Rain initially delayed the start nearly seven hours and turned a day race into a showcase under the lights, and Earnhardt inherited the lead when Kevin Harvick made a routine pit stop. & comeback kid Kyle Busch will join four-time champion Jeff Gordon – in his remaining profession Cup race – to determine the 2015 Sprint Cup Collection title next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
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Gordon was already in the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway after winning at Martinsville two weeks ago.
In this topsy-turvy second season of NASCAR’s new championship format, it was only fitting that the race to set the final four ended in an empty, unsatisfying way. But the three drivers he will face – the highest finisher of the four will win the title – all have their own reasons to be optimistic. Ever since then and right after they were given to us, we were trying to figure out how to get them to North Carolina, where to put them, who is going to take care of them, how often we were going to visit with them.
With all the hardships Martin Truex Jr. has been through in the last couple years, he was due for a good break.
The race was stopped when heavy rain arrived again on Lap 219 of a scheduled 312 laps.
A pit crew member for Clint Bowyer uses a leaf blower to dry the team’s pit stall before the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at Phoenix worldwide Raceway, Sunday, November 15, 2015, in Avondale, Ariz.
It’s a shame, really, because rain was the factor in the race at Phoenix, which led to the race being called early and the look of disappointment coming across the face of several drivers. “I think it’s definitely been a Chase that’s been a little bit up and down for us, but the guys have battled through, and we’ve survived a lot of situations to be in contention for next week”.
The long rain delay included numerous stops and starts around pit road, with drivers going on to their cars a couple times, only to be forced back into the garage area. Joey Logano needed to win in order to race for a title next week but could only come up with a third place finish. Ingrid [Gordon’s wife] and the kids got there the next day and we immediately went out to the stables where they were at and visited with them. Though he has never won at the Florida track, he has finished in the Top 10 in seven of 10 races there, including a second- and a third-place finish.
“I guess I’m just pleased that I didn’t have any bad luck”, Kyle Busch said.
NASCAR officials deemed that Busch jumped the start of the race, beating pole-sitter Jimmie Johnson to the line after the drop of the green flag.
Logano has won three of the nine Chase races to date.
Kenseth doomed Logano by wrecking him at Martinsville, and thus Kenseth was suspended for the two races that followed that short-track debacle, redeemed only by Gordon’s 93rd career victory.
There’s little NASCAR can do about Mother Nature, but how Sunday’s race ended was just the latest in a series of controversial moments during the Chase playoffs. Carl Edwards was only six points behind Truex in the standings for a spot in the final four.
“Today, we were on the wrong side of it, but in the big picture, we’re racing for a championship next week, so I’m just really proud of everybody on our team”.
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He worked his way back toward the front, reaching the top 10 near the race’s midpoint.
