All three drivers stayed out to take wave-arounds during a lap-122 caution to get back on the lead lap and benefitted from another yellow flag a few laps later. But a fast Toyota and sound pit strategy eventually returned the Joe Gibbs Racing driver to the same lap as the leaders.
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This is Hamlin’s second victory of the 2015 season, and his first victory at Chicagoland Speedway.
“I’m a week out now and I feel like it’s probably a little bit better than it was the first time around”, he said. He restarted in the second row. “The pit crew did a phenomenal job again and now we’re looking forward to the next round”.
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) – NASCAR champion Kevin Harvick has crashed in the opening race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.
Hamlin is driving with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, an injury he sustained two weeks ago playing basketball. You know you’re going to have adversity in the Chase. Kenseth was fifth Sunday. The team also celebrated an Xfinity Series win Saturday at Chicagoland with Busch. “My Chevy was fast, fast enough to win”. “I was expecting him just to push us and move on, but it’s disappointing, for sure”. “We were able to get in that clean air and take off”. He led just nine laps at the 1.5-mile oval before capturing the win. “It’s kind of a shame”. The only two non-Chase drivers in the top 10 were Kyle Larson (seventh) and Aric Almirola (10th). The auto still had the NAPA logo on it but the design was like that of his dad, Bill Elliott’s vehicle back in the 1980’s.
“I assume he would try to find it is my fault”, said Johnson, who finished 11th. We lost all the spots that we should have gained. 13th, Gordon 14th, Jamie McMurray 16th, Paul Menard 17th, Clint Bowyer 19th and Kevin Harvick 42nd. “So, the spotter was telling me four-wide and I guess he just figured that he’d come up the racetrack”. “I was trying to make something happen but all in all I guess it was a decent day”. And while Harvick was keeping Busch in sight, Truex was running in third and was more than seven seconds behind Kyle. “All in all it was a good points day”. The two Chevrolet teams are pseudo teammates – Hendrick provides engines for SHR – and Johnson and Harvick have a long relationship dating to their early racing days in California.
The younger Busch brother absolutely dominated the event, leading a race-high 121 laps before being shuffled back in the pack on the last restart. At 80 laps, 16 teams were on the lead lap. Busch drove a rocket in the early going and actually led the most laps of the race, 121.
The only other real controversy on Sunday occurred during a restart on lap 144 when Jeff Gordon appeared to jump in front of then leader Busch.
During a chaotic restart with 130 laps to go, Johnson made contact with Harvick’s vehicle , causing Harvick’s left rear quarterpanel to rub on his tire.
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In the points standings, Kenseth moves to the top with 2052 points putting him two ahead of Hamlin. Five more Chase races – Charlotte, Kansas, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead-Miami – are similar configurations.
