WINNER: Brad Keselowski passed Kyle Busch with six laps to go to win the Kobalt 400, his second win here in three years. He also won in 2014. Busch was hoping to make it a weekend sweep by going to victory lane at his hometown track on consecutive days after winning Saturday's Xfinity Series race. Busch had a breathtaking move on a late restart in which he went from sixth place to first in just two-thirds of a lap, but he could not hold off the faster Keselowski in the closing laps.
"This rules package - I love it, it's awesome," Keselowski said of the new lower downforce package that debuted last week at Atlanta Motor Speedway. "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.”
It was his first win since March 22, 2015, at Auto Club Speedway.
Keselowski had trouble holding onto the American flag and checkered flag after the race, getting out of his car to pick the American flag up off the track surface. Winds were gusting up to 40 mph in the closing laps in a race that also saw a delay for rain at the start and for a sand storm.
Team Penske teammate Joey Logano was second and Jimmie Johnson - trying to get his 77th win, which would bump him past Dale Earnhardt Sr. on the all-time wins list - was third. Busch faded to fourth.
"I had a vibration when we put the rights on, and it just kept getting worse and worse," Busch said. "There at the end, I didn't know if a tire was coming off or what. And there at the end, I was trying to give it everything I had, but it would just not turn. It just go so tight, it was the tightest we were all day.”
CHASE PICTURE: Keselowski's victory means Team Penske has a driver in the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff. He joins Jimmie Johnson, who won last week at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and Denny Hamlin, who won the Daytona 500.
BIG THREE: Keselowski's win put a Ford in victory lane in week three. Toyota (Hamlin) and Chevrolet (Johnson) already had notched wins this season.
WILD AND WINDY: The race was delayed by 24 minutes due to some rain that blew through the area. But rain wasn’t the big weather factor of the day; instead, it was strong, gale-force wind gusts. The winds of up to 40 mph knocked down pit signs, sent trash flying all over the track and caused static on the team radio communications.
AND SANDY: At one point, a restart was even delayed by a passing sandstorm with 65 laps to go. Spotters had a hard time seeing the cars on the backstretch, a surreal scene that was certainly a rarity for a NASCAR race.
TOO FAST: Kurt Busch led each of the first 30 laps, but was caught speeding on pit road during a competition caution and was sent to the rear of the field. Busch suggested NASCAR should “grow up” and go to a button that would automatically limit cars’ speed on pit road, which he said would be a safer solution.
TOO FAST, THE SEQUEL: Busch was the first of several drivers to be penalized for speeding on pit road during the race. Brad Keselowski, Austin Dillon, Greg Biffle, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kyle Larson and AJ Allmendinger were all caught speeding at various points in the race - with Biffle, Stenhouse and Larson flagged on the same pit stop in the same segment.
ALMOST SAVED IT: With 43 laps to go, Matt Kenseth got loose and started to spin heading into Turn 1. Kenseth drifted and nearly saved it, but Chase Elliott couldn’t avoid the No. 20 car and plowed into the back of him. Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch also were involved in the wreck. “Bad job on my end,” Elliott said. “I should know better than to miss a wreck like that.”
OUT OF SHAPE: There weren’t many other accidents during the race. One small incident occurred when AJ Allmendinger got into the back of Kyle Larson, which sent him up the track and into the wall. Larson mostly saved the car, but it caused a caution with 70 laps to go.
NOT AGAIN: Larson got worse damage with 53 laps remaining when Regan Smith spun in front of him. Larson apparently was trying to avoid the incident when he spun himself into the inside wall and impacted the right rear again.
0 comments:
Post a Comment