“I think we have to be thankful we were able to get in tonight after the night we had”, said Elliott, who finished 19th.
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-The current 10-weekend, 10-race Chase features three rounds of three races each, followed by the championship finale. There are no bonus points for winning during the Chase, and the final four at Homestead will start with zero points. Why?
The race was slowed by a record-16 cautions.
With 12 drivers locked into the Chase by virtue of race wins, four drivers headed into Richmond in the provisional spots to claim Chase berths. Elliott restarted 24th and despite multiple speeding penalties salvaged a 19th-place finish – to qualify for his first Chase.
Larson solidified his spot in the Chase with his first-ever career victory at MI in August.
“We know what we have to do and that is win”, said Bayne.”If we win, we are in the Chase”. “I’ve never had to go through (and) I’m sure they haven’t either, all the stuff we went through tonight … fixing our auto multiple times”.
Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Toyota, 2,006: His two wins came at Loudon and Dover, perhaps a good sign as both tracks pop up again early in the Chase. But he hits me in (Turn) 1, he hits me off of (Turn) 2, and it’s like the third time by that time. Just good restarts, finally everything just kind of worked well for us all day. “I don’t think there was any reason other than him just being bipolar and having anger issues”.
And that’s exactly what rookies Chris Buescher and Chase Elliott, as well as Jamie McMurray and Austin Dillon, did.
When there’s happy stories, there are sad stories. Kasey Kahne, who needed a victory to advance to the Chase, ran sixth after a hard-fought run to the finish. “Should be retired, the way he drives”, said Newman, who was once fired by Stewart’s team.
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Even lower on the happy list was a group of drivers who were collected in Richmond’s version of the Big One on Lap 364 when Tony Stewart drove across Ryan Newman into Turn 3. Dylan Lupton actually ended up partially on top of Newman’s vehicle. As Newman’s vehicle piled into Stewart’s, Carl Edwards’ auto was pushing Newman’s.
“The No. 14 (Stewart) cut across my nose into Turn 1, and I got into him after that, but he’d already chopped into me and messed up my line, and I clipped him a little bit coming off of (Turn) 2”, Newman said of Stewart, who was racing at Richmond for the last time in a Sprint Cup auto.
“You just try to think of dotting every I and crossing every T because that’s what it’s all about, and you have to get everything out of every person that touches everything on that vehicle at another level to win this deal”.
“He’s trying to make the Chase”, Stewart said. “How many times is he supposed to hit you before you say, ‘I’ve had enough of it?'” Stewart said.
Pole-sitter Austin Dillon led the first 51 laps, but Busch led virtually the rest of the way, relinquishing the top spot to Jones for two laps during green flag pit stops.
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Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five.
