance of an event, like it is with parts and pieces … that are visible to us. The motor is something we cannot take apart until after our event is over with. So the entire industry has historically, and will continue, to share the responsibility in that engine being correct.”

Helton added that he did not think the recent appeals decisions undermine NASCAR’s authority over the garage area.

“I think the members that are involved in the sport — the team owners, the suppliers, the (manufacturers) and everything — understand our responsibility and how seriously we take it,” he said. “I don’t think this in anyway undermines what we do. In most cases, the process doesn’t come back with anything that really changes our mind much. We do our job and the due process exists for the members to have an opportunity for others to listen to it, and the decisions are made that way.”

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Familiar with Ratcliff’s replacement from days at Roush Fenway

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Matt Kenseth was in Canada earlier this week when J.D. Gibbs texted him the results of his race team’s appeal. When the messages from Joe Gibbs Racing’s president kept getting longer and longer, the driver began to realize this was no ordinary decision.

And it wasn’t. The National Stock Car Racing Appeals Panel on Wednesday overturned some of the harshest sanctions stemming from a violation in Kenseth’s race-winning engine from Kansas on April 21. Crew chief Jason Ratcliff will now sit out just one race, rather than six. Owner Joe Gibbs’ license has been reinstated. And Kenseth was returned most of the 50 points he was docked by NASCAR, while his victory from Kansas City will once again count toward qualification for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Kenseth knew it all along — well, kind of.

"I don’t know about vindicated. I still feel bad we were in that spot to start with, to even have a penalty, to even put NASCAR in that position to have to react and do something. That’s really our goal, to never be in that spot."

—Matt Kenseth

“For some reason, I had a pretty good feeling about Wednesday,” he said at Darlington Raceway. “I didn’t know that it would come back to be exactly what it was. I didn’t know if we’d get it (reduced) that much. But more confident than any other appeal I’ve ever heard about that we were going to get a reduction. I think we had a pretty good case. We had some stuff from history, some different things that happened, and I felt like it would probably be reduced. I think everybody was in shock when the penalties were handed out to begin with, so I felt pretty good that they’d be reduced, but I really didn’t know how much.”

By a lot, as it turned out. Kenseth’s 50-point penalty for a connecting rod in his engine that did not meet minimum weight was cut to 12, moving him up to fourth in the Sprint Cup standings. The six-week suspension of Gibbs’ owners’ license was overturned. Ratcliff’s fine of $200,000 was upheld, although he will now sit out only Saturday night’s event at Darlington, rather than be sidelined until Kentucky. A points penalty to manufacturer Toyota was increased from five to seven.

The engine in question was made by Toyota Racing Development, which has said Gibbs had no knowledge of the mistake, and that it did not provide a competitive advantage. To a large degree, the three-member panel concurred, providing a large degree of relief to a driver who blasted the severity of the sanctions in the days after they were first issued.

“I don’t know about vindicated,” Kenseth said. “I still feel bad we were in that spot to start with, to even have a penalty, to even put NASCAR in that position to have to react and do something. That’s really our goal, to never be in that spot. Certainly I think these penalties are way more in line with what I originally thought it would be compared to things that happened in the past and things like that. I thought this was closer to what I thought it would be to start with.”

Filling in for Ratcliff this weekend is Wally Brown, whom Kenseth knows well from their days together at Roush Fenway Racing. Brown was Carl Edwards’ crew chief in 2006, and owns 20 top-10 finishes in 39 starts atop the pit box. Although Ratcliff will be back in Huntersville, N.C., Kenseth knows his regular crew chief will still be involved.

“Jason and I have a really good connection, so him not being there, it will be different,” he said. “But it is a really short schedule, and they’ve worked really hard this week to make sure they had a plan in place. Wally’s worked with him real hard, and obviously Wally knows what he’s doing. I think it will be OK. I know Jason is at the shop, and he’s got the computer hooked up so he can look at our stuff after practice and go through all our changes and comments, and I’m sure I’ll talk to him tonight. I think it will be all right.”

Ratcliff will be back at the track next week for the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Kenseth’s transgression was the second consecutive penalty to be substantially amended in the appeals process, coming on the heels of suspensions to seven Penske Racing employees — including Paul Wolfe and Todd Gordon, crew chiefs to Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, respectively — that were cut from six points races to two by Chief Appellate Officer John Middlebrook.

“I haven’t thought a lot about the message it sends,” said Jimmie Johnson, who had major penalties to his team reduced by Middlebrook last season. “But I guess, thinking about it, it means get in there and fight. It’s worth the chance to fight and try to lessen your penalty.”

Friday at Darlington, Kenseth wasn’t searching for any larger meaning to the recent appeals rulings — he just wanted to get in his No. 20 car and put the episode behind him. But in his mind, the decisions don’t shift the weight of responsibility away from the race teams, which remain accountable for what they bring to the track each week.

“Whatever we put on that race track has to be right. It doesn’t matter where the parts and pieces come from, it doesn’t matter who put them together. It has to be right,” Kenseth said. “And at the end of the day, somebody’s got to be responsible for that car being right. So I totally understand all that. … It’s their job to police the garage, to make sure everyone is on an even playing field, to make sure everybody has the same chance to compete and win. I think they do the best job they can.”

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Busch wins series-high fifth Nationwide race this season

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DARLINGTON, S.C. — Kyle Busch kept it simple Friday night at Darlington Raceway.

The strategy was basic — win the pole, stay out front and win the race with the strongest car, and Busch did an admirable job in every category. He dusted the rest of the field at the venerable track in the South Carolina sandhills, pulling away to win the VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200 by .935 over Elliott Sadler, who recovered from an early spin to finish second.

Brian Vickers came home third, followed by Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth. With cars in first, second, third and fifth, Joe Gibbs Racing became the first organization to place four cars in the top five of a Nationwide Series race.

Rookie Kyle Larson ran sixth, followed by Regan Smith, who extended his series lead by 28 points over eighth-place finisher Sam Hornish Jr.

The victory was Busch’s fifth in eight NNS starts this season. Busch, who led 107 of 147 laps, extended his career win record in the series to 56. Busch scored a perfect Driver Rating of 150.0, his 16th perfect rating since NASCAR started keeping the statistic in 2005.

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Busch won the race on a track that has started to regain the abrasive characteristic of the racing surface that was a hallmark of the Darlington before a repaving project in 2008. Realizing that, Busch insisted on a four-tire stop on lap 121, even though his tires were only eight laps old, and that move helped win the race.

Busch also was able to pull away from his rivals trough Turns 1 and 2, the wider end of the egg-shaped track.

"You want to be good at both ends here, but there’s a lot of speed in 1 and 2, so you’re going to have to take advantage of that as best you can," Busch said. "Three and 4 is an end where — I’m not going to say slower is faster — but maintaining a minimum speed is faster down there.

"But it seems like it’s a little easier to do than not having a good-handling car in 1 and 2. There’s a littler margin of error in Turn 1 and 2."

Sadler found that out the hard way when he spun in that corner while trying to keep up with Busch. Sadler explained that he simply misjudged the corner and got loose.

"I was pushing it, trying to keep up with the 54 (Busch)," Sadler said. "I wanted to get up there and try to lead some laps and just went in there too hard and got loose and had to make a decision whether to spin out or try to correct it, and I overcorrected and spun out.

"Lady Luck helped me from not hitting anything."

About the only thing that could slow Busch’s progress was an issue on pit road. Busch came out sixth after a slow stop on Lap 51 under yellow for Sadler’s spin.

Charging forward after the restart, Busch was on Kenseth’s bumper, challenging for the lead by the time the race reached Lap 74, just past halfway.

For the next eight laps, Busch hounded Kenseth, finally clearing his teammate for the lead on Lap 82. Busch held the top spot until a caution on Lap 119 for Kyle Fowler‘s wreck changed the running order again.

Logano and Austin Dillon stayed out on old tires and led the field to a Lap 125 restart. Sadler restarted third after a two-tire stop, while Busch took the green in fourth on four fresh tires.

Busch made short work of the drivers on older rubber and passed Logano for the lead on Lap 130. Game over.

 

NASCAR Nationwide Series Race – VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200

Darlington Raceway

Darlington, South Carolina

Friday, May 10, 2013

 

                   1. (1) Kyle Busch(i), Toyota, 147, $44965.

                   2. (2) Elliott Sadler, Toyota, 147, $33600.

                   3. (4) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 147, $25400.

                   4. (14) Joey Logano(i), Ford, 147, $17450.

                   5. (3) Matt Kenseth(i), Toyota, 147, $16025.

                   6. (7) Kyle Larson #, Chevrolet, 147, $24675.

                   7. (11) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 147, $20410.

                   8. (9) Sam Hornish Jr., Ford, 147, $19270.

                   9. (6) Kasey Kahne(i), Chevrolet, 147, $12975.

                   10. (5) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 147, $19925.

                   11. (8) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 147, $18525.

                   12. (18) Chris Buescher, Ford, 147, $12450.

                   13. (15) Ty Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 147, $18400.

                   14. (26) Brian Scott, Chevrolet, 147, $18350.

                   15. (12) Parker Kligerman, Toyota, 147, $19475.

                   16. (21) Nelson Piquet Jr. #, Chevrolet, 147, $18175.

                  17. (13) Alex Bowman #, Toyota, 147, $18125.

                   18. (16) Reed Sorenson, Ford, 147, $18075.

                   19. (19) Mike Bliss, Toyota, 146, $18025.

                   20. (27) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 146, $18625.

                  21. (22) Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 146, $17900.

                   22. (24) Blake Koch, Toyota, 146, $17850.

                   23. (20) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 146, $17800.

                   24. (28) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 146, $17750.

                   25. (25) Mike Wallace, Chevrolet, 146, $18155.

                   26. (37) Eric McClure, Toyota, 144, $17625.

                   27. (38) Danny Efland, Chevrolet, 144, $17575.

                   28. (17) Travis Pastrana, Ford, 144, $17500.

                   29. (34) Hal Martin #, Toyota, 143, $17465.

                   30. (30) Dexter Stacey #, Ford, 142, $17725.

                   31. (35) Harrison Rhodes(i), Ford, 141, $17375.

                   32. (10) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 139, $17345.

                   33. (39) Tony Raines, Toyota, 139, $17315.

                   34. (33) Kyle Fowler, Ford, Accident, 108, $17285.

                   35. (40) Kevin Lepage, Toyota, Rear Gear, 27, $11229.

                   36. (36) Bryan Silas(i), Toyota, Accident, 21, $16520.

                   37. (31) Jeff Green, Toyota, Vibration, 16, $10500.

                   38. (23) JJ Yeley(i), Chevrolet, Rear Gear, 7, $10426.

                   39. (32) Chase Miller, Chevrolet, Overheating, 4, $10315.

                   40. (29) Tanner Berryhill, Toyota, Rear Gear, 3, $10290.

 

Average Speed of Race Winner:  130.816 mph.

Time of Race:  1 Hrs, 32 Mins, 06 Secs. Margin of Victory:  0.935 Seconds.

Caution Flags:  4 for 17 laps.

Lead Changes:  10 among 8 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   K. Busch(i) 1-24; L. Cassill(i) 25; J. Clements 26; K. Busch(i) 27-51; H. Martin # 52; T. Raines 53; K. Kahne(i) 54; M. Kenseth(i) 55-81; K. Busch(i) 82-121; J. Logano(i) 122-129; K. Busch(i) 130-147.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  K. Busch(i) 4 times for 107 laps; M. Kenseth(i) 1 time for 27 laps; J. Logano(i) 1 time for 8 laps; L. Cassill(i) 1 time for 1 lap; H. Martin # 1 time for 1 lap; K. Kahne(i) 1 time for 1 lap; J. Clements 1 time for 1 lap; T. Raines 1 time for 1 lap.

Top 10 in Points: R. Smith – 342; S. Hornish Jr. – 314; E. Sadler – 300; J. Allgaier – 299; B. Vickers – 293; A. Dillon – 290; P. Kligerman – 287; B. Scott – 284; A. Bowman # – 258; K. Larson # – 248.

 

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Kurt Busch bests Jimmie Johnson and brother Kyle to take Coors Light Pole

Related: Results, lineup for Bojangles’ Southern 500

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Kurt Busch dusted the field in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying Friday, storming to a blistering track-record lap at Darlington Raceway.

Busch set a fast speed of 181.918 mph around the historic 1.366-mile track, eclipsing Kasey Kahne‘s two-year-old record of 181.254. Fresh from an IndyCar test with Andretti Autosport at Indianapolis Motor Speedway a day earlier, Busch will start Saturday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 from the No. 1 starting spot in the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet.

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Series leader Jimmie Johnson, the defending race winner here, will start second after a 180.874 mph lap in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy. He broke up a potential all-Busch front row after Kyle Busch qualified third at 180.920 mph in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

Kahne, Johnson’s Hendrick teammate, was fourth-fastest and Martin Truex Jr. completed the top five.

Denny Hamlin, planning to compete in his first full race since suffering a back injury March 24 at Fontana, Calif., qualified sixth. Jeff Gordon, a seven-time Darlington winner scheduled to make his 700th Sprint Cup start Saturday night, was eighth fastest.

Rookie Danica Patrick, who was scheduled to take the track first in the qualifying order, went out mid-pack instead after the Stewart-Haas Racing team was delayed in preparing her No. 10 Chevrolet for the qualifying grid. She’ll start 40th in the 43-car field in a back-up car after wrecking her primary car in the day’s opening practice.

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