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Another Bad Day for Kenseth and Elliott

While Matt Kenseth had a winning car this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his cards weren’t a winning hand and he ended up in the red.

Rounding Turn 1 with 43 laps to go, the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota got loose and slid up the track. Just as he had it recovered, Chase Elliott’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet slammed into the rear of his car and sent both of them to the garage.

“I really don’t know what happened,” Kenseth told Fox. “I just turned off in there and spun off before I honestly knew what was happening. I don’t know why it spun out. I tried to save it the best I could and just got hit hard from behind and ended up wrecking it.”

A 37th-place finish continues Kenseth’s string of bad luck. In the last three races, he went from leading the Daytona 500 on the final lap to getting passed by teammate Denny Hamlin, falling backwards after getting loose in Turn 4 and finishing 14th. In Atlanta, he had a strong car, but fell afoul of an unusual rule, fell two laps down and finished 19th.

He leaves Vegas 22nd in points.

Photo Credit: Robert Laberge/Getty Images

Elliott, who was running in the top-10 for most of the race, took all the blame for an incident he described as a “terrible job on my behalf.”

“What a fast race car. I appreciate everybody working hard. I feel like we made a lot of gains this weekend. Just a terrible job on my behalf. That is pitiful. We have run three races and finished one. Just a bad job on my end. I ought to know better to miss a wreck like that.”

His 38th-place finish is his second outside the top-10 for the young rookie who replaced Jeff Gordon and had so much hype coming into the 2016 season. After winning the pole for the Daytona 500, his day came to an end early after crashing into the infield grass. He rebounded with an eighth-place finish last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He was running well for most of the day today before getting caught up in the melee with 43 laps to go.

He leaves Vegas 28th in points.

March 6, 2016
Keselowski Breaks the Bank in Las Vegas

Brad Keselowski passed Kyle Busch in the closing laps and denied the reigning series champion a weekend sweep in his hometown.

The driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford got a run on the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota going down the backstretch with five laps to go in the Kobalt 400 and drove on to score the victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He had to overcome being busted for speeding and staying out with less than 50 laps to go to score his 18th career victory in the Sprint Cup Series.

“This rules package — I love it, it’s awesome,” Keselowski said. “You can be really fast at the start of the run or at the end of the run, but we had awesome speed at the end of the run. It finally started to take off with 25 to go. This is such a good feeling to be back in victory lane. It’s been way too long. What a day, I’m beat. I put everything I had into driving this car.”

Teammate Joey Logano led 75 laps on his way to a runner-up finish in his No. 22 Ford.

“We had a good car,” a disappointed Logano said. “We led a lot of laps. Brad was just really good on the long run. I tried to hold him off as long as I could but he showed how fast he was getting by me and Kyle and checking out. Congratulations to Team Penske. It is something to be very proud of for our team. We have a lot of second place finishes already this year. I know we are only three races in but I am getting antsy. We have good speed in our cars, we will be alright.”

Jimmie Johnson led the most laps at 76 on his way to rounding out the podium in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Busch was in the catbird seat in the closing laps of the race but dealt with a right-front tire vibration he described as “coming apart” in the closing laps. He was unable to hold off the Team Penske duo and finished fourth. Austin Dillon also overcame a speeding penalty to round out the top-five in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

Ryan Blaney was the highest finishing rookie in sixth in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford.

“This was really satisfying,” Blaney said after the race. “It was a good day for us. We needed a good finish after last week and it is nice to go out here and we all had fast cars. Congrats to the 2 team, they did a great job coming back from that speeding penalty and made a great call at the end. Good job by them and good job by our team.”

Last year’s race winner Kevin Harvick led only one lap and was never a factor for the win as he finished seventh in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished eighth in his No. 88 HMS Chevrolet. Pole-sitter Kurt Busch was busted for speeding on the first pit stop of the race and was only able to rally back to a ninth-place finish in his No. 41 SHR Chevrolet. Kasey Kahne rounded out the top-10 in his No. 5 HMS Chevrolet.

Matt Kenseth had a strong car for most of the race, but his streak of bad finishes continued today as he crashed out of the race with 43 laps to go. He got loose going into Turn 1, slid up the track and Chase Elliott slammed into the rear of his car.

“I really don’t know what happened,” Kenseth told Fox. “I just turned off in there and spun off before I honestly knew what was happening. I don’t know why it spun out. I tried to save it the best I could and just got hit hard from behind and ended up wrecking it.”

“Just disappointing,” Elliott said. “What a fast race car. Just a terrible job on my behalf. It’s pitiful. Run three races and finished one. Bad job on my end. I know better to miss a wreck like that.”

Twenty-three cars finished on the lead lap. There were 20 lead changes among 10 different drivers and six cautions for 36 laps. The race lasted two hours, 53 minutes and 55 seconds at an average speed of 138.170 mph.

Kyle Busch retains the points lead leaving Las Vegas with Johnson trailing by six. Harvick (-7), Logano (-12) and Kurt Busch (-14) round out the top five in the standings.

March 6, 2016
Matt Kenseth Tops Final Practice at Las Vegas

Matt Kenseth topped the chart in final Sprint Cup Series practice. The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 28.502 and a speed of 189.460 mph.

Carl Edwards was second in his No. 19 JGR Toyota with a time of 28.594 and a speed of 188.851 mph. Kurt Busch was third in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet with a time of 28.616 and a speed of 188.706 mph. Paul Menard was fourth in his No. 27 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 28.620 and a speed of 188.679 mph. Ryan Newman rounded out the top-five in his No. 31 RCR Chevrolet with a time of 28.640 and a speed of 188.547 mph.

Jimmie Johnson was sixth in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was seventh in his No. 88 HMS Chevrolet. Casey Mears was eighth in his No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet. Denny Hamlin was ninth in his No. 11 JGR Toyota. Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top-10 in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota.

Austin Dillon, who was 11th in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet, posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 186.424 mph.

The next time the cars will be on track will be tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. for the Kobalt 400.

Related: Carl Edwards Leads The Field In Second Practice At Las Vegas

NSCS Final Practice Results:

March 5, 2016
Carl Edwards Leads the Field in Second Practice at Las Vegas

Carl Edwards topped the chart in the second Sprint Cup Series practice session in a backup car. The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest with a time of 28.189 and a speed of 191.564 mph.

Austin Dillon was second in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 28.288 and a speed of 190.894 mph followed by Casey Mears in third in his No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet with a time of 28.317 and a speed of 190.698 mph. Kasey Kahne was fourth in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 28.368 and a speed of 190.355 mph and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-five in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford with a time of 28.377 and a speed of 190.295 mph.

Trevor Bayne was sixth in his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford, Ryan Newman was seventh in his No. 31 RCR Chevrolet and Chase Elliott was eighth in his No. 24 HMS Chevrolet. AJ Allmendinger was ninth in his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet and Kurt Busch rounded out the top-10 in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.

Jimmie Johnson, who was 13th in his No. 48 HMS Chevrolet, posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 188.636 mph. Dillon was second at a speed of 188.539 mph while Mears was third at a speed of 188.237 mph.

The Sprint Cup Series cars will be back on track this afternoon for final practice at 2:30.

NSCS Practice 2 Complete Results:

March 5, 2016
Kurt Busch on the Pole for Second Straight Race

Kurt Busch will lead the field to the green flag on Sunday for the second week in a row.

The driver of the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet scored the pole for this Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after posting a time of 27.505 and a speed of 196.328 mph. This is his 27th career pole in the Sprint Cup Series and second at the track. The Las Vegas native also set a new track record with a time of 27.498 and a speed of 196.378 mph in the first round of qualifying.

“It was insanely fast,” Busch said. “It’s amazing all the detail that goes into qualifying with finding that perfect lap three times out there.”

Joey Logano will start second in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford after posting a time of 27.572 and a speed of 195.851 mph while Matt Kenseth will start third in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota after posting a time of 27.582 and a speed of 195.780 mph. Brad Keselowski will start fourth in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford after posting a time of 27.598 and a speed of 195.666 mph and Austin Dillon rounds out the top-five in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 27.604 and a speed of 195.624 mph.

Kevin Harvick will start sixth in his No. 4 SHR Chevrolet, Aric Almirola will start seventh in his No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford and Kasey Kahne will start eighth in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Denny Hamlin will start ninth in his No. 11 JGR Toyota while Martin Truex Jr. will round out the top-10 in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota.

Jimmie Johnson will start 11th in his No. 48 HMS Chevrolet. AJ Allmendinger will round out the 12 drivers that made the final round of qualifying in his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet.

Carl Edwards made contact with the wall rounding Turn 2 that tore up the right-rear corner panel of his car. This forced him to switch to his backup car. As a result, he’ll start from the rear of the field on Sunday.

Jamie McMurray also made contact with the wall in his Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet exiting Turn 4 and will switch to a backup car.

Complete starting lineup:

March 4, 2016
NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Atlanta

Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

1. Kyle Busch: One day after winning the XFINITY Series race, Busch finished third in the Folds Of Honor 500. He now stands third in the points standings, eight behind Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin.

“I originally won the pole,” Busch said, “but my car failed inspection. That gave the pole to my brother Kurt. You could say Kurt backed into the pole. That ‘pole’ at Atlanta caused no damage to Kurt’s car, unlike that ‘wall’ at Dover last October, which damaged Kevin Harvick’s car not only beyond recognition but beyond inspection.”

2. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson short-pitted with about 40 laps to go in Atlanta, and held off the charging Kevin Harvick down the stretch to capture the Folds Of Honor 500. With the win, Johnson matched Dale Earnhardt with his 76th career win.

“That’s why I held three fingers out of the window,” Johnson said. “Not because I was three times as pissed off as Martin Truex Jr. was at Regan Smith, but because I wanted to honor Dale Earnhardt. Just call me the ‘InJimidator.’

“I have to give it up to Chad Knaus for making a bold strategy call. Chad firmly believes in staying one step ahead of the competition, and two steps ahead of the rule book.”

3. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex led 34 laps and finished seventh in Atlanta, and is now fourth in the Sprint Cup points standings.

“You may have seen me give Regan Smith the finger,” Truex said. “You may not know this, but the Sunday before ‘Leap Day’ is ‘Flip Day.’”

4. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin fell a lap down early at Atlanta and never recovered, finishing 16th, two laps down.

“I call it the ‘Daytona Hangover,’” Hamlin said. “The thrill of victory at Daytona is often determined by less than a tenth of a second. The agony of defeat is often marked by more than a fifth of liquor.”

5. Kevin Harvick: Harvick led a race-high 131 laps but was outsmarted in the pits by Jimmie Johnson, who short-pitted to build a big lead, then held on after a late caution.

“That race was mine to lose,” Harvick said. “But I’ll let my crew chief, Rodney Childers, take ownership of it, though, because he was outsmarted by Chad Knaus. It was a contest to see who was going to pit first. You could say it was a game of ‘cat and Knaus.’”

6. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth finished 19th at Atlanta after a mid-race penalty left him two laps down.

“That’s called an ‘improper fueling’ penalty,” Kenseth said. “Apparently, my gas man placed a wrench on the back of the car. That’s a no-no. But not as big a no-no as me placing my front bumper on the back of Joey Logano’s car.”

7. Carl Edwards: Edwards finished fifth in the Folds Of Honor 500 to score his second top-five result of the year.

“There were 327 laps of green flag racing,” Edwards said. “We haven’t seen this much green flag racing since 2015. Or, should I say, ‘We didn’t see this much green flag racing in 2015.’”

8. Kurt Busch: Busch started on the pole and took fourth at Atlanta, one spot behind younger brother Kyle. Kurt is seventh in the points standings, nine out of first.

“Did you hear?” Busch said. “Brian France endorsed Donald Trump for President. That’s interesting because, in July, NASCAR said it would not hold its Camping World and XFINITY banquets at Trump’s National Doral Resort after Trump made racist and disparaging remarks about immigrants. Apparently, France puts the ‘race’ in ‘racism.’ I can see Trump spin this to even greater advantage: he’ll say he was endorsed by France, and his supporters will believe it’s the country. Viva Le Trump!”

9. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski finished ninth at Atlanta, plagued by handling issues that likely prevented a top-5 result.

“In light of Brian France’s endorsement of Donald trump,” Keselowski said, “this is certainly not the first time someone has looked at France and said, ‘What is he doing?’

“But enough about a pudgy-faced clown who is clueless as to how to run a race, France needs to mind his own business. He can’t even handle the politics of his own sport, much less those of a nation.”

10. Austin Dillon: Dillon started eighth and finished 11th in the Folds Of Honor 500. He is ninth in the Sprint Cup points standings, 15 out of first.

“My younger brother Ty subbed for Tony Stewart in the No. 14 car,” Dillon said. “Tony is out for a few weeks, mostly to rehab a back injury, but also to work on his new cookbook, ’50 Shades Of Gravy.’

“While Tony is out, Stewart-Haas Racing wants someone in that car. They certainly don’t want that ride empty. Ty is more than happy to occupy that spot. So, with or without Tony, you know there will be an ass in the seat.”

March 1, 2016
Atlanta in the Rear-View

It’s time to put a nice little bow on everything that happened this past weekend in Atlanta.

Under clear blue Georgia skies, Jimmie Johnson gambled on his fuel to put himself in position to win the race. On the final restart, he got the best restart and scored the victory in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It tied him with the late Dale Earnhardt for seventh on NASCAR’s all-time wins list.

“It’s such an honor,” Johnson said. “With the chaos at the end and the crash, wondering about overtime and how it worked these days, I kind of lost sight of that. I remembered on my victory lap coming down and I had to come by and throw a 3 out the window to pay respects to the man. There’s a huge void in my career that I never had a chance to race with him, but at least, I was able to tie his record there.”

The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet is now hands down a legend of NASCAR beyond a shadow of a reasonable doubt. He’s a six-time series champion – five of which came in a row – and has amassed 76 wins. In 509 starts, he’s also accumulated 208 top-fives (40.86 percent) and 315 top-10’s (61.89 percent).

To suggest that he doesn’t deserve a spot in the NASCAR Hall of Fame is ludicrous.

Photo Credit: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

A dominant car wasn’t enough for the third straight year at Atlanta for Kevin Harvick. The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet led 131 of the 330 laps but had a bad pit stop with 40 laps to go and could only get within six seconds of Johnson before his tires were exhausted.

“We had issues about the last three runs,” Harvick said. “I had to start driving the car different. It just required a little bit different handling. And then we had a slow pit stop there. We got way behind and the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) was way out front and I had to drive the car really hard and got the right rear burned up. We just didn’t execute today but everybody on our Jimmy John’s/Busch Chevrolet hung in there all day and we’ll keep at it.”

He stumbled on the final restart, had to settle for a sixth-place finish and left Hampton, Georgia third in points. The West Coast Swing plays into Harvick’s wheelhouse as he won two of the three races and led the most laps in all three events.

Photo Credit: Noel Lanier

Kyle Busch scored his 77th victory in the XFINITY Series on Saturday afternoon.

I’ve always been on the fence on whether Cup drivers should be allowed in the lower divisions. While someone like Busch or Brad Keselowski occasionally win in the Truck Series, the drivers running for points in that series have now gotten to the point where they are winning the races more than the Cup drivers.

That’s not the case in the XFINITY Series.

I bring this up because of the new Chase format in the series where a win gets you in. Given this, I don’t understand why drivers like Busch continue racing in the lower divisions and take wins from drivers racing for points in the series.

While I would rather see somebody get something on merit rather than superficial circumstances, I think we’ve gotten long past the point when NASCAR should seriously consider limiting drivers to a few races a season in a series they’re not racing for points.

Photo Credit: Noel Lanier

John Hunter Nemechek survived late race melee to score his second career victory in the Camping World Truck Series.

The driver of the No. 8 NEMCO Motorsports Chevrolet inherited the lead after Christopher Bell suffered a right-front tire blowout and slammed the wall in Turn 4.

Fifteen laps earlier, Bell got into the corner of teammate Daniel Suárez, who then got into the corner of Matt Crafton and sent both of them into the wall.

Now let’s address the elephant in the room. This race saw the first official usage of the caution clock. I was in the media center for the Truck race and the caution for the clock expiring wasn’t very popular with a lot of the media people, especially Matt Weaver. Anybody who knows him knows that he’s not a fan of the caution clock and neither am I. I won’t tell you what Weaver said about it, but it would’ve been the reaction of the race had it not been for this tweet from Pete Pistone.

I just saw the earth split, fire come from the sky and locusts invade our neighborhood #cautionclock

— Pete Pistone (@PPistone) February 27, 2016

Needless to say, I died laughing from this.

I’ll end this by calling out the Atlanta sports fans that couldn’t be bothered to get their hindquarters to the track yesterday.

For an entire year, I heard the people in the Atlanta area bitch and moan about it being too cold. Yesterday, it was clear blue skies and T-shirt temps and that still didn’t pack the stands. In other words, you all lied about wanting better temps.

It’s no wonder Atlanta sports fans are a laughing stock in the sports world. I’m not joking when I say this isn’t limited to NASCAR. From 1991 to 2005, the Atlanta Braves won 14 straight division titles and rarely sold out playoff games. In the late 2000’s, the Atlanta Falcons were one of the best teams in the NFL and rarely sell out the Georgia Dome. In the 2014-2015 season, the Atlanta Hawks had the best record in the NBA, but the Philips Arena ranked 20th in attendance in a 30 team league. Atlanta also has the dubious distinction of being the first and only city in the modern era of the National Hockey League to have had two NHL teams relocate to another city (the Atlanta Flames (now the Calgary Flames) and the Atlanta Thrashers (now the Winnipeg Jets)). Both teams cited lackluster attendance as their reason for relocating.

Yet when it comes to college football, you can barely find a soul in downtown Atlanta because they’re either at a Georgia Bulldogs or Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets game.

I would think that a city that’s lost one NASCAR race already would stop making excuses and go to their one remaining race before it’s too late. I even told Dave Moody this and this was his response.

@Nascarking3 Then again, if they were concerned with that, they'd still have the race and the NHL teams!

— . (@Karrion_WWE) February 29, 2016

Before you say Atlanta is a big market where there’s always something going on, Eddie Gossage has never had trouble getting the people of the Dallas/Fort Worth area to all but pack the stands at Texas Motor Speedway.

Let me be clear on a few things. I love the city of Atlanta, I love the Atlanta Braves and I love Atlanta Motor Speedway. What’s not to love about it? It’s a fantastic track that’s put on great, historic races over the years. We crowned our champion at Atlanta for 14 years. Ed Clark and his staff do fantastic work making the track a go-to facility. So I don’t say all this to be mean. I say all this because I’m truly afraid that unless the Atlanta populace bucks up and starts packing the stands to the point that Bruton Smith puts the Turn 3 stands back up, Atlanta’s days are numbered.

Now Atlanta Motor Speedway is in no danger of going away for the next five years. But once that sanctioning agreement is up, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bruton Smith decides he’s not going to continue putting up with the lackluster attendance from the Atlanta market and move its one race to another track. When that day comes and if you weren’t among the 50,000 people who did show up, you have no right to complain about losing it.

That about sums up the events of the weekend. The next race for the Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series is in Viva Las Vegas. The Camping World Truck Series is off for the next five weeks and will return at Martinsville Speedway in April.

The opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the author and may or may not represent the views of Speedway Media.

February 29, 2016
Harvick Comes up Short Again at Atlanta

HAMPTON, Ga.– A dominant car and dominant performance by Kevin Harvick wasn’t enough to secure the victory in Atlanta.

Despite leading 131 of the 330 laps in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet stumbled on the final restart of the race with two laps to go and finished sixth.

“We had issues about the last three runs,” he said. “I had to start driving the car different. It just required a little bit different handling. And then we had a slow pit stop there. We got way behind and the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) was way out front and I had to drive the car really hard and got the right rear burned up. We just didn’t execute today but everybody on our Jimmy John’s/Busch Chevrolet hung in there all day and we’ll keep at it.”

In four of the last five years at Atlanta, Harvick has led over 100 laps. In each of those races, he’s finished fifth, 19th, second and sixth. In the last three trips, he’s led 195, 116 and 131 laps.

Despite coming up short, Harvick leaves Hampton, Georgia third in points trailing Kyle Busch by four. He’s also heading to Las Vegas as the defending race winner.

February 28, 2016
Kenseth Black Flagged at Atlanta

HAMPTON, Ga.– Matt Kenseth fell afoul of an unusual rule in today’s race at Atlanta.

Despite leading 47 laps and having a strong car, the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was black-flagged by NASCAR for “improper fueling.” During his stop, the gas man engaged the fuel can with the fuel intake of the car and left a tool on the back of the car.

According to the NASCAR rule book, “The Fueler must be in control of the fuel can at all times when fuel is being added to the vehicle. The Fueler will not be permitted to perform any adjustments or other pit stop procedures while the fuel can coupler is engaged with the vehicle-mounted adaptor.” In other words, the gas can man can’t do anything other than hold the can while the car is being refueled.

As crew chief Jason Ratcliff protested the penalty, he failed to relay that his driver had been black-flagged. After failing to serve his pass-through penalty within three laps of being black-flagged, he was shown the black flag with white crosses. This meant he would no longer be scored until he served his penalty. After ignoring it one lap, he finally served the penalty and went from fourth in the running order to 32nd two laps down.

“I didn’t know we had any kind of problem. Nobody told me,” Kenseth said over his in-car radio. “Pretty much just threw our race away unless we get everything to fall in our lap.” Ratcliff said he couldn’t “see the black-and-white flag when I’m out of the pit box arguing the case.”

Kenseth would wind up finishing 19th two laps down.

February 28, 2016
Johnson Ties ‘The Intimidator’ with 76 Career Wins

HAMPTON, Ga.– Jimmie Johnson put himself amongst the hallowed legends of NASCAR after scoring the victory at Atlanta. The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet led 52 of the 330 laps on his way to scoring his 76th career win in the Sprint Cup Series. This victory moved him up to seventh in the all-time NASCAR wins list in a tie with the late Dale Earnhardt.

“It’s such an honor,” Johnson said. “With the chaos at the end and the crash, wondering about overtime and how it worked these days, I kind of lost sight of that. I remembered on my victory lap coming down and I had to come by and throw a 3 out the window to pay respects to the man. There’s a huge void in my career that I never had a chance to race with him, but at least, I was able to tie his record there.”

Meanwhile, teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished runner-up in his No. 88 HMS Chevrolet.

“I loved it. We were sliding around and driving the hell out of the car. I had a blast. I had some good races there on the track with the No. 2 (Brad Keselowski) and the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) and a bunch of guys. Man, it was so much fun,” Earnhardt said.

After starting 39th, Kyle Busch led two laps and finished third in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Brother Kurt led 62 laps on his way to a fourth-place finish in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Carl Edwards led one lap and rounded out the top-five in his No. 19 JGR Toyota.

Despite leading the most laps at 131, Kevin Harvick stumbled on the final restart and finished sixth in his No. 4 SHR Chevrolet.

“We had issues about the last three runs. I had to start driving the car different. It just required a little bit different handling. And then we had a slow pit stop there. We got way behind and the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) was way out front and I had to drive the car really hard and got the right rear burned up,” Harvick said.

Martin Truex Jr. led 34 laps on his way to finishing seventh in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota.

Chase Elliott was the highest finishing rookie in eighth in his No. 24 HMS Chevrolet.

“I am really proud of the effort today. Really really solid NAPA Chevrolet. Just happy to be a part of this team. Everybody fought awfully hard. We are excited about today. I think it is something to build off of. It’s not perfect, it’s a start,” Elliott said.

Brad Keselowski finished ninth in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top-10 in his No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.

Matt Kenseth had a strong car early in the race leading 47 laps, but he was black-flagged for improper fueling. While the fuel person had the can engaged with the fuel intake, he put a tool on the back of the car. According to the NASCAR rule book, if the can is engaged with the car, the fuel person cannot do anything else but fuel the car. While crew chief Jason Ratcliff was arguing the call, the black flag message was not relayed to the driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota. Three laps after being black flagged, he was given the black flag with a white cross meaning he wouldn’t be scored until he served the penalty. After staying out a lap, he eventually served the penalty and went from fourth to 32nd two laps down.

After two races, Kyle Busch leads the point standings by three points over Truex while Harvick is third, four points behind the leader.

The race lasted three hours, 15 minutes and 38 seconds at an average speed of 155.863 mph. There were 28 lead changes among eight different drivers. The race went the first 209 laps caution-free before a piece of debris on the backstretch brought out the first caution. There were three cautions for a total of 13 laps.

Complete Finishing Order:

1. (19) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 330.
2. (16) Dale Earnhardt Jr, Chevrolet, 330.
3. (39) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 330.
4. (1) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 330.
5. (7) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 330.
6. (6) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 330.
7. (9) Martin Truex Jr, Toyota, 330.
8. (24) Chase Elliott #, Chevrolet, 330.
9. (17) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 330.
10. (5) Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Ford, 330.
11. (8) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 330.
12. (26) Joey Logano, Ford, 330.
13. (14) Greg Biffle, Ford, 329.
14. (15) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 329.
15. (27) Aric Almirola, Ford, 328.
16. (12) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 328.
17. (18) Ty Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 328.
18. (21) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 328.
19. (13) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 328.
20. (25) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 328.
21. (2) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 328.
22. (3) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 328.
23. (11) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 328.
24. (4) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 328.
25. (23) * Ryan Blaney #, Ford, 328.
26. (20) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 327.
27. (22) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 326.
28. (31) Chris Buescher #, Ford, 326.
29. (35) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 326.
30. (34) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 325.
31. (10) Brian Scott #, Ford, 324.
32. (33) David Ragan, Toyota, 323.
33. (32) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 323.
34. (30) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 323.
35. (28) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 322.
36. (29) Landon Cassill, Ford, 321.
37. (36) * Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 318.
38. (38) Jeffrey Earnhardt #, Ford, 313.
39. (37) * Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 312.

February 28, 2016