NASCAR Nationwide Series heads to Bristol with 43 cars entered

Here’s the entry list for Jeff Foxworthy’s Grit Chips 300, 2 p.m. ET Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway:

Entry Veh. # Driver Veh. Mfr. Sponsor
1 00 Jason White 13 Toyota Headrush
2 01 Mike Wallace 13 Chevrolet TBA
3 2 Brian Scott 13 Chevrolet Shore Lodge
4 3 Austin Dillon 13 Chevrolet AdvoCare
5 4 Danny Efland 13 Chevrolet TBA
6 5 Brad Sweet 13 Chevrolet Great Clips
7 6 Trevor Bayne 13 Ford Ford Ecoboost Mustang
8 7 Regan Smith 13 Chevrolet TaxSlayer.com
9 10 Jeff Green 13 Toyota TriStar Motorsports
10 11 Elliott Sadler 13 Toyota One Main Financial
11 12 Sam Hornish Jr. 13 Ford Alliance Truck Parts
12 14 Eric McClure 13 Toyota Hefty/Reynolds
13 15 Juan Carlos Blum# 13 Ford TBA
14 16 Chris Buescher 13 Ford Ford Ecoboost Mustang
15 19 Mike Bliss 12 Toyota TriStar Motorsports
16 20 Brian Vickers 13 Toyota Dollar General
17 22 Brad Keselowski(i) 13 Ford Discount Tire / SKF
18 23 Robert Richardson Jr. 13 Chevrolet North Texas Pipe
19 24 Blake Koch 13 Toyota Veterans Lodge
20 25 John Wes Townley(i) 13 Toyota Zaxby’s
21 27 Michael McDowell(i) 13 Toyota TBA
22 30 Nelson Piquet Jr.# 13 Chevrolet Worx
23 31 Justin Allgaier 13 Chevrolet Brandt
24 32 Kyle Larson# 13 Chevrolet Cottonelle
25 33 Kevin Harvick(i) 13 Chevrolet Armour
26 40 Josh Wise 12 Chevrolet TBA
27 42 J.J. Yeley(i) 12 Chevrolet Curtis Key Plumbing
28 43 Reed Sorenson 13 Ford Flying J
29 44 Hal Martin# 13 Toyota American Custom Yachts
30 46 Chase Miller 12 Chevrolet Curtis Key Plumbing
31 51 TBA 13 Chevrolet TBA
32 52 Joey Gase 12 Chevrolet TBA
33 54 Kyle Busch(i) 13 Toyota Monster Energy
34 55 Jamie Dick 13 Chevrolet Viva Auto Group
35 60 Travis Pastrana 13 Ford Roush Fenway Racing
36 70 Brad Teague 13 Chevrolet Foretravel
37 74 Mike Harmon 12 Chevrolet MHR
38 77 Parker Kligerman 13 Toyota Bandit Chippers
39 79 Jeffrey Earnhardt# 13 Ford Uponor
40 87 Joe Nemechek 13 Toyota AM/FM Energy Wood & Pellet Stoves
41 92 Dexter Stacey# 13 Ford Maddie’s Place
42 99 Alex Bowman# 13 Toyota TBA
43 51 Jeremy Clements 13 Chevrolet TBD
(i)=ineligible for points, #=rookie

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Last-minute advice: Veterans a safer pick in Sin City

Mother Nature was cranky at the start of the Las Vegas weekend. Rain washed out Friday’s Sprint Cup practice session, qualifications, and delayed Saturday’s on-track activities.

Track time was at a premium and as is often the case when that happens, experience trumps enthusiasm and places an emphasis on well-funded, veteran teams.

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A veteran will most likely win the Kobalt Tools 400, but dark horses can be found among the list of seven drivers doing double duty in Cup and Nationwide. Austin Dillon, Trevor Bayne, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joe Nemechek and Josh Wise got extra track time and in each instance, they will be slightly better values than they would otherwise have been.

• Dillon was one of the fastest drivers in Nationwide practice and he will try to keep James Finch’s streak of top-15s alive. As one of the cheapest drivers in the NASCAR Fantasy Live game, he is an easy choice to stretch a player’s budget. He was not particularly strong in Saturday’s practices, but Vegas hosted a test on Thursday and he was 13th in both of those sessions.

Carl Edwards found something he liked during Thursday’s test. The car he will now drive on Sunday was originally intended to be used in the test only, but when he posted the fourth-fastest lap overall that afternoon, the team decided to race that chassis. Edwards maintained his speed on Saturday and posted the second-fastest lap in Happy Hour.

• If Busch manages to stay out of trouble, he must be considered one of this week’s favorites. He posted the fastest 10-lap averages in both the morning and Happy Hour sessions on Saturday. In interviews, he was confident and determined to win in front of the hometown crowd. A positive attitude means a lot in NASCAR.

• It is difficult to count Jeff Gordon out of any race, but he was not very fast in either practice session on Saturday. In the morning, he posted only the 26th-fastest time. In Happy Hour, he climbed slightly up the grid to 22nd, but his 10-lap average of 181.375 mph placed him in the bottom half of the list of drivers who made long runs.

• Keselowski is in the same ballpark as Gordon. His 10-lap average in Happy Hour was slightly slower than the No. 24 and they posted almost identical fastest laps. Rolling off the grid from the pole, Keselowski will lose place differential points in the NASCAR Fantasy Live game unless he wins, and as the most expensive driver, that is too much of a gamble.

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Many drivers experienced handling issues at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday

LAS VEGAS — Only 14 laps had passed Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Clint Bowyer was already screaming over the radio.

“Let me know if you’ve got a tire down! Quick!” last season’s championship runner-up shouted after making an unscheduled early pit stop for what he thought was a flat tire. As it turned out, all four of Bowyer’s tires from the previous run had been intact. What he was battling was a wickedly loose race car — and he was far from alone.

Matt Kenseth may have won at Las Vegas thanks to a no-tire gamble as bold as any made in a casino this weekend, but to a large degree Sunday’s event on the 1.5-mile layout was dominated by one word — loose — uttered over and over again over team radio. Loose is typically a good thing in Vegas, particularly when it pertains to slot machines that pay out a little more regularly. But not when driving a race car at 200 mph on an aging surface made slick by the desert sun.

“Oh my god, this is just terrible,” Danica Patrick said at one point about the handling of her No. 10 car, and she had plenty of company. “Loose in, loose off, the more I go,” echoed Kyle Busch. “It’s still loose, guys,” Bowyer lamented. Crew chiefs were left to apologize and tighten their race cars whenever they could, but by then the damage was often done.

"Track conditions changed. This place is notorious for that."

Steve Addington, Tony Stewart’s crew chief

“I really didn’t see that coming, to be honest with you,” said Brian Pattie, Bowyer’s crew chief, after his driver finished two laps down in 27th. “I’d swear we had a tire going down, the way it was acting. I haven’t seen it that loose since I’ve been with him.”

It might have been little solace, but Pattie was in good company. Reigning Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski also pitted at one point for what he thought was a flat tire, although he used a late no-tire stop to rebound and claim third. Tony Stewart lost a lap early because his car was so loose, yet earned a late free pass that allowed him to catch up with the leaders and finish 11th. Patrick suffered from a similar condition but couldn’t shake it, and wound up six laps down in 33rd.

“There’s been a lot of nasty ones out there,” crew chief Tony Gibson told her over the radio. “Sorry about this.”

“I was extremely loose the whole time,” Patrick said after the race. “We made it a little bit better in the middle of the race, to the point where it would go for half the run, but by the end of every run I would find myself very, very loose again. Being behind traffic, the aerodynamics change a lot, and it’s a handful. I felt like I was about to spin on the frontstraight. We just have to figure out how to make it better and work our butts off to make sure that we never have this day again.”

At some point, it seemed, almost every driver in the field fought a severe loose condition. Although this week marked the debut of the more brand-identifiable Generation-6 race car on an 1.5-mile intermediate track, and all of Friday’s activity was washed out due to rain, crew chiefs pinned the blame on something much more routine — the weather.

“Track conditions changed,” said Steve Addington, Stewart’s crew chief. “This place is notorious for that. We thought we adjusted for it, but it was a little worse with this car for some reason. It caught a lot of us off guard, and some of them went a little bit more and hit it. We were just really loose at the start and battled back all day to get it tightened up. We tightened it up a ton.”

Sprint Cup teams came to Las Vegas a day early and tested for six hours in the new car Thursday, a session that proved beneficial when opening practice the next day was rained out. Much of the weekend had been uncharacteristically overcast and cool — until race day, which was warm and sunny, and made the track surface as slick as it had been all week.

For teams that had prepared under much different conditions, it was a perfect storm. “I think we all fought tight in the test, so everyone is freeing up, freeing up, freeing up, freeing up, and then the sun comes up and it gets really hot and the track gets free, and it’s the opposite of what you worked on,” said Dave Rogers, Busch’s crew chief. “I think it’s more a function of the track than anything.”

Other factors played a role. Rogers said the Sprint Cup cars had been tight at Las Vegas last year, perhaps leading crew chiefs to build in too small a margin for adjustment. Many Nationwide drivers — Busch included — had reported battling loose conditions in Saturday’s race, which in hindsight might have provided a clue. But teams are also still learning the characteristics of a vehicle that’s taking its first steps on the sport’s fastest unrestricted tracks.

“This was the biggest unknown that we’ve had all year,” Addington said. “People went through practice and it was cooler temperatures, and the track was cooler, and you try to not hurt yourself by leaving the car alone if you were tight. You’ve got to set a plan for it and put an adjustment in it, and we just didn’t go far enough.”

Neither did Bowyer’s team. “Obviously when you practice when it’s nice and cool and you have cloud cover, and you race in the sun, you should adapt,” Pattie said. “And we didn’t. I’m glad to know that somebody else didn’t, either.”

But some did. “I wasn’t shocked at all,” said Steve Letarte, crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished seventh. In his view Sunday was typical Las Vegas, a bumpy and aging surface that forces teams to make choices on setups. The bumps take a toll on the front end, so teams have to free up the car, and by the time the nose comes around the rear is out of whack. It’s a constant battle of give and take, accentuated by changing weather conditions.

“You’ve got an older mile-and-a-half track with older pavement, and the sun came out. I think the track just swung that way,” Letarte said. “I love it. I love races like that, when you lack grip at both ends of the trace rack. That makes for great racing.”

That certainly showed in the statistics — Las Vegas on Sunday featured 31 green-flat passes for the lead and 22 lead changes, the latter the most at the facility since 2007. Kenseth and Kasey Kahne battled one another in a dramatic finish. And cars were able to compete in multiple grooves, which Earnhardt attributes to a track that has worn in since its most recent resurfacing prior to the 2007 season.

“Compared to last week in Phoenix, this is a completely different surface,” he said. “This is exactly what you would want as a race track owner. This is where you want to be, right here where this track is living right now, and the age of this surface. This is exactly what you want to strive for.”


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Kenseth, Busch show power; Kahne couldn’t catch up for win

LAS VEGAS — In the first two races of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, reliability was a huge issue for the engines in the Toyotas of Joe Gibbs Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing.

Figuratively speaking, blown power plants in the Sprint Cup Camrys created more noise than a July 4 fireworks celebration.

Though it might be too early to put those problems in the “solved” category, Toyota Racing Development, which partners with Gibbs to produce the Cup engines, had reason to rejoice Sunday. Matt Kenseth won the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Kyle Busch finished fourth — with the TRD engines lasting the full 400 miles.

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“We’ve had a tough couple of weeks, as everybody knows, and so I really appreciate our partner Toyota,” team owner Joe Gibbs said after the race. “In tough times, everybody kind of bands together around our place, and we start fighting and we worked our way out of some tough things. I felt like today we had three good cars. Two of them were caught speeding on pit road (Busch and Denny Hamlin). I think Denny got caught so late it was hard for him to get back on sync.”

Hamlin finished 15th, but the consolation prize was that his engine was running at full strength at the finish.

Kenseth frustrates Kahne
Kasey Kahne thought he’d be able to get around Kenseth when it counted — and why not?

After all, Kahne led a race-high 114 laps Sunday and earlier in the race had made short work of the strong cars of Busch and Jimmie Johnson when he caught them in traffic.

Kahne had taken right-side tires on Lap 226, while Kenseth opted for track position and took fuel only, beating the other lead-lap cars out of pits. With fresher rubber, Kahne was convinced he’d pass Kenseth eventually, but it didn’t happen, and Kenseth celebrated his 41st birthday with a race win.

“I just felt like I could have got there, the way the car handled throughout the race and how I could turn down in the center of the corner and carry a ton of speed doing it,” Kahne said. “I felt really confident, that when I got to him I’d be able to do that again like I had raced with Kyle and Jimmie earlier in the race.  

“And when I got to Matt, I couldn’t do it, so I was trying to brake in and mess with anything that I could, lift early, lift late, try it all, and just couldn’t find a way past him. He just did a really good job of keeping his momentum up, keeping his speed. He was cutting across me off the corner. He just put up a great battle and pulled it off on old tires.”

Passing fancy
NASCAR’s new Generation-6 Sprint Cup race car racked up some impressive statistics in Sunday’s race.

The official race reports reads 22 lead changes among eight drivers, with the 22 lead changes being the most at Las Vegas since 2007, the year before the Gen-5 car (Car of Tomorrow) was introduced at intermediate race tracks.

Beyond those numbers, NASCAR’s loop data (stats measured at the 10 scoring loops around the 1.5-mile track) showed 2,342 green-flag passes throughout the race, compared with 1,301 last year.

In addition, there were 31 green-flag passes for the lead (including intra-lap passes scored at loops other than the finish line), the most since NASCAR started recording loop data in 2005.

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Hendrick Motorsports driver halts two-race slump, vaults up standings

Related: Kobalt Tools 400 results

LAS VEGAS — Kasey Kahne insisted he was more encouraged than dismayed with his runner-up finish to Matt Kenseth in Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway — even though he led a race-best 114 of the 267 laps.

“I want to win, but I feel good how fast we were,’’ Kahne said. “It’s just disappointing not to win and be that fast. Matt just kinda did what he had to do to beat us.’’

Kahne certainly made Kenseth work for it though, looming large and menacing in Kenseth’s mirrors in the waning laps. And for a Las Vegas Motor Speedway race that had a near record number of green-flag passes, it was the pass that didn’t happen in the end that was as compelling as any that did.

"I want to win, but I feel good how fast we were."

Kasey Kahne

Kahne’s No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet tailed Kenseth’s No. 20 Toyota, forcing the 2003 series champ to answer every peek and dive around lapped traffic. As Kenseth loudly called for his spotter to count down the final 12 laps for him, Kahne would close in or drift back slightly at different points around the track.

Kenseth gave spotter Chris Osborne credit for the final few laps.

“He helped us win that race,” Kenseth said. “He gave me the information that we needed, and it was really important. He understood what was important to me, but it was very important not to let Kasey get on the side of me. If he did, I was done, and he did a really good job of telling me where he was running.”

As for Kahne, “For myself, I’m just kind of paying attention to what Matt’s doing and what I need to do and where I need to place my car in order to try to get a run on him and at least get beside him and see what can happen from there,’’ he explained. “Matt’s spotter is probably trying to talk to a few of the guys that we were lapping saying, ‘Hey, give us some space, whatever.’ I was hoping maybe they’d run Matt’s line and he’d have to go to the bottom and I thought maybe I could get a run that way. 

“I think we eased through six or seven lap cars there and most of them went to the bottom and you could pass them fairly easy. It didn’t slow Matt up at all, which I was hoping someone at some point would slow him up a touch, but it never happened.’’

Kahne’s first top-five finish of the season launched him 17 positions higher in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship standings — the biggest move by anyone this week.

While being ranked 14th still isn’t ideal for the former Rookie of the Year, it’s a better start to his season than his debut with Hendrick Motorsports last year. It took him nine races — three months — to score his first top five of 2012 and relegated him to comeback mode for the rest of the regular season.

After racing his way into the 12-driver NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup field, however, he finished a career-high fourth place in the final standings.

This is the first time in five years that Kahne is enjoying back-to-back seasons with the same team and crew, and it appears the continuity is paying off.

“I’ve never had great cars here, I’ve had some pretty good ones, but today I’ve never driven that hard for 267 laps before, either,’’ Kahne said, allowing a smile.

Matt did everything right. When I caught him, I was like, man, this is not the guy you want to have to race with 10 to go because he’s going to do everything right. You’re going to have to figure out how to squeeze by him. And you know he had a fast car, too, so it was difficult.

“He did a perfect job and we came back second. We just didn’t quite get there.’’

That was a departure from the rest of the day. Kahne led six different times, trading the lead with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson and winning tough side-by-side battles with Las Vegas native Kyle Busch.

He seemed to pass at will, including an impressive rally to second after a pit-stop delay.

Pitting during a caution on Lap 224, Kenseth and third-place finisher Brad Keselowski gambled by not taking fresh tires, which put them out front for the restart. Meanwhile Kahne — who took two tires — got hemmed in his pit stall briefly trying to exit as Tony Stewart was trying to enter his pit.

“I think Tony kind of let up a little bit to let me go,’’ explained Kahne, who restarted sixth.

“(Kahne’s crew chief) Kenny (Francis) thought he was coming so he held me back and we just ended up losing more time than we should have. On a two tires (stop) that happens sometimes. …

“I drove so hard every single lap and I think that’s just the new Gen-6 car, the Chevy SS. It was a lot of fun. I love it. I had the car to beat today.”

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Third win at Las Vegas comes on Kenseth’s 41st birthday

Related: Kobalt Tools 400 results

Matt Kenseth’s car was superb for the third time in three races this season. This time, the No. 20 team saw it pay off in the final standings.

Kenseth piloted his Dollar General Toyota to a win Sunday in the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway — on his 41st birthday, no less — holding off a hard-charging Kasey Kahne in a final 30-lap duel. The key was a late pit stop during caution in which Kenseth took fuel only, allowing him jump into first place coming out of pit road while most of the other leaders took two tires.

It was Kenseth’s third win at Las Vegas and his first since 2004. Kenseth also became the third driver in series history to win on his birthday, joining Cale Yarborough and Kyle Busch.

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“I’m not a goal person, but my goal was to win and win early,” said Kenseth, who visited Victory Lane in his third start with JGR. “Nobody put any pressure on me except for myself, but I also know that Coach (Joe Gibbs) hired me to come here and climb in the car and win races. You certainly want to do that — you don’t want to disappoint people…

“It’s still only week three, but I feel like this is the beginning.”

Rounding out the top five: Kahne, Brad Keselowski, Busch and Carl Edwards.

Jimmie Johnson, who finished sixth, leaves Las Vegas as the series leader, five points ahead of Keselowski and 10 ahead of third-place Earnhardt.

Keselowski had dropped down to 13th place following a pit road mishap, but he and crew chief Paul Wolfe later took four tires when most other cars took two, leaving them in position for a fuel-only stop under caution on Lap 235.

“Yeah, I want to win,” said Keselowski who finished fourth in the first two events of the season, at Daytona and Phoenix. “It’s a different perspective, because I’m not happy with top fives — I want to win. The last three weeks, really the last two weeks — and I’m sure when I get home tonight I’m going to go home and throw around some pillows and punch some things — because we’ve had a shot at winning all three races and come up short, whether it’s circumstances or bad luck or, today, just a little bit of execution."

Kahne, who battled Hendrick Motorsports teammate Johnson for the lead for most of the afternoon, led 114 laps. Johnson led 66 laps and finished sixth.

Busch’s fourth-place finish came on the heels of Saturday’s second-place showing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race.

Among the heavyweights who struggled Sunday were Clint Bowyer and 2012 race winner Tony Stewart. Bowyer attempted to make a pass for the lead on Lap 3, nearly lost control of his car, and lost a few spots while regaining his grip. It didn’t get better, and the No. 15 Toyota, which started second, fell to 17th just 12 laps into the race with a loose car. He pitted under green on Lap 15 and came out 43rd, two laps down, and never recovered, finishing 27th.

Stewart also complained of a loose race car, and he dropped down the field early but decided not to pit out of cycle. He remained around 20th place — and one lap down — for most of the race before getting back onto the lead lap following a caution on Lap 194 and working his way up to 11th place.

Race results:
1. (18) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 267
2. (4) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 267
3. (1) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 267
4. (13) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 267
5. (16) Carl Edwards, Ford, 267
6. (3) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 267
7. (12) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 267
8. (11) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 267
9. (8) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 267
10. (17) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 267
11. (9) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 267
12. (21) Joey Logano, Ford, 267
13. (23) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 267
14. (15) Mark Martin, Toyota, 267
15. (6) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 267
16. (22) Aric Almirola, Ford, 267
17. (5) Greg Biffle, Ford, 267
18. (7) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. #, Ford, 267
19. (25) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 267
20. (24) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 266
21. (27) Austin Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 266
22. (19) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 266
23. (36) Trevor Bayne(i), Ford, 266
24. (33) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, 266
25. (10) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 266
26. (20) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 266
27. (2) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 265
28. (31) David Gilliland, Ford, 265
29. (30) Casey Mears, Ford, 265
30. (26) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 263
31. (29) David Ragan, Ford, 263
32. (38) David Stremme, Toyota, 261
33. (37) Danica Patrick #, Chevrolet, 261
34. (32) David Reutimann, Toyota, 261
35. (43) Josh Wise(i), Ford, 260
36. (35) JJ Yeley, Chevrolet, 259
37. (34) Ken Schrader, Ford, 258
38. (14) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, Engine, 234
39. (28) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, Engine, 217
40. (42) Joe Nemechek(i), Toyota, 216
41. (40) Scott Speed, Ford, Transmission, 143
42. (41) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, Vibration, 66
43. (39) Michael McDowell, Ford, Vibration, 21

Race statistics

Average Speed of Race Winner: 146.287 mph.

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 44 Mins, 16 Secs. Margin of Victory:  0.594 Seconds.

Caution Flags: Five for 25 laps.

Lead Changes: 22 among 8 drivers.

Lap Leaders:B. Keselowski 1-9; K. Kahne 10-43; B. Keselowski 44; Kyle Busch 45; M. Kenseth 46; J. McMurray 47-48; K. Kahne 49-66; B. Keselowski 67; K. Kahne 68-74; J. Johnson 75-117; R. Stenhouse Jr. # 118; J. Johnson 119-137; K. Kahne 138-160; B. Keselowski 161; J. Johnson 162-165; Kyle Busch 166-180; K. Kahne 181-195; Kyle Busch 196; D. Hamlin 197-199; Kyle Busch 200-208; K. Kahne 209-225; Kyle Busch 226; M. Kenseth 227-267.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  K. Kahne 6 times for 114 laps; J. Johnson 3 times for 66 laps; M. Kenseth 2 times for 42 laps; Kyle Busch 5 times for 27 laps; B. Keselowski 4 times for 12 laps; D. Hamlin 1 time for 3 laps; J. McMurray 1 time for 2 laps; R. Stenhouse Jr. # 1 time for 1 lap.

Top 12 in Points: J. Johnson – 129; Brad Keselowski – 124; D. Earnhardt Jr. – 119; D. Hamlin – 102; C. Edwards – 98; M. Martin – 95; M. Kenseth – 93; G. Biffle – 93; C. Bowyer – 89; A. Almirola – 88; R. Stenhouse Jr. # – 87; P. Menard – 82.

 

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