Keselowksi finished third in the AutoLotto 200 Xfinity Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Saturday afternoon. Earnhardt will sit out because he suffers from symptoms of a concussion. In unusually hot conditions, Carl Edwards paced the session at 131.456 miles per hour, followed by teammates Denny Hamlin (131.284 mph) and Matt Kenseth (131.193 mph). With a masterful restart, Stewart gained two positions, then passed Logano at the line on Lap 298 for second.
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Kenseth won’t lose his race victory. Where have NASCAR fans seen that before?
The tight time frame at New Hampshire, on the other hand, makes notes collected in July all the more important.
Kenseth no doubt earned it in front of a disappointing half-filled grandstands in a race with no sponsor. I didn’t do a very good job of qualifying (18th) and after round one today it was pretty much money.
Yes it did, and Kenseth didn’t do anything dramatic to get there. “It felt to me like my first win at this track because we won it the right way”. I think you just become smarter. Busch rebounded from his injuries to win his first career Sprint Cup championship.
Lap Leaders: J. Johnson 1; Kyle Busch 2-36; M. Truex Jr 37; Kyle Busch 38-88; M. Truex Jr 89-171; Kyle Busch 172-182; M. Truex Jr 183; B. Keselowski 184; Kyle Busch 185-220; M. Truex Jr 221-257; M. Kenseth 258-264; M. Truex Jr 265; D. Hamlin 266-270; M. Kenseth 271-301.
Filling in for the injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. Truex ultimately finished 16th after breaking his shifter. Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. had combined to lead all but two laps of the race to that point.
“That was awesome. That was just something really, really special that actually gave me some confidence going to Indy”, Busch said. “The. cars are always fast, but we always do something wrong”.
He added, “It’s really going to have to come from the top”. “We just had to get there”.
This specific violation generally carries a limited fine and deduction of 15 driver points, although there is still a possibility Kenseth will be stripped of the victory, thereby giving Stewart the win (assuming his auto is cleared by the R&D Center). It seemed like it took a couple laps after the restarts for the track to rubber back in, and I think it was the best tire that Goodyear has brought here that I can remember in the 18 years I’ve been here. But by the time he passed Joey Logano for second with a couple laps remaining, he had no hope of catching Kenseth, who won by almost – yawn – two seconds. We’ve got the best engineers in the world, so were they manufactured to possibly break? “I was like, ‘Man, you know how cool it’s going to be to win three in a row?”
Joey Logano was third, followed by Kevin Harvick and Greg Biffle.
In 26 starts for Roush Fenway Racing from 2000 to 2012 Kenseth had no victories and only five top-five finishes and 12 top-10 finishes at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
“It’s not fun playing defense to be honest with you”.
The 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season has reached its midpoint, and there’s one inescapable conclusion: the 2016 rules package has produced some of the closest and most exciting racing in years, regardless of the venue.
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A caution for Kurt Busch’s accident allowed for many lap-down drivers to stay out on the track with 21 laps remaining. And for that, blame Kenseth and his team.
