A late pass led to victory for Matt Kenseth.
Kenseth beat Kyle Busch to the finish line at Charlotte Motor Speedway to move up to third in the Chase for the Championship points.
“We finally got a good re-start in,” said Kenseth after scoring his third win of the season. “It was a great night for us.”
Points leader Carl Edwards was third, Kasey Kahne fourth and Marcos Ambrose fifth.
“Overall it was a really good day,” Edwards said. “We dodged some bullets tonight.”
Busch credited Kenseth for his win.
“That 17 found something none of us could find,” said Busch, who led a race-high 111 laps. “He outdrove me. It’s the best run we’ve had here in a while. We’ve got to keep finishing like this.”
Talk about dialed in.
For the longest time, drivers and cars just kept going round and round non-stop in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Bank of America 500.
If it hadn’t been for debris, there wouldn’t have been cautions.
At least for a while.
Polesitter Tony Stewart led the first 43 laps before it was time to pit.
The first yellow flag didn’t wave until lap 78 of the 334-lap event, the fifth race in the 10-race Chase.
That caution resulted in Ryan Newman taking the lead, but only briefly. Greg Biffle soon claimed the top spot.
Biffle pitted during a regularly scheduled stop on lap 125, but had to return to the pits because of a missing lug nut, putting him a lap down.
That enabled Kenseth to take the lead, with Jimmie Johnson second and Stewart third.
Debris struck again on lap 147, and Stewart used a two-tire stop to move back to the front of the pack.
Busch, who started the night in last place because of an engine change, took over second with Newman in third.
More debris caused a caution on lap 156, but it didn’t shake up the leaders.
After the next cycle of pit stops around lap 200, Busch took the lead, with Stewart second and Edwards third.
In the middle of scheduled pit stops on lap 239, Trevor Bayne ran out of gas, causing a caution. Bayne had been a top ten driver most of the night, but the mishap put him three laps down.
Busch maintained his lead, with Kenseth second and Edwards third.
With 47 laps to go, the cycle of pit stops started again, and caution occurred again, the fifth of the night, because of oil on the track from Dave Blaney’s car.
Busch stayed at the front, with Kenseth second and Kasey Kahne third.
On the re-start, the first wreck of the race happened, involving Jeff Gordon, David Ragan and Kahne. Busch stayed in first, ahead of Edwards and Denny Hamlin. Kevin Harvick avoided being collected in the mayhem.
Harvick stayed second in the points, five behind Edwards. Kenseth is seven points behind.
Quickly, it was time for more caution when Biffle went into the wall.
Showing deft skill, Kenseth passed Busch with 25 laps to go. The Ford driver had his turn in clean air and made the most of it.
Once the wrecks started, they kept coming. Five-time champion Johnson went hard into the wall with 17 laps left, ending his night and perhaps his title hopes.
“That one stung for sure,” Johnson said. “Everything (safety measures) worked the way it was supposed to. Definitely not the night we wanted.”
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement