“Joe (Gibbs) might get mad at us tearing something up”. He was turned by Earnhardt Jr.at Kansas in 2007 and caught in a massive wreck the next week at Talladega.
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The resulting 42nd-place finish left Kenseth at the bottom of the Chase standings, 32 points behind eighth-place Brad Keselowski with only two opportunities – at Kansas and Talladega – either to advance to the Eliminator 8 Round by winning or to make up that enormous points deficit.
Among the big losers in the late reshuffle during the GWC finish proved to be Suarez, who after running in the top three for much of the second half of the race ended up dropping to ninth behind RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg.
On Saturday, when Keselowski was fastest again in practice, he was reluctant to talk about the penalty or how it would affect the race on Sunday.
According to the latest oddsmakers, Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth are now 4/1 favorites. He was second in the Chase opener at Chicago, fifth at New Hampshire, 15th at Dover and sixth at Charlotte, showing off the kind of consistency that can be so elusive in a volatile playoff format.
Matt Kenseth: One of those days when a driver (Kenseth) leads by far the most laps (148 of 204) but can’t close the deal. He starts in 14th position on Sunday.
How important is pit-stall selection for a race’s pole sitter? The race will re-air on NBCSN Monday at noon ET. Fix time on pit road dropped Busch to seventh for the restart which saw Kenseth leading Richard Childress Racing’s Brian Scott in second followed by Suarez, Buescher, Kevin Harvick (JR Motorsports) and Darrell Wallace Jr. And while he’s been offered tickets for Game 2 of their AL Championship Series against Toronto on Saturday, he’s not sure whether he’ll be able to attend.
“To me, I’m supposed to win trucks races and Xfinity races; that’s what I do”, said Busch, who has 152 career wins over all three national series – 75 Xfinity, 33 Sprint Cup and 44 Ttruck. The only other season Carl managed an average starting spot better than 10th was 2011, when he tied Tony Stewart for the most championship points but lost the tiebreaker with fewer wins. He’d earlier been impacted and sent into the wall by Carl Edwards.
Junior Nation has been on pins and needles all week long after Dale Earnhardt Junior fell to 11th in points after Charlotte. Edwards said it worked in the video game and it nearly worked in the race.
“We need a really good finish is what we need and hopefully a win”, Keselowski said after winning the pole Friday. But if a driver goes silent on the matter, then you should be guarded the next time you’re together on the track, or expect it when you least expect it. He’s the only driver to have won twice at Kansas since the track was repaved in 2012.
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I love this part of being a NASCAR analyst for ESPN because, as I’m watching a race, I’m often reaching into the archives of what I experienced, how I handled these situations and what I witnessed from other drivers. We know the grooves and all of that is going to change, so we have a few speed.
