“As I sit right now, and maybe I’ll change my mind, I don’t know what I would have done differently, or could have done differently”.
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Keselowski finished second with Kevin Harvick third. “I did everything I could to hold him off but he was way faster that last run”. He would lose a lap, but got it back a short time later when Tony Stewart cut a tire and spun, which brought out the caution, giving Earnhardt Jr. the free pass back onto the lead lap.
“We led 300-some laps and these debris yellows always favor someone and it wasn’t our day for them to favor us”, said Keselowski.
As I sifted through the radio chatter, social media ranting, and general white noise over the Logano vs. Kenseth incident, two very large thoughts popped into my head.
Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage had no complaints about the track’s closing race weekend in 2015. The win moves him up two spots in the championship standings and into 12th-place overall. He finished on the lead lap in the Xfinity and Cup races.
On the restart with 18 laps to go, Martin Truex Jr. battled side by side with Keselowski, giving it all he had, but wasn’t able to clear to the lead. Here are the drivers in that group after the New Hampshire race. On the other hand, Johnson’s was hooked up, and for ten laps, the No. 48 was right on the back bumper of the No. 2, looking for any way by. He led laps when Keselowski pitted under green a second time on lap 298, but on lap 300, Keselowski retook the top spot.
The same goes for his Penske teammate, Joey Logano.
“The left rear tire came apart and shredded everything inside the auto”, Logano said while out of the vehicle during repairs in the garage.
Most of the issues on the afternoon stemmed from tire troubles among most of the drivers. Listing to Harvick after the race, it would appear he was unfazed by his problems. Logano’s left rear tire went flat on Lap 10, causing him to spin and damaging his Team Penske Ford.
The two traded lines, speed and laptimes for almost 15 laps, switching up and down the track like an X-Wing and a TIE Fighter dueling in epic space combat.
Four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon, Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, is the only driver to have clinched a Championship 4 spot for the November 22 finale.
The reason it’s necessary to look at all of these finishes and results is because it shows you just how important 1.5-mile tracks are in the Chase since they account for half of NASCAR’s postseason. “We will have to go to Phoenix and run hard and put together a really good run”. This team is strong. “That would mean a lot for our team, because the Furniture Row Racing team certainly deserves a seat at the table”.
“NASCAR suspended Matt Kenseth for two races”, Edwards said.
Kevin Harvick has won the last four Phoenix races.
This year’s Chase has delivered a few wonderful moments, and there is no doubt that next Sunday’s Phoenix race on NBC, will continue the unprecedented excitement surrounding NASCAR’s Chase.
Jeff Gordon, who finished ninth, is the only driver who is safe going into Phoenix after his win last week at Martinsville.
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Leading a track-record number of laps and routinely building sizable gaps between himself and the nearest challenger, it seemed a foregone conclusion Brad Keselowski would win Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.
