The Kentucky Speedway event became a race against fuel after the penultimate caution on lap 172 of the 267.
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Storms washed out qualifying at Kentucky Speedway on Friday, putting Kevin Harvick on the pole for Saturday night’s Sprint Cup Series race based on owner points.
Truex rebounded from a pit road penalty earlier in the race to finish 10th.
The 1.5-mile track had a brand new racing surface since last summer’s trip to the Bluegrass State.
OTHER INCIDENTS: Landon Cassill, Matt DiBenedetto and Regan Smith were among the other drivers to hit the wall after dealing with tire problems during the race.
How much trouble were drivers having?
Harvick dominated the first 134 laps, leading 94 of them, and the first half featured an unusual amount of carnage. Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne both contacted the wall, and Kyle Busch had to summon all of his skill to catch a huge tank-slapper.
While the finish was dramatic, perhaps the highlight of the race came part way through when a huge plume of smoke arose from just outside the track. “I did not think I was going to win the race based on what I felt in the auto”.
Forced to a back-up vehicle after a crash in practice, Busch stormed to the front Saturday night and wound up there as he came home with a top-five finish. On Lap 93, the cars of Brian Scott, Chris Buescher and AJ Allmendinger were mangled in an eight-car pileup. He let me get to him and stood on it. He emerged from the infield care center with a bandage on his left wrist, though he said the extent of his injury was unknown.
The fuel-mileage drama at the end made what happened earlier in the race seem a distant memory. Keselowski, by the way, ran out of gas during his post-race celebration. He was so short of fuel, he needed a push to victory lane.
Drivers offered a bit of mixed reaction after the race.
Not everyone was pleased, though. In 2001, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the first race after the September 11 attacks and famously made a victory lap with an American flag afterward.
“Not fun”, he said when asked about the racing overall. Like any new coating of asphalt, only one groove developed, which meant precision was the key. Next race: New Hampshire 301, July 17, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, New Hampshire. It was a little dicey getting down there in Turn 3 on the restarts especially. “We can’t come here and blister right-fronts (tires) and have guys pounding the fence at 190 miles an hour”. One driver alone won’t win your league, but if you hit on the driver with the auto to beat, you will be in great position to cash in. He pointed out that with numerous crashes coming in “zero to five laps” after a caution, things got more complicated.
Said Edwards: “I thought he was out of fuel, but he did a good job”. “It’s really nobody’s fault”. I’m not sure why we got penalized. “NHL doesn’t have anything on them on a hard puck”. He comes into tonight’s race with 10/1 odds.
Still, not everyone was questioning the conditions.
Matt Kenseth grabbed the lead with six laps remaining but soon pitted for fuel to hand the top spot back to Keselowski, who had just enough gas in reserve to edge Carl Edwards by.175 seconds in a tense finish for the 400-mile race.
“I wasn’t trying to save fuel, I was doing something else and trying to get the best restart I could and unfortunately I hit the wrong button”, Jones said. “I thought it was as good as you could expect for a repave track”.
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On Lap 88, Ryan Blaney spun from the middle of a three-wide dilemma in Turn 3 and took the No. 24 Chevrolet of fellow Sunoco Rookie of the Year competitor Chase Elliott with him. “Overall it was pretty good”.
